Do economists replicate?

Reanalyses of empirical studies and replications in new contexts are important for sci-entific progress. Journals in economics increasingly require authors to provide data and code alongside published papers, but how much does the economics profession actually replicate? This paper summarizes existing replication definitions and reviews how much economists replicate other scholars' work. We argue that in order to counter incentive problems potentially leading to a replication crisis, replications in the spirit of Merton's 'organized skepticism' are needed - what we call 'policing replications'. We review lead-ing economics journals to show that policing replications are rare and conclude that more incentives to replicate are needed to reap the fruits of rising transparency standards.& COPY; 2023 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Automated summary

Reanalyses of empirical studies and replications in new contexts are crucial for scientific progress. However, economics profession lacks sufficient replication efforts. This paper highlights the need for "policing replications" to address potential incentive issues leading to a replication crisis. By examining leading economics journals, it is concluded that more incentives are necessary to promote replication and benefit from increased transparency standards.