Reviving academic research on Australian economic policy

As the American economist Kenneth Boulding said: "Mathematics brought rigour to economics. Unfortunately, it also brought mortis."

As a result it's been said, many articles published in premier economics journals are unreadable and remain unread (except by the peer reviewers who recommended publication).

These days a paper submitted by an Adam Smith, David Ricardo, John Stuart Mill or John Maynard Keynes would immediately be culled by mainstream economics journal editors on submission, without even making it to reviewers. Keynes himself as long ago as the 1930s despaired that economists were losing sight of the real world "in a maze of pretentious and unhelpful symbols."

Many published papers in economics today simply apply advanced techniques to either mathematically model, or empirically test, old economic propositions. In the field of macroeconomics for instance, a truckload of papers has been published since the Global Financial Crisis to test the Keynesian multiplier, with mixed results that essentially depend on whether the starting assumptions are Keynesian or non-Keynesian. Few new theoretical insights have emerged.

For instance, studies yield positive multipliers in support of activist Keynesian fiscal policy if economies are assumed to be closed to international influences, with no international trade, foreign capital flows or exchange rates, whereas other studies show sometimes negative multipliers when economies are presumed open with forward looking economic agents who factor in the implications of the rise in public debt that accompanies fiscal activism.

The second major disincentive for academics to research Australian economic issues is entirely home grown. It is the somewhat arbitrary ranking of academic economics journals by the Australian Business Deans Council (ABDC) which ranks several sound Australian economic policy- oriented journals at B level, beneath internationally edited journals ranked in the A and A* categories.

A* and A ranked journals are nearly all edited in the United States and Europe.

Yet these international journals are simply not interested in publishing research that focuses solely on Australian issues. So, perversely for Australian economics, this has led to Australian university-based researchers addressing often esoteric technical issues of relevance to other economies.

Ranking Australian economic policy journals at B level is also at odds with journal rankings for other academic disciplines, such as Business Law and Taxation, which has numerous Australian edited and focused journals ranked A* and A.

Australian economic policy journals worthy of at least an A ranking includeEconomic Analysis and Policy, Australian Economic Review, Australian Economic Papers andEconomic Papers.

Economic Analysis and Policy achieves a higher citation score by the internationally recognised Scimago journal rating system than any other Australian based journal and is placed in the top tier of economics journals worldwide.

Yet curiously and anomalously it is ranked B by the ABDC, below the only generalist Australian economics journal ranked A , The Economic Record.

Earmarking ARC funds for Australia-focused economics research and upgrading Australian economic policy-oriented journals to A rank would not only strengthen Australian economic research in a self- fulfilling way, but better inform Australian economic policy-makers.