The "true" size of fiscal multipliers is widely debated by economists and policy makers as large (small) multipliers provide arguments to expand (cut) public spending. Within a meta-analytical framework, we ask whether the large observed variance in multiplier estimates can be explained by the...

We investigate how often replication studies are published in empirical economics and what types of journal articles are eventually replicated. We find that from 1974 to 2014 0.10% of publications in the Top 50 economics journals were replications. We take into account the results of replication...

This paper is a concatenation of the penultimate versions of the first and last chapters of the book A Historiography of Contemporary Economics, edited by Düppe and Weintraub, to be published by Routledge Press in late 2018. The volume itself collects commissioned essays on recently developed...

There is growing concern that much of the empirical research in labor economics and other applied areas may not be reproducible. Correspondingly, recent years have seen an increase in replication studies published in economics journals. Despite this increase, there are many unresolved issues...

This essay gives an overview of a set of selected articles published between 2016 and 2017 in the major journals that cover the history of economic thought. In surveying the literature, we focus on three major aspects - the scope, the sources, and the methods - with reference to which we discuss...

We study the construction of the macroeconometric model of the Committee on Economic Stability (CES) of the Social Science Research Council (SSRC) in the early 1960s using the CES's archival records. Building this model was central not only to set the bases for the subsequent construction of...

The essay discusses the historiographical strategy of "following artifacts" in the history of contemporary economics. Following models as artifacts means (1) to follow the shifts and changes in their form and meaning; (2) to follow the ideas, theories, fictions, and imaginary worlds they provoke;...

Many facts are learned through the intermediation of individuals with special access to information, such as law enforcement officers, employees with a security clearance, or experts with specific knowledge. This paper considers whether societies can learn about such facts when information is...

The method appropriate to the historical and conceptual investigation of Hayek's ideas is implicit in his own writings on the methodology of disciplines that study complex phenomena. The phenomena of Hayek's career are complex phenomena requiring a method appropriate to this complexity.

Best known as a monetary economist and prominent proponent of monetarism, Karl Brunner was deeply knowledgeable about the philosophy of science and attempted to explicitly integrate logical empiricist thinking, derived in some measure from his engagement with the work of the philosopher Hans...