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on Sociology of Economics |
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Issue of 2011‒01‒23
four papers chosen by Jonas Holmström Swedish School of Economics and Business Administration |
| By: | Chia-Lin Chang (Department of Applied Economics, National Chung Hsing University); Michael McAleer (Erasmus University Rotterdam, Tinbergen Institute, The Netherlands, and Institute of Economic Research, Kyoto University); Les Oxley (Department of Economics and Finance, University of Canterbury) |
| Abstract: | The paper analyses the leading journals in Neurosciences using quantifiable Research Assessment Measures (RAM), highlights the similarities and differences in alternative RAM, shows that several RAM capture similar performance characteristics of highly cited journals, and shows that some other RAM have low correlations with each other, and hence add significant informational value. Alternative RAM are discussed for the Thomson Reuters ISI Web of Science database (hereafter ISI). The RAM that are calculated annually or updated daily include the classic 2-year impact factor (2YIF), 5-year impact factor (5YIF), Immediacy (or zero-year impact factor (0YIF)), Eigenfactor score, Article Influence score, C3PO (Citation Performance Per Paper Online), h-index, Zinfluence, PI-BETA (Papers Ignored - By Even The Authors), 2-year and historical Self-citation Threshold Approval Ratings (STAR), Impact Factor Inflation (IFI), and Cited Article Influence (CAI). The RAM are analysed for 26 highly cited journals in the ISI category of Neurosciences. The paper finds that the Eigenfactor score and PI-BETA are not highly correlated with the other RAM scores, so that they convey additional information regarding journal rankings, that Article Influence is highly correlated with some existing RAM, so that it has little informative incremental value, and that CAI has additional informational value to that of Article Influence. Harmonic mean rankings of the 13 RAM criteria for the 26 highly cited journals are also presented. Emphasizing the 2-year impact factor of a journal to the exclusion of other informative RAM criteria is shown to lead to a distorted evaluation of journal performance and influence, especially given the informative value of several other RAM. |
| Keywords: | Impact factor, Prestige, Immediacy, Eigenfactor, Article Influence, h-index, C3PO, Zinfluence, PI-BETA, STAR, IFI, Cited Article influence. |
| Date: | 2011–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:kyo:wpaper:756&r=sog |
| By: | Anindya Sen (Department of Economics, University of Waterloo); Marcel-Cristian Voia (Department of Economics, Carleton University); Frances R. Woolley (Department of Economics, Carleton University) |
| Abstract: | In this paper we examine the impact of a professor’s appearance, as rated by students, on his or her salary, controlling for research and teaching productivity. We also estimate the impacts of a professor’s appearance on the quality of his or her teaching, as evaluated by students, and the impact of appearance on research productivity, as measured by citations, publications, co-authorship, and grant funding. Our study is based on data describing economics professors at sixteen universities. Although a relatively small proportion of our sample is rated “hot” by students, hotness generates, for some, a significant earnings premium, even with comprehensive controls for productivity. We find a strong relationship between hotness and teaching productivity, but a much weaker relationship between hotness and research productivity. |
| Date: | 2010–09–16 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:car:carecp:10-07&r=sog |
| By: | Okunade, Albert A. (University of Memphis); Wunnava, Phanindra V. (Middlebury College) |
| Abstract: | Charitable giving to public and private institutions of higher learning in the US is a growing major source of financing academic and support programs. The novel contribution of this research is the estimation of an econometric model of gift-giving alumni business executives of a large public urban university using 10,192 individual donor observations [that is, a panel of 392 donors for 26 years]. Our theoretically consistent empirical results reinforce the earlier research findings that male alumni in Greek social organizations gave significantly more. New insights unique to this study are that alumni individuals with the higher-order executive job titles (proxy for permanent income) of a Chief Executive Officer or President (relative to the lesser ranks) are significantly more charitable, and that the number of other gift-giving alumni and friends known to donors, and national athletic conference (basketball and football) championship wins are also highly statistically significant positive drivers of alumni annual giving to the comprehensive metropolitan research university. The resulting profile of gift-giving alumni business executives can be profitably used to more effectively target likely donors and raise cost-effectiveness of fundraising efforts in these times of fiscal austerity in higher education. |
| Keywords: | educational economics, educational finance, charitable donations, alumni giving of business executives |
| JEL: | I2 L3 |
| Date: | 2011–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp5428&r=sog |
| By: | Claudia PIGINI (Universita' Politecnica delle Marche, Dipartimento di Economia) |
| Abstract: | The analysis of performance indicators of university students has become of wide interest expecially in Italy where, over the last few decades, graduation rates have been well below the average of both European and OECD countries. This paper proposes an alternative method to jointly estimate the determinants of students academic success, in terms of both potential credits and retention, one year after they rst enrolled and a further analysis to evaluate whether there are any factors signicantly determining the probability of dropping out, once we consider the students potential academic performance ceteris paribus. We implement the algorithm to estimate the parameters of a bivariate latent variable system and then of a conditional mean equation. |
| Keywords: | Academic Performance, Bivariate Model, Drop-out, Maximum Likelihood, Potential Credits |
| JEL: | C35 I21 I23 |
| Date: | 2011–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:anc:wpaper:354&r=sog |