Economics of Scientific Institutions

Science is a human institution, and as such, it can be studied using the tools of economics. What drives researcher's behavior and misbehavior? Which factors drive society's trust for the scientific enterprise? Can we improve the workings of science and the processes of knowledge production?

My long-run research programme brings together contributors from economics, psychology, biomedicine and other disciplines interested in the functioning of science. To facilitate this research agenda and achieve social impact, participation in interdisciplinary initiatives is key.

The MESSI Initiative at Southampton

Meta-research and Evaluation of Scientific Scholarship and Institutions (MESSI) was an initiative with headquarters at the Faculty of Social and Human Sciences of the University of Southampton and researchers-members from Economics, Psychology, and Social Statistics. The idea was to apply economic and behavioral insights to the increasingly important problem of assessing the reproducibility of scientific research. The generality of the reproducibility problem and the common structures across scientific disciplines imply that cross-fertilization and sharing what each disciplines knows about the crisis can be a very fruitful approach. MESSI's objective was to facilitate this cross-fertilization, being affiliated with the Meta-Research Innovation Center (METRICS) at Stanford University.

A unique feature of MESSI was its focus on 'The Economics Of Science': the utilization of economic methodology in analyzing incentives and institutions in science.

SCOCER 2015

Along with MESSI colleagues Thomas Gall (Economics, Southampton), Constantine Sedikides (Psychology, Southampton) and Fabio Tufano (Economics, Nottingham) we organized the first Southampton Conference on the Credibility of Empirical Research (SCOCER). The objective was to bring together leading representatives of diverse disciplines such as Economics, Psychology, Biomedical Sciences, and the developing field of Meta-Research. Running over two days, SCOCER 2015 was attended by over 100 scholars from prominent institutions around the globe.

Plenary talks were given by leading meta-researcher and METRICS co-director John Ioannidis (Stanford) and prominent econometrician Charles Manski (Northwestern). There was very heated debate, which culminated in the miltidisciplinary roundtable discussion which featured our plenary speakers along with demographer Jane Falkingham (Chair), behavioural economist Colin Camerer, psychologist Roger Giner-Sorolla.

Some key issues raised at the round table discussion. What is the role of incentives in scientific 'production' and does the system of rewards and punishments need to be reformed? What type of changes have been implemented already across different disciplines? Should disciplines communicate with each other in the face of the 'Research Credibility Crisis'? Is there a potential to employ rigorous methodology in assessing possible reforms?

A detailed blog post devoted to MESSI and SCOCER2015 can be found here.

The SCOCER conference website contains the detailed programme and presentations.

An exceptional New Yorker article on the credibility crisis, which inspired our efforts, can be found here.