The Conflict of Interest That is So Grave That We All Prefer to Ignore It?

Yanovskiy Moshe, Socol Yehoshua. The conflict of interest that is so grave that we all prefer to ignore it? Semestre Económico (2023), 12(2), 78–91. https://doi.org/10.26867/se.2023.v12i2.153

16 Pages Posted: 29 Sep 2023 Last revised: 11 Feb 2024

See all articles by Konstantin Yanovskiy

Konstantin Yanovskiy

Shomron Center for Economic Policy Research

Yehoshua Socol

Jerusalem College of Technology

Date Written: September 23, 2023

Abstract

Conflict of Interest declaration is the default way to mitigate the risk of harm of unconscious or deliberate promotion of self-interest causing misinformation or wrong decision-making. Public attention to the disclosure of interests caused by private sources of research funding results in a routine procedure now. At the same time, very strong interests caused by taxpayer-covered Governmental funding of research are generally badly underestimated. Researchers generally have no idea that taking public funding and promoting policy advice to provide more funds should be declared as a conflict of interest: Promotion of more funds and power under the control of bureaucratic bodies or entities is anticipated to bring more funding for the researchers themselves. For example, the COVID-19 response of most democratic governments, based on the use of emergency powers, enjoys broad support from publicly funded research – though the effectiveness of such a response is not supported by the history of previous pandemics. The explicit requirement to disclose public funding as a potential Conflict of Interest, at least in case the authors promote more power and more funds for the Government, will mitigate risks of one of the potentially dangerous biases both in research and in decision-making.

Keywords: Conflict, Interest, Bureaucracy, COVID-19, responses, emergency, Government, bias

JEL Classification: H51, H52, I15, I23, D72, D78

Suggested Citation

Yanovskiy, Konstantin (Moshe) and Socol, Yehoshua, The Conflict of Interest That is So Grave That We All Prefer to Ignore It? (September 23, 2023). Yanovskiy Moshe, Socol Yehoshua. The conflict of interest that is so grave that we all prefer to ignore it? Semestre Económico (2023), 12(2), 78–91. https://doi.org/10.26867/se.2023.v12i2.153, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=4581625 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.4581625

Konstantin (Moshe) Yanovskiy (Contact Author)

Shomron Center for Economic Policy Research ( email )

Kley Shir 8
Karney Shomron, 44855

Yehoshua Socol

Jerusalem College of Technology ( email )

Havaad haLeumi
Jerusalem, 4485500
Israel

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