Working Paper: NBER ID: w18635
Authors: Daniel S. Hamermesh
Abstract: Presenting data on all full-length articles published in the three top general economics journals for one year in each of the 1960s through 2010s, I analyze how patterns of co-authorship, age structure and methodology have changed, and what the possible causes of these changes may have been. The entire distribution of number of authors has shifted steadily rightward. In the last two decades the fraction of older authors has almost quadrupled. The top journals are now publishing many fewer papers that represent pure theory, regardless of sub-field, somewhat less empirical work based on publicly available data sets, and many more empirical studies based on data assembled for the study by the author(s) or on laboratory or field experiments.
Keywords: No keywords provided
JEL Codes: B20; J24
Edges that are evidenced by causal inference methods are in orange, and the rest are in light blue.
| Cause | Effect |
|---|---|
| age distribution of authors (J11) | prevalence of older authors in top journals (A14) |
| slowing of the publishing process (A19) | discouragement of younger scholars from submitting to highly competitive journals (A14) |
| number of female doctorates in economics (J16) | increase in female authors (J16) |
| complexity of economic research (D00) | increase in coauthorship (A14) |
| advent of technology (O33) | facilitation of coauthorship (O36) |
| changing preferences of journal editors (A14) | decline in purely theoretical articles (P27) |
| evolving nature of economic research (B52) | increase in empirical studies (C90) |