nep-sog New Economics Papers
on Sociology of Economics
Issue of 2015‒07‒25
two papers chosen by
Jonas Holmström
Axventure AB

  1. " Thou shalt not work alone " By Damien Besancenot; Kim Huynh; Francisco Serranito
  2. Relational environment and intellectual roots of 'ecological economics': An orthodox or heterodox field of research? By Teixeira, Aurora A. C.; Castro e Silva, Manuela

  1. By: Damien Besancenot (CEPN - Centre d'Economie de l'Université Paris Nord - Université Paris 13 - Université Sorbonne Paris Cité (USPC) - CNRS); Kim Huynh (LEM - Laboratoire d'Économie Moderne - UP2 - Université Panthéon-Assas - M.E.N.E.S.R. - Ministère de l'Éducation nationale, de l’Enseignement supérieur et de la Recherche); Francisco Serranito (LEO - Laboratoire d'économie d'Orleans - CNRS - UO - Université d'Orléans)
    Abstract: This paper focuses on the properties of the matching process which leads to scientific collaboration. In a first step, it proposes a simple theoretical model to describe the intertemporal choice of researchers facing successive opportunities of co-authoring papers. In a second part, the paper empirically assesses the properties of the model. The main empirical result is that the number and the productivity of a researcher's co-authors reflect the productivity of this researcher. This result is consistent with the assumption that co-authorship is motivated by a willingness to increase both the quality and the quantity of research output. As researchers with a lot of influent publications papers may create links with a large number of influential co-authors, co-authoring with highly productive academics appears as a signaling device of researchers' quality.
    Date: 2015–07–12
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:cepnwp:hal-01175758&r=sog
  2. By: Teixeira, Aurora A. C.; Castro e Silva, Manuela
    Abstract: The way the fields are delineated has been the Achilles' heel of studies analyzing the status and evolution of given scientific areas. Based on van den Besselaar and Leydesdorff's (Mapping change in scientific specialities; a scientometric reconstruction of the development of artificial intelligence, 1996) contribution, the authors propose a systematic and objective method for delineating the field of ecological economics assuming that aggregated journal-journal citation relations is an appropriate indicator for the disciplinary organization of the sciences. They found that the relational scientific backbone of ecological economics comprises 7 main journals: American Journal of Agricultural Economics, Ecological Economics, Environment and Development Economics, Environmental and Resources Economics, Land Economics, Land Use Policy, and Journal of Environmental Economics and Management. From the 3727 articles published between 2005 and 2010 in the ecological economics field, and the corresponding 142 thousand citations two main outcomes emerged: 1) the intellectual frame of reference is overwhelmed by economists and environmental and resources economists with (renowned) ecological economists relatively underrepresented; 2) the building of an integrative knowledge domain is not apparent: on the one hand, ecological economics is seen to be an 'unbound' heterodox and multidisciplinary field, but on the other hand, and somewhat awkwardly, it is (still) heavily 'bound' by quantitative mainstream/ orthodox methodologies.
    Keywords: ecological economics,philosophy of science,bibliometrics
    JEL: C18 C8 Y10 Q57
    Date: 2015
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:ifwedp:201552&r=sog

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