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Ricardo Hausmann, a prominent Harvard Kennedy School economist, is facing allegations of plagiarism from his longtime collaborator and former co-author César A. Hidalgo, a professor at the Toulouse School of Economics.
Hidalgo, a former HKS research fellow, publicly levied the plagiarism allegations in a post on X late last month, writing that Hausmann failed to properly acknowledge his work in two working papers published in April 2024.
Hausmann denied the allegations in a statement to The Crimson, calling Hidalgo’s claims “entirely baseless.” Hausmann also said that he requested the University to conduct an investigation into the allegations.
“This independent review will examine the merits of the claim, and I am confident it will affirm our position that the allegation is unfounded,” he wrote.
Hidalgo also formally requested Harvard to investigate the allegations against Hausmann. In an email obtained by The Crimson, Hidalgo asked the University to open an investigation into Hausmann’s attempt to “misappropriate an idea published by a former co-author while knowing of that work.”
A Kennedy School spokesperson declined to comment on specific details of the allegations or whether an investigation had been launched following the requests from Hidalgo and Hausmann.
“Harvard Kennedy School has a robust process for reviewing research integrity concerns,” a spokesperson said.
Hausmann, however, wrote that “the review is ongoing” and that he and his team had been instructed by the University to not discuss details publicly until the investigation reached its conclusion.
Hidalgo alleged that Hausmann had plagiarized a 2023 peer-reviewed paper that Hidalgo had co-written in which his team combined trade, patent, and research publication data to explain a country’s income inequality, emission intensity, and economic growth.
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Hidalgo said in an interview that Hausmann’s first working paper, published in April 2024 by the World Intellectual Property Organization, had the same focus on “expanding from trade to other dimensions.” In the paper, Hausmann and his team presented a model that used similar types of data — “scientific publications, patents, and international trade data” — as Hidalgo’s paper to explain countries’ economies.
While Hausmann and his co-authors did cite Hidalgo’s 2023 paper in a footnote, writing that “other studies have developed similar complexity metrics,” Hidalgo still took issue with the paper. Hausmann claimed that past studies have used different names for their indexes, even though the name he and his co-authors use — “Economic Complexity Indexes” — is nearly identical to the “Economic Complexity Index” used in Hidalgo’s 2023 paper.
Hidalgo claimed that the footnote reference was an insufficient citation and constituted a violation of Harvard’s Honor Code, saying in an interview that the citation in Hausmann’s paper did not match with Harvard’s policies on proper attribution.
In a second working paper — also released in April — Hausmann and his co-writers cited other research Hidalgo published in 2007, 2009, 2014, and 2018, but not the 2023 paper. Instead, Hausmann’s second 2024 paper attributes the use of trade and patent data to his first working paper.
Hidalgo said he believes Hausmann consciously failed to properly cite his 2023 paper since a third 2024 working paper written by junior contributors on Hausmann’s team — but not Hausmann himself — includes an explicit, in-text reference to Hidalgo’s 2023 research.
The co-authors on Hidalgo’s 2023 paper — Philipp Koch and Viktor Stojkoski, the principal author — said in interviews that they believed the plagiarism allegations levied by Hidalgo were convincing.
Hausmann, however, firmly defended his scholarship and said that Hidalgo’s allegations will disproportionately hurt junior contributors on Hausmann’s team.
“His groundless and utterly false accusation of plagiarism does not aim to resolve any grievance he may have in a constructive fashion and instead risks damaging the reputation of my young and promising co-authors in his attempt to damage my own,” he wrote.
Hidalgo said in a statement that “neither that post nor my formal complaint involves claims against Hausmann’s co-authors.”
“His first attempt to spin my publicizing these facts may be to argue that someone of his caliber does not have the time to look at petty things like footnotes and references (pinning the responsibility on them),” Hidalgo wrote in his email to Harvard requesting the launch of an investigation.
“I don’t think that’s fair,” he added.
In the X post, Hidalgo also alleged that Hausmann has had a trend of academic misconduct since 2010, ranging from refusing to credit junior contributors and unilaterally moving a project Hidalgo led at MIT to the Kennedy School.
Hausmann denied both allegations, writing that “no such pattern exists.”
—Staff writer William C. Mao can be reached at william.mao@thecrimson.com. Follow him on X @williamcmao.
—Staff writer Dhruv T. Patel can be reached at dhruv.patel@thecrimson.com. Follow him on X @dhruvtkpatel.
