Testimonials
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“I certainly support the goals of AIRLEAP, and think it can be an effective response to a problem: that
economists think that ethics in their works and in their policies is optional, or is so easy (utility rules!)
that nothing needs doing. In the dear, dead days the customs of integrity in the society got embodied in young
economists. But that's no longer true. The supposition nowadays is that Greed is Good, that dishonest refereeing
or a misuse of statistics will be corrected by an ethical invisible hand, or by evolution, that an adversarial
system of science is the only protection we need. I don't think so, and neither does AIRLEAP.”
— Deirdre McCloskey (July 8, 2007) www.deirdremccloskey.com |
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“Economists assume that agents are self-serving profit maximizers. But they also tend to assume that in their research economists are out for the public good-not out for their own good. So somehow economists are not the agents of their models. Given this contradiction, a consideration of ethics in economics seems more than warranted.”
— David Colander (July 15, 2008). http://community.middlebury.edu/~colander/ |
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“It is widely recognized that within the professions, due to the problem of asymmetric information, the invisible hand needs to be supplemented by a specialized explicit or implicit code of ethics. When a profession is quite small personal contact among its members might suffice to sustain such a code. But economics has long passed that stage. Moreover, the greatly increased competitiveness of academia over the last fifty or so years has greatly increased the temptation to cut corners, and an attitude of 'Yes I know it is wrong, but everyone does it, so why shouldn’t I?' is now much too common. There is therefore a need for an organization, such as AIRLEAP, that reminds economists that the goal of enhancing one’s CV, though laudable as an intermediate goal, is not the final goal of economic research.”
— Thomas Mayer (July 24, 2008). http://www.econ.ucdavis.edu/people_faculty_info.cfm?eid=32 |
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“Having done quite a bit of research on plagiarism in the economics profession, I can say definitively that there
is a great and pressing need for an organization like AIRLEAP. In a recent survey, 67 percent of professional economists
agreed that a code of ethics is needed in the profession. It is time to make that a reality.”
— Gary Hoover (July 12, 2007). http://www.cba.ua.edu/personnel/GaryHoover.html |
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“In public debate over political issues, economics is often perceived as the most important field there is. And yet, in
reality our work is largely confined within isolated clubs, where we are asked primarily to imitate and pay homage to our
clubs’ selected leaders. Can leadership within economics transcend the self- servitude of our clubs, and encourage more
relevant and useful work? Can we venture beyond our pride in our mathematical aptitudes, and our complacency in playing
the games that advance our careers? I think we can, and this is why I support AIRLEAP.”
— S. Payson (July 15, 2007). http://myprofile.cos.com/spayson |
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“The economics profession has by now achieved enormous influence in domestic and international affairs. From the training of
countless undergraduates in how to think about economic matters, to contemporary debates over public policy, to what can be
thought of as nothing less than economic experimentation and social engineering in developing countries, economists are more
powerful today than at any time in the past. But with this influence come ethical and professional obligations for which the
practicing economist, by virtue of the narrowness of his/her training, is poorly equipped. AIRLEAP can do much to correct this
professional failing. Not least, it is working to promote an ethical awakening of the profession that is by now long overdue.”
— George DeMartino (August 7, 2007) http://www.du.edu/gsis/faculty/demartino/index.html |
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“Economic information is transmitted at the speed of light and is acted upon instantaneously in our post-modern world. Therefore,
it is paramount that we receive and respond to economic information that satisfies ‘efficacious’ criteria, i.e., information that is
evidenced-based, accurate, and does not violate ethics principles. When non-efficacious economic information enters our resource set,
it increases the risk that our decisions will produce undesired outcomes. Because decisions are often accompanied by linked-decisions,
non-efficacious economic information has the potential to bring down the ‘house of cards’ that we call our economic system, which is based,
in large measure, on trust and credit. AIRLEAP will help reduce the probability that we will awaken in the morning with our roof in our lap.”
— Brooks Robinson (August 13, 2007) http://www.triplehelixinstitute.org/aboutUs/ithi_team.html |
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“The use of economic principles, methodologies, and models in the evaluation of publicly funded research and development has grown with
increased attention to government performance and accountability. Millions of taxpayer dollars are spent on evaluation, and millions of
dollars of research funding are at stake. The validity of these evaluation efforts depends on not only the appropriateness of the approach
and methodology employed to the question at hand, but also on the integrity of the evaluator. An organization like AIRLEAP shines a light on
the issue of ethics and integrity in the economics profession which is vitally important. This issue must be addressed in order to ensure
that our policymakers continue to trust the work that we do in helping to govern our nation's research enterprise and to guarantee our future
innovative capacity.”
Connie Chang (August 14, 2007) http://www.itl.nist.gov/Healthcare%20Summit/chang.htm |
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After Enron and other similar cases, we see a new and long overdue emphasis on courses in business ethics in MBA courses, but how effective are they?
In the corporate world the fashion is to talk about humanistic values and “green” values like sustainability. As an economic sociologist I remain skeptical
of the use of these new metaphors and look to organizations like AIRLEAP, through it rigorous professionalism to help expose the truth behind the words. The
corporate world has always been very good at manipulating public consensus (as well as the political process), and we depend greatly on organizations like this
one to shine a light on half-truths and falsehoods—and also to praise those business people and practices who truly have a sense of the public good.
— Steven Rosen (Dec. 31, 2007) http://www.freewebs.com/longchenpa/index.htm |
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Ethical behavior is widely recognized as one of the pillars necessary for sound systems of government, business and education. Economics is behind other areas of society in its formal emphasis on ethics. AIRLEAP has arisen to help fill this gap.
— Seth Giertz (July 1, 2008) http://www.cbo.gov/aboutcbo/organization/tad.htm |
