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Marion Fourcade, Etienne Ollion and Yann Algan (2015) claim that economists view their discipline to be epistemically superior to other social sciences. Others have made related claims. 1 Three commonly cited issues are:(i) explicit beliefs among economists that the techniques and knowledge of their discipline are superior to those of other social sciences;(ii) economists cite other social sciences less than the reverse; and (iii) economists often draw an insider–outsider distinction and take ideas and criticism from the outside less seriously. Call the combination of (i–iii) the superiority thesis. Many cite the superiority thesis as a problem. Defenders of present practices in economics may, in contrast, dismiss it as inconsequential. Who is right, and why? Assuming it is correct, what should economic methodologists make of the superiority thesis?

Although a range of researchers have presented data that supports one or …