When you see a Wall Street economist offering analysis on cable news or the op-ed pages, you figure you know where they're coming from -- whatever will profit Wall Street. When you see an economist identified as being from Harvard, Yale, Princeton, or Stanford, do you assume that it's a different story?
Don't.
In a new paper, Gerald Epstein, chairman of the UMass Amherst economics department, and Jessica Carrick-Hagenbarth, a graduate student, examined a group of influential economists, scoured publicly available resumes, biographies, articles, and interviews, and found that the majority had made money from financial institutions — but very few had disclosed these connections when writing, speaking, or giving interviews on public policy.
Of 19 academic economists in two groups -- the Squam Lake Group and the Financial Reform Task Force -- both of which produced reports on financial reform,
13, or approximately 70 percent, had financial connections with private financial institutions. Of the 13, only five ever identified these private connections in the media. Only two did it quite often.
Obviously it's a small study that requires follow-up, but next time you see economists using their Ivy League affiliations to line up against regulating Wall Street, ask yourself who they might be collecting paychecks from.
Or else we could just convene another blogger ethics panel.