nep-sog New Economics Papers
on Sociology of Economics
Issue of 2013‒10‒11
two papers chosen by
Jonas Holmström
Swedish School of Economics and Business Administration

  1. The Retraction Penalty: Catastrophe and Consequence in Scientific Teams By Ginger Zhe Jin; Benjamin Jones; Susan Feng Lu; Brian Uzzi
  2. Scientific breakthroughs, innovation clusters and stochastic growth cycles By Stadler, Manfred

  1. By: Ginger Zhe Jin; Benjamin Jones; Susan Feng Lu; Brian Uzzi
    Abstract: What are the individual rewards to working in teams? This question extends across many production settings but is of long-standing interest in science and innovation, where the “Matthew Effect” suggests that eminent team members garner credit for great works at the expense of less eminent team members. In this paper, we study this question in reverse, examining highly negative events – article retractions. Using the Web of Science, we investigate how retractions affect citations to the authors’ prior publications. We find that the Matthew Effect works in reverse – namely, scientific misconduct imposes little citation penalty on eminent coauthors. By contrast, less eminent coauthors face substantial citation declines to their prior work, and especially when they are teamed with an eminent author. A simple Bayesian model is used to interpret the results. These findings suggest that a good reputation can have protective properties, but at the expense of those with less established reputations.
    JEL: J24 L15 L23 O3
    Date: 2013–10
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:19489&r=sog
  2. By: Stadler, Manfred
    Abstract: We develop a dynamic stochastic general-equilibrium model of science, education and innovation to explain the simultaneous emergence of innovation clusters and stochastic growth cycles. Firms devote human-capital resources to research activities in order to invent higher quality products. The technological requirements in climbing up the quality ladders increase over time but this hampering effect is compensated for by an improving qualification of researchers allowing for a sustainable process of innovation and scale-invariant growth. Jumps in human capital, triggered by scientific breakthroughs, induce innovation clusters across industries and generate long-run growth cycles. --
    Keywords: Science,Education,Innovation clusters,Stochastic growth cycles
    JEL: C61 E32 O33
    Date: 2013
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:tuewef:60&r=sog

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