Research Ethics Beyond the IRB: Selection Bias and the Direction of Innovation in Applied Economics

Jeffrey Michler, William Masters and Anna Josephson

No uzxf9_v1, MetaArXiv from Center for Open Science

Abstract: Principles for ethical behavior in the context of research are codified into rules that may change over time to meet peoples’ needs in specific institutions, including universities and professional associations. This paper aims to spark discussion about a set of ethical choices beyond those addressed by an IRB or recent association policy statements. Our specific focus is topic selection, and the role of researchers’ interests and incentives in determining the kinds of research that we do. Using the principle of induced innovation, we show how changing incentives can influence the direction of research effort and thereby affect the kinds of policies or technologies that are supported by available evidence. With this paper, we hope to generate discussion among applied economists about selection bias in research, and how we can use insights from economics itself to guide topic selection.

Date: 2020-11-07
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://osf.io/download/5fa607d891419d00336700a1/

Related works:
Journal Article: Research ethics beyond the IRB: Selection bias and the direction of innovation in applied economics (2021)
Working Paper: Research Ethics Beyond the IRB: Selection Bias and the Direction of Innovation in Applied Economics (2020)
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:osf:metaar:uzxf9_v1

DOI: 10.31219/osf.io/uzxf9_v1

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in MetaArXiv from Center for Open Science
Bibliographic data for series maintained by OSF ().