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Stick To Money, Chief
By Richard | February 28, 2007
by Mark Whitehouse
In the spring of 2005, Cornell University economist Michael Waldman noticed a strange correlation in Washington, Oregon and California. The more it rained or snowed, the more likely children were to be diagnosed with autism.
To most people, the observation would have been little more than a riddle. But it soon led Prof. Waldman to conclude that something children do more during rain or snow — perhaps watching television — must influence autism. Last October, Cornell announced the resulting paper in a news release headlined, “Early childhood TV viewing may trigger autism, data analysis suggests.”
Prof. Waldman’s willingness to hazard an opinion on a delicate matter of science reflects the growing ambition of economists — and also their growing hubris, in the view of critics. Academic economists are increasingly venturing beyond their traditional stomping ground, a wanderlust that has produced some powerful results but also has raised concerns about whether they’re sometimes going too far.
Ami Klin, director of the autism program at the Yale Child Study Center, says Prof. Waldman needlessly wounded families by advertising an unpublished paper that lacks support from clinical studies of actual children. “Whenever there is a fad in autism, what people unfortunately fail to see is how parents suffer,” says Dr. Klin. “The moment you start to use economics to study the cause of autism, I think you’ve crossed a boundary.” MORE
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