Someone on Twitter (@kestontnt) sent me a link to an article on The Economics of Courage by INET’s Robert Johnson in a recent issue of the OECD Observer. The courage it calls for is that required to stand out against the conventional wisdom, which is what INET is all about of course. I’m optimistic that the conventional wisdom in economics is shifting significantly, although maybe that’s because last week was such an encouraging one, with a workshop led by Wendy Carlin on INET’s new CORE curriculum programme, and a fabulous session at the Rethinking Economics conference.

Robert Johnson’s article cites HL Mencken’s well-known essay on ‘The Dismal Science’ (in [amazon_link id=”1440083754″ target=”_blank” ]Prejudices, 3rd series[/amazon_link]) on a brave Professor Nearing who was kicked out of the University of Pennsylvania for daring to challenge the status quo; and also a book I don’t know, by Norbert Häring and Niall Douglas, [amazon_link id=”0857284592″ target=”_blank” ]Economists and the Powerful: Convenient Theories, Distorted Facts, Ample Rewards[/amazon_link].

[amazon_image id=”0857284592″ link=”true” target=”_blank” size=”medium” ]Economists and the Powerful: Convenient Theories, Distorted Facts, Ample Rewards (Anthem Other Canon Economics)[/amazon_image]

The sociology of any academic discipline involves insiders, successful in a discipline in its current form, who are resistant to outsiders suggesting that they’ve got it all wrong. There are also incentives against change in any existing system – promotion and success depend on publishing in the top journals, which want small advances on the existing body of knowledge; there is little reward for changing course materials and teaching methods whereas the time cost is large; for any individual caution is a better bet than radicalism; and so on. Against that, there is the intrinsic reward of intellectual discovery, the humility that really ought to arise from both the recent track record of economic forecasts and an appreciation of the consequences of simplistic ‘market knows best’ thinking – and a bit of courage. But refusniks opposed to the status quo have more company now than at any time in the past 50 years.