(highlight:: The Story of an Unpublishable Paper: A Conversation with an Economist
Key takeaways:
• The speaker discusses their experience presenting an idea to a Hungarian economist in 1981.
• The speaker's paper was written in 1983 but wasn't published until 1989.
• The idea faced reluctance from both American and Soviet audiences.
• The economic journal eventually published the paper after six years.
• The paper has received over 12,000 citations.
Transcript:
Speaker 1
Well, I remember in 1981 sitting in the hotel in Budapest with an Hungarian economist called Maria Agustinoviet, she was not just a super economist but she was politically savvy. She says what are you working on? I told her and she stared at me and I said, do you think it's a good idea? Do you think it's valid? She says, yes, of course it's valid. And I said, what do you think? Is this going to be a good thing? And she just looked at me as great pity and she said, they will crucify you. And the dance.
Speaker 2
So, your paper was written in 1983 and it was 1989 before it really got us?
Speaker 1
Yeah, it's so it's sat there for six years, unpublishable and eventually it got published quite reluctantly by an English journal, the economic journal. Americans didn't want to touch this because this was the Cold War and this seemed to be reverse ideology when I brought the idea to the Soviet Union and talked about it in Moscow. Got a similar hostile reaction because they said, but I fear sir, this cannot happen in the Soviet Union. I said, why not? With superior socialist planning, we always choose correct solution. And I didn't believe that either. After six years it appeared in the economic journal and I was told this wasn't economics and it wasn't important and it ought to be stopped so many years later. I think it's just gone over 12,000 citations.
Speaker 2
So it's what my paper is. And it's completely accepted.)
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