The faculty and students of the Department of Economics are dedicated to applying vanguard theoretical, computational, and empirical methods to answer questions of general economic research and policy interest. This pursuit requires intellectual, professional, and personal integrity. As a part of the School of Arts and Sciences and the University of Pennsylvania we are committed to all policies and procedures of the School and University, in particular those governing academic integrity and sexual misconduct.
Faculty, lecturers, post-doctoral researchers, students, staff, and visitors are expected to treat all people with whom they come into contact during their work with respect, and strive to prevent harm to others and to foster a friendly and inclusive work environment. This includes, but is not limited to
- Being respectful, polite, and patient
- Letting people speak their mind
- Not insulting or belittling others
- Not behaving inappropriately toward others and making no unwanted advances of any kind
- Not exploiting others for personal gain in any way
- Not harassing, bullying, mobbing, or spreading rumors about colleagues behind their backs
- Not falsely accusing others of wrongdoing
- Not commenting on other people’s sexual orientation, political orientation, religion, or health in a demeaning way or inappropriately basing any decisions on such categories.
Good personal conduct also means that one should speak up when witnessing inappropriate behavior and let the person displaying such behavior know that their conduct is not appropriate.
Faculty, lecturers, post-doctoral researchers, students, staff, and visitors are encouraged to approach either the Department Chair or the Chair of the Departmental Personnel Committee, henceforth Department Contact Person, with any issues or concerns regarding professional and personal conduct. If the discussions do not resolve the issues or concerns, then the Department Contact Person will consult with the appropriate SAS or University authority to discuss the next steps. During this process the parties involved will try to maintain confidentiality to the extent possible.
Notes:
- University policies can be found at https://catalog.upenn.edu/
- Many professional organizations of economists have developed their own code of conduct in recent years, including the American Economic Association https://www.aeaweb.org/about-aea/code-of-conduct and the National Bureau for Economic Research (NBER) https://www.nber.org/about-nber/standards-conduct
- The code of conduct was unanimously approved by faculty on May 3, 2023.