Working Paper: NBER ID: w31150
Authors: Learachel Kosnik; Daniel S. Hamermesh
Abstract: The scholarly impact of academic research matters for academic promotions, influence, relevance to public policy, and others. Focusing on writing style in top-level professional journals, we examine how it changes with age, and how stylistic differences and age affect impact. As top-level scholars age, their writing style increasingly differs from others’. The impact (measured by citations) of each contribution decreases, due to the direct effect of age and the much smaller indirect effects through style. Non-native English-speakers write in different styles from others, in ways that reduce the impact of their research. Nobel laureates’ scholarly writing evinces less certainty about the conclusions of their research than that of other highly productive scholars.
Keywords: No keywords provided
JEL Codes: A14; B41
Edges that are evidenced by causal inference methods are in orange, and the rest are in light blue.
| Cause | Effect |
|---|---|
| age (J14) | writing style (Y30) |
| age (J14) | citations (A14) |
| writing style (Y30) | citations (A14) |
| native language (J15) | writing style (Y30) |
| Nobel laureates (B31) | writing style (Y30) |
| Nobel laureates (B31) | certainty in conclusions (D81) |