Economists have since joined websites with sexual harassment and bullying content in an effort to curb behavior that has long plagued the profession.
At this year’s meeting in New Orleans of the American Economic Association, the largest professional organization in the field, a group of mostly female economists urged them to take steps to help eliminate independent websites that AEA President Christina Romer called a “cesspool.”
“We have to do it and silence, I believe, is not an option,” said Martha Olney, professor emerita at the University of California, Berkeley.
The comments, made during a panel held to discuss the issue of harassment, were met with applause.
The website, Economics Job Market Rumors, hosted by an anonymous individual and allowing users to post anonymously, began as a place for economists to share information about hiring activity in the field in 2008, before Twitter was widely used.
It has since become a place to display the darkest aspects of the profession’s culture, a place where egregious comments can be aired without consequence.
Olney pointed to the nomination process of Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook as evidence of the website’s wider influence and potential impact on individual careers.
Cook, the first Black woman appointed to the Board of Governors, was confirmed by the Senate in May in the face of a united Republican campaign against her, with the GOP leadership saying she held far-left views that would risk politicizing the central bank.
Romer, an economics professor at Berkeley and a former member of the Obama administration, said he wasn’t sure what the organization could do about the website. While federal law prevents website hosts from being held liable for content posted on their sites, economists are asking the AEA for help in exploring other options.
The site has been criticized for years. Some economists are able to weed out untrue or defamatory posts, but say it’s difficult to review the sites and flag offensive content.
Another senior economist said junior members of the profession often worry that content posted to the site could hurt their career prospects because it could show up even in a Google search of someone’s name.
Claudia Sahm, a former Fed economist, has written extensively about the website, including in a 2020 blog post titled “The economy is a disgrace.” He left Twitter at the end of last year, citing constant harassment on the EJMR website about his tweets.
Romer and Ben Bernanke, the former Fed chairman and past president of the AEA, expressed frustration that the harassment continues, despite the AEA’s implementation in recent years of new policies. Romer welcomed the variety of new ideas brought by the economists attending the panel and promised to continue exploring options.
The AEA will conduct another survey of its members to ask about sexual and professional harassment, similar to what it did a few years ago. It will also design a training program for the audience and encourage leaders in the field to take it up.
Advocates for more action, who wore #MeToo pins at the conference and carried signs with the hashtag at events like the AEA business meeting on Friday evening, also called on leaders to prevent future conference members from being investigated for harassment or abuse. from that in the month.
“Now there’s a lot of energy focused on this problem, a lot of smart people are thinking about it and prioritizing it,” said Jennifer Doleac, an associate professor at Texas A&M University who has been at the forefront of the latest efforts to curb noise. “It feels like we not only have the momentum but the brainpower that we need to focus on.”
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