Evidence that Economists Understand Incentives (but What about Collective Action Problems?)

From the latest issue of Econ Journal Watch:

David Findlay and John Santos replicate an analysis of the market for baseball Hall-of-Famer rookie cards produced since 1947, when Jackie Robinson made his major-league debut. The earlier study did not find evidence of significant racial discrimination by card buyers. Having detected a pattern of data errors in that study, Findlay and Santos correct the errors, extend the analysis, and include Hispanics. Their more powerful analysis also finds no evidence of significant racial or ethnic discrimination.

That took a surprising turn, didn't it? I applaud the journal editors for publishing the article despite the result, as this increases the incentives for researchers to check other people's results, which, at the margin, is probably more desirable than more original work. Also, the topic wins the prize for the least troubling dimension of racial discrimination I've ever seen an abstract on. And on top of that, it doesn't even exist.