Working Paper: CEPR ID: DP9401
Authors: Clément Bosquet; Pierre-Philippe Combes
Abstract: We study the effect of a large set of department characteristics on individual publication records. We control for many individual time-varying characteristics, individual fixed-effects and reverse causality. Department characteristics have an explanatory power that can be as high as that of individual characteristics. The departments that generate most externalities are those where academics are homogeneous in terms of publication performance and have diverse research fields, and, to a lesser extent, large departments, with more women, older academics, star academics and foreign co-authors. Department specialisation in a field also favours publication in that field. More students per academic does not penalise publication. At the individual level, women and older academics publish less, while the average publication quality increases with average number of authors per paper, individual field diversity, number of published papers and foreign co-authors.
Keywords: Economic Geography; Economics of Science; Networks; Productivity Determinants; Selection and Endogeneity
JEL Codes: I3; J24; R12
Edges that are evidenced by causal inference methods are in orange, and the rest are in light blue.
| Cause | Effect |
|---|---|
| individual characteristics (Z13) | academic productivity (D29) |
| department characteristics (I29) | academic productivity (D29) |
| location (R32) | individual publication quantity (A30) |
| location (R32) | individual publication quality (L15) |
| homogeneous academics & diverse research fields (D29) | publication outcomes (O36) |
| larger departments with higher proportion of women (J21) | publication quality (Y90) |
| average number of authors per paper (C46) | average publication quality (L15) |
| individual field diversity (Y80) | publication quality (Y90) |
| number of published papers (A29) | average publication quality (L15) |
| women (J16) | publication quantity (A30) |
| older academics (J14) | publication quantity (A30) |
| number of publications (A14) | average publication quality (L15) |
| department characteristics (I29) | individual productivity (O49) |