Dan Klein on Truth, Bias, and Disagreement

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4.7 • 4.4K Ratings

🗓️ 16 March 2009

⏱️ 68 minutes

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Summary

Dan Klein, of George Mason University, talks with EconTalk host Russ Roberts on truth in economics, bias, and groupthink in academic life. Along the way they discuss the Food and Drug Administration (and the drug approval process), the culture of academic life and the roles of empirical evidence and prediction markets in adjudicating academic disagreement. The conversation closes with a discussion of Econ Journal Watch--the watchdog journal Klein founded and edits--and an invitation to listeners to join a discussion of The Theory of Moral Sentiments by Adam Smith.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Welcome to Econ Talk, part of the Library of Economics and Liberty.
0:12.5	I'm your host Russ Roberts of George Mason University and Stanford University's Hoover
0:17.3	Institution.
0:18.7	Our website is econtalk.org where you can subscribe, find other episodes, comment on this podcast,
0:25.8	and find links to other information related to today's conversation.
0:29.9	Our email address is mail at econtalk.org.
0:33.6	We'd love to hear from you.
0:38.0	My guest today is Dan Klein of George Mason University.
0:41.6	Dan is the editor of Econ Journal Watch.
0:44.0	Dan, welcome back to Econ Talk.
0:45.5	Thank you Russ.
0:46.5	Dan, our topic today is disagreement in how science and social science arrive at truth
0:52.3	and consensus.
0:55.4	It's a follow up to my recent confessional podcast with Robin Hanson.
0:59.4	I thought it'd be useful to get your perspective on the issue and we're taping this
1:03.4	on February 5, 2009.
1:07.8	Do you think this progress in the social sciences does the academic enterprise produce
1:11.7	more light than heat or more heat than light?
1:15.5	I guess I'm kind of pessimistic about that.
1:18.4	I'm not that happy.
1:19.8	I mean, I don't think there's any way for people to approach this question as particularly
1:24.2	as it concerns the most important things, which are ideological in nature.
	...

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