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Economists in the PITS?

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  • Bruno S. Frey

Abstract

Academic economists today are caught in a “Publication Impossibility Theorem System” or PITS. To further their careers, they are required to publish in A-journals, but this is impossible for the vast majority because there are few slots open in such journals. Such academic competition is held to provide the right incentives for hard work, but there may be serious negative consequences: the wrong output may be produced in an inefficient way, the wrong people may be selected, and the losers may react in a harmful way. The paper suggests several ways for improvement.

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Bibliographic Info

Paper provided by CESifo Group Munich in its series CESifo Working Paper Series with number 2594.

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Date of creation: 2009
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Handle: RePEc:ces:ceswps:_2594

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Keywords: academia; economists; publication; journals; incentives; economic methodology;

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References

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  1. Lazear, Edward P & Rosen, Sherwin, 1981. "Rank-Order Tournaments as Optimum Labor Contracts," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 89(5), pages 841-64, October.
  2. Alois Stutzer & Bruno S. Frey, . "Does Marriage Make People Happy, Or Do Happy People Get Married?," IEW - Working Papers 143, Institute for Empirical Research in Economics - University of Zurich.
  3. Oswald, Andrew J., 2009. "World-Leading Research and its Measurement," The Warwick Economics Research Paper Series (TWERPS) 887, University of Warwick, Department of Economics.
  4. Roland Benabou & Jean Tirole, 2003. "Intrinsic and Extrinsic Motivation," Review of Economic Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 70(3), pages 489-520, 07.
  5. David N. Laband & Robert D. Tollison, 2003. "Dry Holes in Economic Research," Kyklos, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 56(2), pages 161-173, 05.
  6. Canice Prendergast, 1999. "The Provision of Incentives in Firms," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 37(1), pages 7-63, March.
  7. Bruno S. Frey & Reiner Eichenberger & René L. Frey, 2009. "Editorial Ruminations: Publishing Kyklos," Kyklos, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 62(2), pages 151-160, 04.
  8. Joshua S. Gans & George B. Shepherd, 1994. "How Are the Mighty Fallen: Rejected Classic Articles by Leading Economists," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 8(1), pages 165-179, Winter.
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Citations

Blog mentions

As found by EconAcademics.org, the blog aggregator for Economics research:
  1. Catch-22 for publish-and-perish
    by Economic Logician in Economic Logic on 2009-03-17 08:13:00
  2. Are we the PITS?
    by Ferg in Geary Behaviour Centre on 2009-03-16 10:35:00
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Cited by:
  1. Gérard Charreaux, 2011. "«Cité ou oublié» les supports de la notoriété des professeurs en sciences de gestion vus à travers Google Scholar," Working Papers FARGO 1111101, Université de Bourgogne - Leg (laboratoire d'économie et de gestion)/Fargo (Research center in Finance,organizational ARchitecture and GOvernance).
  2. Sergio Da Silva, 2009. "Going parochial in the assessment of the Brazilian economics research output," Economics Bulletin, AccessEcon, vol. 29(4), pages 2832-2852.
  3. Bruno S. Frey, 2009. "A multiplicity of approaches to institutional analysis. Applications to the government and the arts," IEW - Working Papers 420, Institute for Empirical Research in Economics - University of Zurich.
  4. Libman, A., 2011. "German Economics: Mechanisms of Transformation," Journal of the New Economic Association, New Economic Association, issue 9, pages 129-149.
  5. Jean-Yves Lesueur, 2010. "La production scientifique des enseignants-chercheurs en économie : Quelques résultats économétriques issus du dispositif PES," Post-Print halshs-00537859, HAL.
  6. Jean-Yves Lesueur, 2010. "La production scientifique des enseignants-chercheurs en économie : Quelques résultats économétriques issus du dispositif PES," Working Papers 1030, Groupe d'Analyse et de Théorie Economique (GATE), Centre national de la recherche scientifique (CNRS), Université Lyon 2, Ecole Normale Supérieure.

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  1. Economic Logic blog

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