Zum Verhältnis von Spitzenforschung und Politikberatung: Eine empirische Analyse vor dem Hintergrund des Ökonomenstreits

This article provides empirical information on the relationship between German economists’ activities in the fields of economic policy advice on the one hand and top research on the other hand. We have analyzed (a) whether top journal publications by German economists deal with particular economic issues of the German economy or society and (b) which economists are active in economic policy activities at all. To analyze the latter question we have analyzed (i) the lists of expert studies commissioned by the German Ministries of Finance, of Economic Affairs and of Labor and Social Policy, (ii) the list of experts invited to hearings of corresponding committees of the Bundestag (the Federal German Parliament) and (iii) the articles published in Wirtschaftsdienst, a German economic policy magazine. As our analysis shows, economists active in these types of policy advice are typically not top researchers as measured by their publication records. At the same time our content analysis (a) of articles published by German economists in top journals shows that the vast majority of these articles do not deal with issues of particular relevance for Germany. The analysis suggests that, in Germany, research and policy advice activities can be characterized by a strong division of labor among economists.