Étienne Wasmer presented the main results of a study on the degree of consensus or polarization of French professional economists, inspired by an American study in 2006. This study was debated, some commentators accusing it of endorse a frozen vision and ideological of the economy. During the round table, Étienne Wasmer reframed and justified his results by emphasizing the methodological precautions taken. Without denying the interest of the investigation, the stakeholders criticized certain aspects of the questionnaire.
The CODICE (Advice for the dissemination of economic culture), an organization of the Ministry of the Economy intended to promote economic culture, financed a study on the degree of consensus or polarization of French professional economists. The study is inspired by an American survey carried out in 2006 with 210 members of the American Economic Association.
Étienne Wasmer and Thierry Mayer developed a questionnaire of 82 questions relating to 11 major economic subjects, including twenty covers of the 2006 American study. The answers were collected online in October 2009 with the members of the French Association of economics.
Study results
Étienne Wasmer presented the main results of the study by emphasizing the methodological precautions taken. In total, the authors collected 305 responses, including 181 people (60%) having communicated a valid internet address, most often making it possible to identify their author, and 40% of people who wanted to maintain complete anonymity.
The authors divided the questions into 39 positive questions, 35 normatives and 8 various questions. For normative questions, the answer was in principle to be interpreted according to a criterion of global efficiency for society and not according to the political preferences of the respondent. In addition, the authors also divide the questions into 34 affirmations “ pro-market “, 26” external pro-regulation “And 22 claims” neutral ».
Étienne Wasmer insisted in particular on the fact that the study makes it possible to establish knowledge or to give a map of “ economists In the sense of a representative group. The study presented concludes that a slight degree of consensus: 25% of the 82 questions meet a consensus, and 10% a strong disagreement. In addition, she notes a moderate aversion to market forces among students and young teachers (lecturer), who is not found among teachers.
The debate
As soon as the study was launched, it caused a lively debate. Thus, a thread was devoted to it on the site of the Econoclastic Blog in early October 2009. The economist Gilles Raveaud, lecturer at Paris 8 Saint-Denis University, also exhibited on the blog that he holds on the site ofEconomic alternatives The answer he would personally give to certain statements.
The results were variously interpreted. The most virulent criticisms have seen confirmation that the economy would be an ideological science, without real scientific progress, and that the questionnaire would validate a pro-competitive ideological bias.
The debate during the round table was much more measured, Francis Kramarz applying to underline the limits of the exercise and the formulation of certain questions.