Econ Journal Watch(EJW) is a semiannualpeer-reviewedelectronic journal established in 2004. It is published by theFraser Institute. According its website, the journal publishes comments on articles appearing in other economics journals, essays, reflections, investigations, and classic critiques.[1] As of 2017, theJournal maintained a podcast, voiced byLawrence H. White.[2]
As of 2011, the editor-in-chief wasDaniel B. Klein, a libertarian economist and professor atGeorge Mason University.[3] In 2018, the managing editor was Jason Briggeman.[4] As of 2022, the Fraser Institute claimed nine Nobel laureates had been on theJournal's advisory council.[5]
The journal welcomes submissions of comments on articles that appear in economics journals as well as essays, reflections, and investigations that speak to the nature and character of economics research and professional economists.[1] EJW publishes critical commentaries and "watches the journals for inappropriate assumptions, weak chains of argument, phony claims of relevance, omissions of pertinent truths, and irreplicability".[1]
A 2010 study by Zeljka Buturovic and Klein published inEcon Journal Watch purported to show that conservatives and libertarians were better informed than liberals about economics.[6][7][8] After receiving criticism, the authors adjusted their research questions in a new study, and published its different findings in 2011.[8][3][9][10]Jonathan Chait ofThe New Republic, who had called the 2010 study "hackery" and "obviously designed to portray conservatives as better informed",[7] offered the authors praise in 2011 for the revisions.[8]
A study published inEcon Journal Watch in 2016 said that American university professors were much more likely to beDemocrats thanRepublicans.[11][12][13]
A 2018 article by Alex Young documented that between the 2015working paper version and the 2017 published version of a paper authored by Andrew Bird and Stephen Karolyi, the numbers in all 11 tables stayed exactly the same, even though the description of the specifications changed.[14] The criticized article was subsequently retracted.[15]
A 2020 article by Justin Pickett analyzed both quantitative and qualitative data about what happened regarding retracted articles by thecriminologist Eric Stewart and coauthors and suggested that "the five articles were likely fraudulent, several coauthors acted with negligence bordering on complicity after learning about the data irregularities, and the editors violated the ethical standards advanced by the Committee on Publication Ethics".[16] Stewart was subsequently terminated fromFlorida State University.[17][18]
A 2022 article by Phillip Magness and Amelia Janaskie documented evidence of quotation editing and misrepresentation of original sources in an article about the economistLudwig von Mises by historianQuinn Slobodian.[19]
In 2020s,David Barker published several articles critiquing claims that higher temperatures will lower the rate of economic growth.[20] One of them documented that a paper by Riccardo Colacito, Bridget Hoffman, and Toan Phan claimed that higher temperatures decrease the rate of economic growth by regressing annual average state GDP growth on seasonal temperatures but did not test the significance of the sum of the seasonal coefficients (the cumulative effect over the year), which turned out to be insignificant.[21] As of 2025, none of the commented-on authors of the critiqued articles have responded.[20]
^"Econ Journal Watch Audio".The Nassau Institute. Nassau, The Bahamas. 5 June 2017. Archived fromthe original on 9 November 2018. Retrieved15 August 2022.The host of EJW Audio is Lawrence H. White, a co-editor of EJW and professor of economics at George Mason University
^"More from the Fraser Institute".Institut Fraser. L'Institut Fraser. 8 June 2016. Archived fromthe original on 28 October 2021. Retrieved15 August 2022.Nine Nobel laureates have lent their names to the journal's advisory council
^ETHAN RICHARDSON (28 November 2011)."ANNE'S A, BURT'S B, AND THE CONCLUSIVE CONVENIENCE OF THE "MYSIDE"".The Mockingbird. Retrieved15 August 2022.Later, upon realizing that his research may have been somewhat slanted, Klein co-captains a research plan that would take into account what he coins the "myside bias" or "confirmation bias."
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