Understanding Academic Journal Market Failure: The Case of Austrian Economics
Heterodox schools of economic thought often claim that discrimination takes place in the market for academic articles. Biases exist that prevent heterodox ideas from appearing in mainstream journals. We assess the claim in the context of Austrian economics. First, we document that the research topics pursued in Austrian journals differ significantly from mainstream journals. Austrians pursue different questions. Second, we argue that Austrian articles do not suffer from discrimination based on lack of formalism or ideology. Rather, the lack of Austrian articles in mainstream journals results from the lack of testable hypotheses in their arguments.