Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/206873 
Year of Publication: 
2019
Series/Report no.: 
Working Paper Serie No. Ök-51
Publisher: 
Cusanus Hochschule, Institut für Ökonomie und Institut für Philosophie, Bernkastel-Kues
Abstract: 
In this paper we address the issue of the role of ideology and political preferences of publically engaged economists and contribute to the debate on consensus in economics. To do so, we conduct a social network analysis on the signatories of economist petitions, which we identify as one channel for economists to exert public influence. We base our analysis on 77 public policy petitions and presidential anti-/endorsement letters from 2008-2017 in the United States with more than 6,400 signatories and check the robustness of our results with six sub-networks. Our contribution is twofold: On the one hand we provide an extended empirical basis for the debate on consensus in economics and the role of politics and ideology in economics. On the other hand we provide a viable tool to trace the ideological leaning of (prospective) economist petitions and economists based on the social structure of petition networks.
Subjects: 
social network analysis
sociology of economics
consensus
public economists
economist petitions
United States
JEL: 
A11
A13
A14
B20
B30
D04
E66
G18
I38
P16
Document Type: 
Working Paper

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