Fact-checking for Economics

EconoFact

Hosted by the Fletcher School at Tufts University, Econofact publishes short explanatory notes, written by a network of academics, on topics in current US debates. It gives a non-partisan context, in plain English, to questions of international trade and national policy.
Funding: university

• Is the Trade Deficit a Drag on Growth?
• Can U.S. and U.K. Forest Bioenergy Subsidies Have Adverse Climate Consequences?
• Are Global Imbalances a Source of Concern?

FullFact

A UK-based fact-checking charity that openly declares all large donations, FullFact's charitable goal is to "provide free tools, advice, and information so that anyone can check the claims we hear about public issues." Though their scope includes issues of all kinds that are being debated in the UK, economic questions form a large part of their work.
Funding: charity

• Child poverty is increasing and decreasing at the same time—here’s why
• Pay rises: how much do nurses, the police, teachers and MPs get paid?
• Everything you might want to know about the UK's trade with the EU

Africa Check

Described as one of the "global leaders in the field" of fact-checking, this charity has offices in Johannesburg, Nairobi, Lagos and Dakar. It aims to "hold public figures accountable" by fact-checking their statements.
Funding: charity

• Is nuclear energy really the ‘cheapest source of electricity’?
• Are Mexican farmers reaping from Kenya’s maize crisis, as opposition chief said?
• Townships contribute R100bn to South Africa’s economy? No way to tell

Snopes

One of the oldest and best-known online fact-checkers, this is a US-based site but with some UK stories. Its strength is in providing a rapid counter to myths and doctored photographs that spread via social media. A small proportion of these are on economic topics.
Funding: adverts

• Is the United States’ Global Trade Deficit Really $800 Billion?
• Did the Soviet Union Require “Shopper ID” Cards for Buying Groceries?
• Are These the Average Minimum Wages and Big Mac Prices in Three Countries?

Politifact

This well-known site concentrates on statements by US political figures, but their "global news edition" checks a more diverse set of pronouncements. Their "truth-o-meter" ratings include a "Pants on Fire" rating for particularly bold falsehoods. 
Funding: mix of donations and advertising

• Matt Damon: Poor people pay "in some cases, up to 25 percent of (their) income for water." (Mostly True)
• Bono: "For every extra year a girl goes to school, her income goes up 12 percent." (True)
• Bloggers: "It would take $135 billion to eradicate global poverty." (Mostly False)

Factly

An India-based service providing fact-checks and explainers of political, legal and economic topics in that country, based on information available from official sources. The site solicits donations from readers, but it is not clear if these provide all the service's funding.

• Has Demonetization achieved its goal of less-cash Economy?
• Explainer: What is the Contribution of various Countries to the UN Budget?
• Explainer: How is India tracking progress of SDGs?

Polygraph.info

Although part of the Voice Of America network, and hence funded entirely by the United States Government, this site claims to follow establish standards of transparency and veracity. A lot of the claims evaluated come from Russia or China.

• Contrary to Claim, China Isn’t ‘Opening Up’ to Global Investors
• Forward, to the Past: How Can Russia Recapture the Economic Growth of the 2000s?
• After a Cease-Fire, Ethiopian P.M.’s Debatable Boasts About the Economy

BBC Verify

The BBC’s very popular news web site includes almost daily fact checks of issues in the news. It does not presently seem possible to browse these by topic.
Funded by: UK Television licence fee

• Climate change: Is the UK on track to meet its net zero targets?
• Reality Check: Why some African countries don't want charity clothes
• What is levelling up and who is it helping?

Channel 4 Fact Check

Fact-checks by Channel 4 News journalists, usually of political hot-potato claims, released on an irregular but roughly weekly basis.
Channel 4 News is produced by Independent Television News, a commercial broadcaster

• Has Scotland 'subsidised the rest of the UK'?
• Why does Amazon pay so little tax?
• Period poverty is real. But the average woman isn’t spending £500 a year on menstruation

The Conversation

Some of the posts on this site (see the guide to blogging) are fact-checks of topical issues by UK-based academics. A distinctive feature of these articles, compared to other fact-checkers, is a review by a second academic expert, who can back up or challenge the main author's conclusions.
Funding: university & charity

• Fact Check: does immigration have an impact on wages or employment?
• Fact Check: does the north of England now get as much transport spending as the south?
• Fact Check: would banning zero-hours contracts harm more people than it would help?

Ferret Fact Service

Fact-check section of Scottish publication The Ferret funded by reader subscriptions. Includes occasional “Explainers” for topics.
Funding: subscribers

• Claim that 30 per cent of children in the UK are born into poverty is True
• FFS Explains: The gender pay gap in Scotland
• Claim on Scotland’s positive trade balance compared to UK nations is Mostly False

Washington Post Fact Checker

This regular feature of the Washington Post site awards “Pinocchios” to US political figures for their pronouncements. 
Funding: subscribers

• History lesson: Do big tax cuts pay for themselves?
• The ‘Trump economy’ vs. the ‘Obama economy’
• Both sides of the aisle stretch the truth in the soybean debate

Information for and about fact-checkers

Media Bias/Fact Check

An ongoing project to review media outlets, from the well-known to the very obscure, for political bias and factual accuracy. This database includes lists of sources rated as questionable/fake news and conspiracy-pseudoscience. This is an advertising supported personal project where ratings are done by a team of volunteers, with no institutional affiliation.

A Field Guide to "Fake News" and Other Information Disorders

Created by the Public Data Lab (an international, interdisciplinary network of researchers) with support from First Draft (based at the Harvard Kennedy School), with institutional supporters including the University of Bath and Kings College London. The Field Guide "explores the use of digital methods to study false viral news, political memes, trolling practices and their social life online."

The Debunking Handbook

By John Cook (University of Queensland) and Stephen Lewandowsky (University of Bristol). This guide was prompted by the authors' experiences responding to climate change denial, but its lessons about the psychology of belief result in practical tips for anyone correcting misinformation. The handbook is a freely-downloadable PDF in multiple languages.

PolitiFact's guide to fake news websites and what they peddle

This page lists hundreds of dubious sites in four categories, with explanations and examples of each:

1. fake news,
2. news outlets that sometimes mistakenly post fake news,
3. imposter sites (that pretend to be official sites of well-known news organisations), and
4. satire/parody sites that are sometimes mistaken for serious news outlets.