Qian Yingyi: The Taste of Academic Research—Why Are We Publishing More and More Papers but Finding Them Less and Less Interesting

A problem is emerging in economic research: more and more articles are being published, but an increasing number of them are becoming less and less interesting, offering little help for our understanding of economic issues. This is different from the early days of reform and opening up. Back then, economists studying China’s economy—both at home and abroad—focused on major questions. Their articles were novel, insightful, could spark widespread interest and resonance, and even influenced policy. Now, the number of papers published is much higher than in the past, and the writing is more standardized than ever, but the articles are not very interesting; some are even boring.

Where does the problem lie? It’s that the academic evaluation system has gone wrong. But this is only a symptom; fundamentally, it’s a problem with the purpose of academic research. I think it can be classified as a problem of taste in academic research.

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