causal

Economics Ignores Suspected Fraud Due To Fragmentation

Unlike psychology where suspected fraud carries huge penalties, economics tolerates suspected fabrication because the field's problem space is so vast relative to the number of economists that only a handful care about any one result; Levitt and List failed to replicate two outrageous experimental papers and suspected fraud, but editors forced them to remove fraud language and the author paid no price.

causalpending

Speaker

Steven Levitt

Evidence Quote

the problem is that the space of problems that we deal with... is enormous and expansive relative to the number of economists.

Source

Steven Levitt on Freakonomics and the State of EconomicsEconTalk
Created: 6/13/2026, 12:19:15 AM

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