24 More Academic Scandals
This is the 4th installment in what has become a regular series.
Today’s scandals are:
The Demise of the American Economic Association's Annual Meeting
Research at Harvard questioned
Orkun Saka Spits in Cambridge’s Face
University of Wisconsin (and Cornell?) ends diversity statements
Texas Tries to Remove Tenure… and Fails!
Berkeley holds black-only graduation ceremony
Update: Benjamin Edelman sues Harvard for 2017 tenure denial
EXCLUSIVE: Leaked admissions data gives glimpse into Harvard's affirmative action practices
Chesa Boudin and Lori Lightfoot fail upward
Heinrich Meier exposed as a Neo-Nazi and embezzler in major scandal
Berkeley Electrical Engineering chad dunks on Yale Economics virgin
UC Berkeley scholar apologizes for wrongly claiming to be Native American her ‘whole life’
Harvard Chinese phd student Jiaxuan Lu hiring free pre-predoc labor
SF Fed Research: "Labor costs do not drive inflation"
Harvard Professor Denied Tenure (?) Following Involvement in Ponzi Scheme
University of Waterloo cuts ties with Huawei over federal security rules
Smith College stops using the word “field”
Florida lawmakers in both houses just passed legislation that puts the CLT on equal footing as the SAT and ACT
1 Person Lodged 7,339 Sex Discrimination Complaints With Ed Dept. Last Year; 80% of all complaints
University can revoke PhD for fake data, court rules
DeSantis Scraps Tenure for Five Professors
Revolt at Elsevier
Wayne State Professor Calls for Murder of Those Who Express Opinions He Disagrees With
The Biggest Economics Scandal of the Year (That Nobody has Covered Yet!)
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#1: The Demise of the American Economic Association's Annual Meeting
Last year, I authored the following piece:
Today, I am pleased to share an update, courtesy of Dr. Noah Bellman, a professor of economics at the University of Miami:
Great success!
Of course, these developments were predictable.
However, not everyone possessed such foresight.
Certain individuals struggle with accurate predictions, whether it be discerning the potential inflationary effects of printing trillions of dollars, or assessing the impact of booster shots and mask mandates on the attendance of AEA members in 2023.
Please subscribe for more terrible predictions:
The American Economic Association (AEA) held a unique advantage in the form of a monopoly on the hiring of Ph.D. economists — the U.S. market for new Ph.D.s was centralized, with initial job interviews taking place at this ASSA annual meeting. Unfortunately, this monopoly has been lost, leading to a rapid decentralization of the economics Ph.D. hiring process. The AEA killed their golden goose, and the market is now in chaos.
A representative of the AEA has confirmed a loss of $900,000 USD in this year's meeting and plans to compensate for it by increasing fees for the 2024 event. Someone should teach this economist about supply and demand! If you are already bleeding attendees, jacking up the price will only increase the bleeding.
Professors on Twitter reacted strongly:
Suppose agglomeration externality: people wanted to go to AEA if others went. Pigou --> subsidize attendance Interviews ~= subsidy to going or tax to not going Removing this may have big long-run effects on attendance, and with some stickiness this sort of dynamics too
— Ivan Werning, economics professor at MIT
ASSA death spiral?
— Sara West, economics professor at Macalester College
Without the need to attend as part of a hiring committee, many faculty no longer have funding for what is already an expensive trip. Don’t see the attendance dip reversing without some high-integrity way to restore link to job market.
— Mary Lovely, professor emeritus, Syracuse University
Heard publishers weren’t happy as well with empty booth areas and they may not show up next year as well.
— Darshak Patel (he/him), lecturer at University of Kentucky
Little of what the AEA does has any relevance to me. The case for being a member and/or attending "the meetings" has never been weaker.
— Gabriel Mihalache, economics professor at The Ohio State University
I am going on record on saying that breaking an elite institution is not bad per se. It may make the profession more egalitarian.
— Vincent Geloso, economics professor at GMU
Strong disagree. The AEA is open membership (not invited) and the meeting is the most inclusive in the profession. The demise of the AEA meeting will not be good for junior scholars or scholars from smaller, more isolated departments.
— Melissa Kearney, economics professor at University of Maryland
EJMR, of course, had a field day:
https://www.econjobrumors.com/topic/lol-aea-meetings-are-dying-fast/
#2: Research at Harvard questioned
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