nep-sog New Economics Papers
on Sociology of Economics
Issue of 2015‒02‒11
three papers chosen by
Jonas Holmström
Axventure AB

  1. What have economists been doing for the last 50 years? A text analysis of published academic research from 1960-2010 By Kosnik, Lea-Rachel
  2. Age and the Trying Out of New Ideas By Mikko Packalen; Jay Bhattacharya
  3. Gender and competition: evidence from academic promotions in France By Clément Bosquet; Pierre-Philippe Combes; Cecilia Garcia-Penalosa

  1. By: Kosnik, Lea-Rachel
    Abstract: This paper presents the results of a text based exploratory study of over 20,000 academic articles published in seven top research journals from 1960-2010. The goal is to investigate the general research foci of economists over the last fifty years, how (if at all) they have changed over time, and what trends (if any) can be discerned from a broad body of the top academic research in the field. Of the 19 JEL-code based fields studied in the literature, most have retained a constant level of attention over the time period of this study, however, a notable exception is that of macroeconomics which has undergone a significantly diminishing level of research attention in the last couple of decades, across all the journals under study; at the same time, the "microfoundations" of macroeconomic papers appears to be increasing. Other results are also presented.
    Keywords: text analysis,economics research,research diversity,topic analysis
    JEL: A11 B4
    Date: 2015
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:ifwedp:20154&r=sog
  2. By: Mikko Packalen; Jay Bhattacharya
    Abstract: Older scientists are often seen as less open to new ideas than younger scientists. We put this assertion to an empirical test. Using a measure of new ideas derived from the text of nearly all biomedical scientific articles published since 1946, we compare the tendency of younger and older researchers to try out new ideas in their work. We find that papers published in biomedicine by younger researchers are more likely to build on new ideas. Collaboration with a more experienced researcher matters as well. Papers with a young first author and a more experienced last author are more likely to try out newer ideas than papers published by other team configurations. Given the crucial role that the trying out of new ideas plays in the advancement of science, our results buttress the importance of funding scientific work by young researchers.
    JEL: I1 J11 O31 O32 O33
    Date: 2015–01
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:20920&r=sog
  3. By: Clément Bosquet; Pierre-Philippe Combes; Cecilia Garcia-Penalosa
    Abstract: Differences in promotion across genders are still prevalent in many occupations. Recent work based on experimental evidence indicates that women participate less in or exert lower effort during contests. We exploit the unique features of the promotion system for French academics to look at women's attitudes towards competition in an actual labour market. Using data for academic economists over the period 1991-2008 we find that, conditional on entering the competition, there is no difference in promotions across the genders, which is difficult to reconcile with either discrimination or a poorer performance of women in contests. In contrast, women have a substantially lower probability than men to enter the promotion contest. Our data does not support that this gap is due to differences in costs or in preferences concerning department prestige, indicating that women are less willing than men to take part in contests.
    Keywords: gender gaps; promotions; academic labour markets
    JEL: I23 J16 J7
    Date: 2013–11
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ehl:lserod:58350&r=sog

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