Quality control in biology has been a hot topic for the last couple of years, largely in the wake of several prominent fraud cases (e.g. human cloning), rising proficiency in Photoshop (e.g. doctored gel images), and shots fired regarding the use and abuse of the almighty p-value. However, I don't think any of the estimates on flawed or improper research in biology can hope to hold a candle to the abomination reported here.

Personally I'm going to take it with a modest grain of salt—after all, the author could be on a vendetta to defund the economics department at her university and might very well be prone to shoddy procedure as well—but that doesn't really detract from how staggering the suggestion is.