''Young Economists Feel They Have to be Very Cautious''

From an interview of Paul Romer in the WSJ:

...Q: What kind of feedback have you received from colleagues in the profession?

A: I tried these ideas on a few people, and the reaction I basically got was “don’t make waves.” As people have had time to react, I’ve been hearing a bit more from people who appreciate me bringing these issues to the forefront. The most interesting feedback is from young economists who say that they feel that they have to be very cautious, and they don’t want to get somebody cross at them. There’s a concern by young economists that if they deviate from what’s acceptable, they’ll get in trouble. That also seemed to me to be a sign of something that is really wrong. Young people are the ones who often come in and say, “You all have been thinking about this the wrong way, here’s a better way to think about it.”

Q: Are there any areas where research or refinements in methodology have brought us closer to understanding the economy?

A: There was an interesting [2013] Nobel prize in [economics], where they gave the prize to people who generally came to very different conclusions about how financial markets work. Gene Fama ... got it for the efficient markets hypothesis. Robert Shiller ... for this view that these markets are not efficient...

It was striking because usually when you give a prize, it’s because in the sciences, you’ve converged to a consensus. ...