NOTE: This entry is based on the paper, “ The Economics of Replication” Replication studies are considered a hallmark of good scientific practice (1). Yet they are treated among researchers as an ideal to be professed but not practised (2, 3). For science policy makers, journal editors and external research funders to design favourable boundary conditions, it is therefore necessary to understand what drives replication.
Michael Clemens’ recent working paper “The Meaning of Failed Replications: A Review and Proposal” echoes concerns expressed by some replicatees and economists more generally Ozler, 2014, for example, about the potentially damaging effects of a claim of failed replication on reputations (or similar concerns in social psychology). Some of these concerns have been expressed in relation to 3ie’s program of funding for replications of prominent works in development economics (Jensen and Oster, 2013; Dercon et al.