When forgiveness beats permission: Exploring the scholarly ethos of clinical faculty in economics

Abstract

The concept of the “clinical professor” – sometimes referred to as a “professor of practice,” or something similar – is in widespread use in academe. Economics and business disciplines all now entertain the prospect of teaching specialists. This study extends prior research on economics scholarship at liberal arts colleges by examining whether clinical economics faculty are invested in a program of research. After discussing conceptual arguments for why one should expect to see clinical economics faculty engaging in research, we examine citations data for clinical faculty in economics who are affiliated with what U.S. News & World Report classifies as national colleges and universities. That examination reveals that the 206 clinical faculty employed across the 90 institutions have produced academic scholarship that has garnered about 125,000 citations. Moreover, a deeper exploration suggests that the research ethos pervading the clinical economics faculties employed by America's large research universities appears to be quite similar to that characterizing the economics departments at liberal arts colleges.