Ideas@TheCentre
Is there a free market economist in the house?
The Economics Society of Australia is conducting a survey of the policy views of its membership, as well as other economists who are not members. By one account, 30% of the society’s members have responded to the survey, including this author.
Having completed the survey, and based on the results of similar surveys of US economists, it is not hard to anticipate the responses to many of the questions. Surveys like this are useful in highlighting areas of policy agreement and disagreement among economists. Disagreement is to be expected, not just because economic theory and evidence are sometimes inconclusive, but because policy views are often influenced by value judgments.
These surveys are also useful in dispelling the common misperception that economists are necessarily strong supporters of free markets and liberal principles. You can be an economist without being a classical liberal and a classical liberal without being an economist.
Surveys of American economists demonstrate that most are not strong supporters of free markets. While most agree that tariffs are bad, there is much less agreement on other policy issues. Dan Klein and Charlotta Stern surveyed American Economic Association (AEA) members’ views on 18 specific forms of government intervention. Only eight percent of respondents were found to be supporters of free market principles and less than three percent could be called strong supporters. Even self-identified Republicans were only lukewarm supporters of free markets.
Another survey of AEA members by Robert Whaples highlights the role of value judgments. Half the respondents agreed that ‘the typical American consumes too much.’ Nearly a third agreed that ‘the average size of houses in the US is too large.’ One wonders whether the same economists believe this about their own consumption or housing. While most agreed that Wal-Mart generates more benefits than costs, the average economist fell half way between ‘disagree’ and ‘neutral’ when asked the same question about a casino.
Such disagreement is healthy and contrasts with attempts at manufacturing a faux consensus around policy issues by collecting the signatures of like-minded colleagues on lowest common denominator statements of support for particular policies. However, to the extent that we can talk meaningfully about a consensus among economists, it is unfortunately not one that is overly friendly to free markets.
Dr Stephen Kirchner is a Research Fellow at The Centre for Independent Studies and a Senior Lecturer in Economics at the University of Technology Business School.
