Working Paper: NBER ID: w26215
Authors: Ruixue Jia; Huihua Nie; Wei Xiao
Abstract: In power-oriented societies, academia may not be immune to the influence of power. This paper studies the power-publication link by applying an event-study strategy to a panel dataset of the publication and biographical information of deans of economics schools in Chinese universities. We find that (i) deanship increases an individual’s publication by 0.7 articles per year; (ii) the increased publications stem from work coauthored with other researchers within the same university; (iii) the topics of the increased publications are more likely to deviate from the deans’ research area prior to becoming deans; and (iv) the power effect is smaller for top universities and leading journals, and for scholars with more pre-dean publications. These patterns appear consistent with the role of power in resource allocation rather than the impact of ability or reputation of the deans and thus have implications on distortions in knowledge production.
Keywords: Power; Publications; Chinese Academia
JEL Codes: H1; I2; O31
Edges that are evidenced by causal inference methods are in orange, and the rest are in light blue.
| Cause | Effect |
|---|---|
| deanship (Y40) | publication rate (O47) |
| deanship (Y40) | co-authored works (A31) |
| co-authored works (A31) | publication rate (O47) |
| deanship (Y40) | deviation from previous research areas (B53) |
| top universities (I23) | diminished power effect on publication (C92) |
| higher pre-dean publication rates (A14) | diminished power effect on publication (C92) |
| absence of pre-appointment increase (J22) | rise in publications due to gaining power (P26) |