In recent years there has been increased public discussion of the possibility that economists doing research on, and giving advice to policymakers about, important questions of public concern, may face conflicts of interest because they depend for information, research funds, data, consultancy income or other direct or indirect benefits on parties with an interest in influencing such research and policy advice. I believe these concerns are justified and that it is reasonable to require researchers to be transparent about their potential conflicts. These may arise with respect to both public and private sources of benefits and both financial and non-financial types of benefit. I endorse the statement of the American Economic Association relating to disclosure of potential conflicts, and I have written in the press here and here about some of the issues such conflicts raise.
In this spirit, here is a list of institutions other than my employer from which I have received, directly or indirectly, benefits (other than travel expenses) with a value of 1000 Euros or more at any time since 2006, including data, royalty income, honoraria for speaking engagements and consultancy fees. Where these benefits are relevant to published research or other publications I have declared and will continue to declare them in the publications concerned.
Agence Française du Développement, Boardex, Bombardier, Broadcomm, BRUEGEL, BSkyB, Charles River Associates, European Commission (DG-Competition), European Patent Office, European Round Table of Industrialists, HSBC, IESE Business School, Ifo Institute, Institut d’Economie Industrielle, Japan Cabinet Office, Keystone Associates, Microsoft, Ministère de l’Enseignement Supérieur et de la Recherche, Le Monde, NEC, News International, Nokia, Outokumpu, Panasonic, Pfizer, Princeton University Press, REEL, SFR, Shire HGT, St. Gobain, Sony-Ericsson, SwissRe, T3 Technologies, Texas Instruments, Thomson Reuters, Time Warner, Unibail.
In addition I have received datasets from two firms that gave them to me under conditions of anonymity and which were used in my paper with Guido Friebel: “Do Women have longer Conversations? Telephone Evidence of Gendered Communication Strategies”, Journal of Economic Psychology, December 2010. doi:10.1016/j.joep.2010.12.008.
The paper did not discuss any issues relating to the commercial or other interests of these firms, and I have not otherwise written or spoken on any such matter.