Scientific Disintegrity as a Public Bad

In this article, I argue that scientific dishonesty essentially results from an incentive problem; I do so using a standard economic model-the public bad. Arguably, at least in the short run, most scientists would increase their personal utility by being sloppy with scientific standards. Yet, if they do, it becomes more difficult for all scientists to make their voice heard in society, to convince policy makers to assign public funds to...