Unfortunately that paper focuses on
regulatory capture and largely ignores other influences which may have a more insidious effect. In the US one particular rich person is successfully indoctrinating economists with his flawed economic theories:-
Koch Uncovered:
In 1974, chair of the Institute for Humane Studies and billionaire businessman Charles Koch said universities “encourage extreme hostility to American business,” and businesses must “[support] only those programs, departments or schools that contribute in some way to our individual companies or to the general welfare of our free enterprise system.”
According to Koch’s public tax records, the energy tycoon has donated approximately $95.5 million to Mason since 2005 through the Charles Koch Foundation, his charity organization... Fourth Estate’s investigative team has found that these donations do not come without strings attached.
“At George Mason University, academic research predominantly underwritten by Koch has resulted in professors lobbying on topics related to Koch’s financial interests, including energy issues and state *level politics,”...
One of the lobbyist professors listed in “Koch Brothers’ Higher-Ed Investments Advance Political Goals,” a Center for Public Integrity Article cited by the Unkoch My Campus report, is economics professor Walter Williams. Williams was selected by the 60 Plus Association, a nonprofit funded in part by Koch, to be a member of its “truth squad,” and lobby against Social Security and Medicare expansions....
Some examples of this talent cultivation within IHS can be found in Mayer’s “Dark Money.” Mayer alleges that Charles Koch ordered for “ideology tests” to be done on students at the end of each week to gauge students’ political leanings after seminars at the institute.
And it gets worse:-
Millions of Students Are Quietly Being Taught the Koch Brothers’ Whitewashed Version of Black History
Cash-strapped social studies teachers across America have discovered an exciting new resource that provides lesson plans, study materials and even seminars geared toward elementary, middle and high school students.
The lessons are extremely detailed and come with suggestions for activities, multimedia and additional reading. More importantly, unlike many educational tools, most of these materials are provided free of cost. There’s only one catch: It’s right-wing brainwashing
Almost every lesson plan stresses the conservative idea of the limited role of government...
'The rich' certainly are doing their best to perpetuate a systematic bias in economics. And it was going well too, until
someone threw a spanner in the works
Koch Brothers Very Angry About “Rigged System” That Favors Giant Corporations Over Ordinary People
Donald Trump’s tariffs suddenly have them sounding like a pair of born-again socialists.
In an op-ed in The Washington Post, Charles very earnestly argues that tariffs are bad because, he explains in a passage that prompted me to audibly gasp, they perpetuate a "rigged system" in which moneyed interests use their influence to promote policies that are not in the public interest...
Ignore the fact that the Kochs spent some $250 million in the 2016 election cycle on candidates and causes who will make their business ventures more profitable. Or that their network has announced plans to blow $400 million on the 2018 midterms, including $20 million toward arguing that Paul Ryan's donor-appeasing tax-reform bill is a good thing for voters who are not handsomely compensated corporate board members. Or that the brothers already wrote a $494,000 check to Paul Ryan after the House passed the bill last year.
Not all rich people promote flawed economic theories for their own benefit, but those that do can have much greater influence than unbiased economists.
Can anyone imagine an American Picketty?
We
do have economists who know what they are talking about, but no one listens to them. We are all either brainwashed with 'free market' ideology or reacting against it (sometimes both at the same time).
There is no shortage of public criticism of economics. There is even fundamental criticism about the nature of capitalism and such. What is conspicuously absent is any kind of disciplined skepticism.
Disciplined skepticism is conspicuously absent in most fields. But economics suffers particularly because:-
1. It affects us personally and immediately, therefore,
2. We all have a vested interest in its upkeep so,
3. Everybody thinks they know how to make it better, even though they have no clue, and
4. Even economists aren't sure how it works, because
5. It's largely based on the 'random' behavior of individuals, and
6. Performing experiments on a running economy has ethical and practical problems.
In economics I see that there is an incentive to produce good microeconomics which has practical use within companies. But as for macroeconomics, I only see an incentive to produce arguments and not facts
There is an incentive to produce good macroeconomics too, but it's
hard. People generally prefer simple easy solutions, even when they are wrong. And unlike easier fields like quantum physics, you can't just trot out a mathematical formula and prove it with a nice simple lab experiment.