Economics Job Market Rumors

Economics Job Market Rumors, also known as EJMR, is an anonymous internet discussion board that caters to academic economists and job seekers. It has been the subject of several journalistic articles, and received a large amount of criticism from those in academia, due to its reputation for allowing racist and misogynistic discussions and personal attacks.[1][2]

History

Launched in 2008, the site was intended for PhD students to discuss the Economics job market.[3][4] The original founder of the site was an anonymous academic who went by the name Tatonnement, who later handed EJMR over to its current administrator, who goes by the name Kirk. In May 2023, the fraud-tracking website Hucksters.net connected David Griffith-Jones, the son of famed economist Stephany Griffith-Jones, to the ownership history of EJMR,[5] although he claimed in emails with Inside Higher Ed that he was no longer involved with the website.[6]

In 2017, economics major Alice Wu researched the top words used in conversation along male/female lines and discovered that conversations about men contain more words related to economics, while conversations about women relate more to physical and personal attributes.[7][8] University of California Berkeley economist David Romer described the forum as “a cesspool of misogyny.”.[9]

In 2023 researchers at Boston University and Yale University were able to discern the IP addresses of forum users from the poorly anonymized random user names.[10][11] This is due to the site using a one-way hash without a Salt. These IP addresses were associated with many organizations. According to the researchers, "our analysis reveals that the users who post on EJMR are predominantly economists, including those working in the upper echelons of academia, government and the private sector".[12][13]

References
  1. Wu, Alice R. (2018). "Gendered Language on the Economics Job Market Rumors Forum" (PDF). AEA Papers and Proceedings 2018. American Economic Association. 108: 175–179. doi:10.1257/pandp.20181101.
  2. Drum, Kevin (19 August 2017). "Is the economics profession toxic for women?". Mother Jones.
  3. "Toxic Posts on Economist Job Website Traced to Users from Elite Universities". Bloomberg.com. 2023-07-20. Retrieved 2023-08-08.
  4. https://www.npr.org/2019/05/03/720139562/episode-910-economics-sexism-data
  5. https://hucksters.net/person/david-griffith-jones/
  6. https://www.insidehighered.com/news/faculty-issues/2023/09/21/pressure-controversial-online-economics-forum-continues
  7. Wu, Alice H. (May 2018). "Gendered Language on the Economics Job Market Rumors Forum". AEA Papers and Proceedings. 108: 175–179. doi:10.1257/pandp.20181101. ISSN 2574-0768.
  8. "Is the economics profession toxic for women?". Mother Jones. Retrieved 2023-08-08.
  9. Wolfers, Justin (2017-08-18). "Evidence of a Toxic Environment for Women in Economics (Published 2017)". The New York Times. Retrieved 2023-08-08.
  10. Quinn, Ryan. "Researchers Say They Found IP Addresses for 'Anonymous' Econ Forum Posts". Inside Higher Ed. Retrieved 2023-08-08.
  11. "Researchers: Hate speech on economics website is traced to Stanford, other top universities". CBS News. Associated Press. 20 July 2023.
  12. https://www.insidehighered.com/sites/default/files/2023-07/ejmr_paper_nber(1).pdf
  13. Quinn, Ryan (20 July 2023). "Researchers Say They Found IP Addresses for 'Anonymous' Econ Forum Posts". Inside Higher Ed.


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