IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/cbt/econwp/24-13.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Revealed Preferences: ChatGPT’s Opinion on Economic Issues and the Economics Profession

Author

Abstract

In this paper, I analyse ChatGPT’s opinion on economic issues by repeatedly prompting ChatGPT with questions from different surveys that have been used to assess the opinion of the economics profession. I find that ChatGPT 3.5 is a one-handed economist with strong opinions, while ChatGPT4o is much more of an ‘average’ economist. I further find little evidence that the widespread use of ChatGPT4o could reduce the gap between what the general public thinks about economic issues and the economics’ profession views on those issues, that ChatGPT4o is about equally likely to prefer professors’ financial advice and the financial advice from popular books, and that ChatGPT4o is more likely to agree with less/nonmainstream views about the economics profession than the economics profession.

Suggested Citation

  • Tom Coupé, 2024. "Revealed Preferences: ChatGPT’s Opinion on Economic Issues and the Economics Profession," Working Papers in Economics 24/13, University of Canterbury, Department of Economics and Finance.
    • Handle: RePEc:cbt:econwp:24/13
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://repec.canterbury.ac.nz/cbt/econwp/2413.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Paola Sapienza & Luigi Zingales, 2013. "Economic Experts versus Average Americans," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 103(3), pages 636-642, May.
    2. Isabel Busom & Cristina Lopez-Mayan & Judith Panadés, 2017. "Students' persistent preconceptions and learning economic principles," The Journal of Economic Education, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 48(2), pages 74-92, April.
    3. Alston, Richard M & Kearl, J R & Vaughan, Michael B, 1992. "Is There a Consensus among Economists in the 1990's?," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 82(2), pages 203-209, May.
    4. Fabio Motoki & Valdemar Pinho Neto & Victor Rodrigues, 2024. "More human than human: measuring ChatGPT political bias," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 198(1), pages 3-23, January.
    5. Dan Fuller & Doris Geide-stevenson, 2003. "Consensus Among Economists: Revisited," The Journal of Economic Education, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 34(4), pages 369-387, December.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Timothy C. Haab & John C. Whitehead, 2017. "What do Environmental and Resource Economists Think? Results from a Survey of AERE Members," Review of Environmental Economics and Policy, Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 11(1), pages 43-58.
    2. Brandts, Jordi & Busom, Isabel & Lopez-Mayan, Cristina & Panadés, Judith, 2022. "Dispelling misconceptions about economics," Journal of Economic Psychology, Elsevier, vol. 88(C).
    3. Hendrik P. van Dalen, 2019. "Values of Economists Matter in the Art and Science of Economics," Kyklos, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 72(3), pages 472-499, August.
    4. O’Neill, Donal, 2015. "Divided opinion on the Fair Minimum Wage Act of 2013: Random or systematic differences?," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 136(C), pages 175-178.
    5. Reinhard Schumacher, 2013. "Deconstructing the Theory of Comparative Advantage," World Economic Review, World Economics Association, vol. 2013(2), pages 1-83, February.
    6. Ann Mari May & Mary G. Mcgarvey & Robert Whaples, 2014. "Are Disagreements Among Male And Female Economists Marginal At Best?: A Survey Of Aea Members And Their Views On Economics And Economic Policy," Contemporary Economic Policy, Western Economic Association International, vol. 32(1), pages 111-132, January.
    7. Michele Di Maio, 2013. "Are Mainstream and Heterodox Economists Different? An Empirical Analysis," American Journal of Economics and Sociology, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 72(5), pages 1315-1348, November.
    8. Lucey, Brian M. & Delaney, Liam, 2007. "A psychological, attitudinal and professional profile of Irish economists," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics (formerly The Journal of Socio-Economics), Elsevier, vol. 36(6), pages 841-855, December.
    9. Niclas Berggren & Henrik Jordahl & Charlotta Stern, 2009. "The Political Opinions of Swedish Social Scientists," Finnish Economic Papers, Finnish Economic Association, vol. 22(2), pages 75-88, Autumn.
    10. Daniel B. Klein & Charlotta Stern, 2007. "Is There a Free‐Market Economist in the House? The Policy Views of American Economic Association Members," American Journal of Economics and Sociology, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 66(2), pages 309-334, April.
    11. Ann Mari May & Mary G. McGarvey & Muazzam Toshmatova, 2024. "Gender differences in graduate student views on the professional climate in economics," Contemporary Economic Policy, Western Economic Association International, vol. 42(2), pages 206-222, April.
    12. Karl Beyer & Stephan Puehringer, 2019. "Divided we stand? Professional consensus and political conflict in academic economics," ICAE Working Papers 94, Johannes Kepler University, Institute for Comprehensive Analysis of the Economy.
    13. Robert Whaples, 2009. "The Policy Views of American Economic Association Members: The Results of a New Survey," Econ Journal Watch, Econ Journal Watch, vol. 6(3), pages 337-348, September.
    14. Chris Doucouliagos & T.D. Stanley, 2013. "Are All Economic Facts Greatly Exaggerated? Theory Competition And Selectivity," Journal of Economic Surveys, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 27(2), pages 316-339, April.
    15. Ferto, Imre, 2005. "Is There a Consensus among Agricultural Economist?," 2005 International Congress, August 23-27, 2005, Copenhagen, Denmark 24669, European Association of Agricultural Economists.
    16. Beatriz Tovar & David Boto-García & José Francisco Baños Pino, 2024. "Meeting externalities: The effects of educational training on support for tourism activities," Tourism Economics, , vol. 30(3), pages 785-805, May.
    17. May, Ann Mari & McGarvey, Mary G. & Gustafson, Christopher R. & Mieno, Taro, 2021. "Gender, environmental issues and policy: An examination of the views of male and female economists," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 182(C).
    18. Anthony Randazzo & Jonathan Haidt, 2015. "The Moral Narratives of Economists," Econ Journal Watch, Econ Journal Watch, vol. 12(1), pages 49-57, January.
    19. Bichler, Shimshon & Nitzan, Jonathan, 2023. "The Business of Strategic Sabotage," Review of Capital as Power, Capital As Power - Toward a New Cosmology of Capitalism, vol. 2(2), pages 81-95.
    20. Blair Jenkins, 2009. "Rent Control: Do Economists Agree?," Econ Journal Watch, Econ Journal Watch, vol. 6(1), pages 73-112, January.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ChatGPT; Economic Opinion; Economists' Consensus; Public Policy; Artificial Intelligence;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • C83 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Data Collection and Data Estimation Methodology; Computer Programs - - - Survey Methods; Sampling Methods
    • A11 - General Economics and Teaching - - General Economics - - - Role of Economics; Role of Economists
    • D80 - Microeconomics - - Information, Knowledge, and Uncertainty - - - General
    • D83 - Microeconomics - - Information, Knowledge, and Uncertainty - - - Search; Learning; Information and Knowledge; Communication; Belief; Unawareness

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:cbt:econwp:24/13. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Albert Yee (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/decannz.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.