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What have economists been doing for the last 50 years? A text analysis of published academic research from 1960-2010

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  • Kosnik, Lea-Rachel

Abstract

This paper presents the results of a text based exploratory study of over 20,000 academic articles published in seven top research journals from 1960 - 2010. The goal is to investigate the general research foci of economists over the last fifty years, how (if at all) they have changed over time, and what trends (if any) can be discerned from a broad body of the top academic research in the field. Of the 19 JEL-code based fields studied in the literature, most have retained a constant level of attention over the time period of this study, however, a notable exception is that of macroeconomics which has undergone a significantly diminishing level of research attention in the last couple of decades, across all the journals under study; at the same time, the "microfoundations" of macroeconomic papers appears to be increasing. Other results on co-authorship trends and depth of research articles are also presented.

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  • Kosnik, Lea-Rachel, 2015. "What have economists been doing for the last 50 years? A text analysis of published academic research from 1960-2010," Economics - The Open-Access, Open-Assessment E-Journal (2007-2020), Kiel Institute for the World Economy (IfW Kiel), vol. 9, pages 1-38.
    • Handle: RePEc:zbw:ifweej:201513
    DOI: 10.5018/economics-ejournal.ja.2015-13
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    11. Ernest Aigner & Matthias Aistleitner & Florentin Glotzl & Jakob Kapeller, 2018. "The Focus of Academic Economics: Before and After the Crisis," Working Papers Series 75, Institute for New Economic Thinking.
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    18. Koffi, Marlene, 2021. "Innovative ideas and gender inequality," CLEF Working Paper Series 35, Canadian Labour Economics Forum (CLEF), University of Waterloo.
    19. Kube, Roland & Löschel, Andreas & Mertens, Henrik & Requate, Till, 2018. "Research trends in environmental and resource economics: Insights from four decades of JEEM," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 92(C), pages 433-464.
    20. Griffin, Terry W. & Gammon, Sara, 2020. "A Brief History of Farm Management," Journal of the ASFMRA, American Society of Farm Managers and Rural Appraisers, vol. 2020.
    21. Hancock, Guy & Liu, Yangxuan & Smith, Amanda R. & Plastina, Alejandro, 2020. "Motivations and Challenges of Cover Crop Utilization for Georgia Crop Production," Journal of the ASFMRA, American Society of Farm Managers and Rural Appraisers, vol. 2020.
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    More about this item

    Keywords

    text analysis; economics research; research diversity; topic analysis;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • A11 - General Economics and Teaching - - General Economics - - - Role of Economics; Role of Economists
    • B4 - Schools of Economic Thought and Methodology - - Economic Methodology

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