Working Paper: NBER ID: w24591
Authors: Pierre Azoulay; J Michael Wahlen; Ezra W Zuckerman Sivan
Abstract: Whereas recent research has demonstrated how disinterested social validation may skew valuation in meritocratic domains, interested promotion may be at least as important a factor. As suggested by research on reputational entrepreneurship, a producer's death shifts promotion opportunities in two respects. First, it prevents the producer (or “salesman”) from engaging in promotional activity. Second, it also mobilizes others (the “sales force”) to step up their promotional activity on behalf of the deceased. Analysis of the impact made by the premature death of 720 elite life scientists on the citation trajectories of their articles indicates that death results in a long-lasting, positive increase in citation rates, relative to the trajectories for equivalent articles by counterfactual, still-living scientists. This effect seems due largely to the memorialization efforts made by the sales force as compared to recognition efforts on behalf of the still-living scientists, and is strongest for articles that had received relatively little attention prior to the death, as well as those authored by stars who died at a relatively young age. The upshot is clear evidence of informational inefficiency, which derives from the challenges of absorbing the massive volume of scientific knowledge produced. Scientists' identities thus play an important role in determining scientific valuations, despite ostensible norms that enjoin the scientific community to divorce the researcher's identity from her work.
Keywords: scientific valuation; promotion; citations; memorialization; death of scientists
JEL Codes: I23; O31
Edges that are evidenced by causal inference methods are in orange, and the rest are in light blue.
| Cause | Effect |
|---|---|
| premature death of elite life scientists (B32) | significant increase in the citation rates of their articles (A14) |
| premature death of elite life scientists (B32) | mobilization of peers (the sales force) who promote the deceased scientist's work (M51) |
| mobilization of peers (the sales force) who promote the deceased scientist's work (M51) | significant increase in the citation rates of their articles (A14) |
| premature death of elite life scientists (B32) | shift in recognition driven by memorialization efforts (O17) |
| shift in recognition driven by memorialization efforts (O17) | significant increase in the citation rates of their articles (A14) |
| premature death of elite life scientists (B32) | informational inefficiency in the scientific valuation process (G14) |
| informational inefficiency in the scientific valuation process (G14) | significant increase in the citation rates of their articles (A14) |