This paper advances the proposition that economics, as a discipline, gives rewards that favor the “hard” and disfavor the “soft.” Such bias leads economic research to ignore important topics and problems that are difficult to approach in a “hard” way—thereby resulting in “sins of omission.” This paper argues for reexamination of current institutions for publication and promotion in economics—as it also argues for greatly increased tolerance in norms for publication and promotion as one way of alleviating narrow methodological biases.

Journal Article Jobs as Dam Sites Get access George A. Akerlof George A. Akerlof London School of Economics Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar The Review of Economic Studies, Volume 48, Issue 1, January 1981, Pages 37–49, https://doi.org/10.2307/2297119 Published: 01 January 1981 Article history Received: 01 July 1978 Accepted: 01 August 1980 Published: 01 January 1981

Journal Article The Demand for Money: A General-Equilibrium Inventory-Theoretic Approach Get access George A. Akerlof George A. Akerlof University of California, Berkeley Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar The Review of Economic Studies, Volume 40, Issue 1, January 1973, Pages 115–130, https://doi.org/10.2307/2296743 Published: 01 January 1973