The impossibility of ar tificial markets: the case of the measurement of academic productivity

Abstract

This article criticizes the incentive mechanisms developed to increase academic productivity. Using methodological considerations about the nature of the market, we develop an argument to explain why those mechanisms fail not only to stimulate competition among researchers but also to create a better “market of ideas”. The article argues that incentive mechanisms tend to generate bureaucracy and distortion of that market, undermining academic liberty instead.