IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/fda/fdaddt/2025-07.html

Citation Gender Gaps in Top Economics Journals

Author

Listed:
  • J. Ignacio Conde-Ruiz
  • Juan-José Ganuza
  • Manu García

Abstract

This paper investigates the existence and drivers of gender citation gaps in the five leading journals in economics. Using a comprehensive dataset of 7,214 articles published between 1999 and 2023, we examine whether female-authored papers are cited more frequently than male-authored ones, and whether this pattern persists after controlling for differences in research topics. We apply Structural Topic Modeling (STM) to abstracts to estimate latent research themes and complement this approach with field classifications based on JEL codes. Our results show that female-authored papers initially display a citation premium—receiving up to 15 log points more citations—but this advantage becomes statistically insignificant once we control for research field composition using either STM topics or JEL codes. These findings suggest that horizontal gender differences in thematic specialization, rather than bias in citation behavior, account for most of the observed citation gap. Our analysis highlights the importance of accounting for field heterogeneity when assessing academic recognition and contributes to ongoing discussions about fairness and diversity in economics publishing.

Suggested Citation

  • J. Ignacio Conde-Ruiz & Juan-José Ganuza & Manu García, 2025. "Citation Gender Gaps in Top Economics Journals," Working Papers 2025-07, FEDEA.
    • Handle: RePEc:fda:fdaddt:2025-07
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://documentos.fedea.net/pubs/dt/2025/dt2025-07.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. David Card & Stefano DellaVigna & Patricia Funk & Nagore Iriberri, 2020. "Are Referees and Editors in Economics Gender Neutral?," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 135(1), pages 269-327.
    2. Pilar Beneito & José E. Boscá & Javier Ferri & Manu García, 2021. "Gender Imbalance across Subfields in Economics: When Does It Start?," Journal of Human Capital, University of Chicago Press, vol. 15(3), pages 469-511.
    3. Joshua Angrist & Pierre Azoulay & Glenn Ellison & Ryan Hill & Susan Feng Lu, 2017. "Economic Research Evolves: Fields and Styles," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 107(5), pages 293-297, May.
    4. J. Ignacio Conde-Ruiz & Juan-José Ganuza & Manu García & Luis A. Puch, 2022. "Gender distribution across topics in the top five economics journals: a machine learning approach," SERIEs: Journal of the Spanish Economic Association, Springer;Spanish Economic Association, vol. 13(1), pages 269-308, May.
    5. Cynthia Bansak & Wendy Dunn & Ellen Meade & Martha Starr, 2024. "Impact versus Inclusion in the Economics Profession: Insights from the Papers and Proceedings," AEA Papers and Proceedings, American Economic Association, vol. 114, pages 292-299, May.
    6. Cabrales, Antonio & García, Manu & Ramos Muñoz, David & Sánchez, Angel, 2025. "The interactions of social norms about climate change: Science, institutions and economics," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 178(C).
    7. Marlène Koffi, 2021. "Gendered Citations at Top Economic Journals," AEA Papers and Proceedings, American Economic Association, vol. 111, pages 60-64, May.
    8. Christian Zimmermann, 2013. "Academic Rankings with RePEc," Econometrics, MDPI, vol. 1(3), pages 1-32, December.
    9. Veronesi, Pietro & Siniscalchi, Marciano, 2020. "Self-image Bias and Lost Talent," CEPR Discussion Papers 15621, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    10. Shelly Lundberg & Jenna Stearns, 2019. "Women in Economics: Stalled Progress," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 33(1), pages 3-22, Winter.
    11. Laura Hospido & Carlos Sanz, 2021. "Gender Gaps in the Evaluation of Research: Evidence from Submissions to Economics Conferences," Oxford Bulletin of Economics and Statistics, Department of Economics, University of Oxford, vol. 83(3), pages 590-618, June.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. J. Ignacio Conde-Ruiz & Miguel Díaz Salazar & Juan José Ganuza, 2026. "Designing gender-balanced evaluation committees with AI," Economics Working Papers 1937, Department of Economics and Business, Universitat Pompeu Fabra.
    2. Koffi, Marlene, 2021. "Innovative ideas and gender inequality," CLEF Working Paper Series 35, Canadian Labour Economics Forum (CLEF), University of Waterloo.
    3. Margaret Samahita & Kevin Devereux, 2024. "Are Economics Conferences Gender‐Neutral? Evidence from Ireland," Oxford Bulletin of Economics and Statistics, Department of Economics, University of Oxford, vol. 86(1), pages 101-118, February.
    4. J. Ignacio Conde-Ruiz & Juan-José Ganuza & Manu García & Luis A. Puch, 2022. "Gender distribution across topics in the top five economics journals: a machine learning approach," SERIEs: Journal of the Spanish Economic Association, Springer;Spanish Economic Association, vol. 13(1), pages 269-308, May.
    5. Margaret Samahita & Martina Zanella, 2025. "Confident, but Undervalued: Evidence from the Irish Economic Association Conference," Trinity Economics Papers tep0325, Trinity College Dublin, Department of Economics, revised Apr 2025.
    6. Jenny Bourne & Nathan D. Grawe & Michael Hemesath & Prathi Seneviratne & Maya Jensen, 2024. "The Disappearing Gender Gap in Scholarly Publication of Economists at Liberal Arts Colleges," Eastern Economic Journal, Palgrave Macmillan;Eastern Economic Association, vol. 50(1), pages 117-134, January.
    7. Baltrunaite, Audinga & Casarico, Alessandra & Rizzica, Lucia, 2025. "Women in economics: The role of gendered references at entry in the profession," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 180(C).
    8. Peter Andre & Armin Falk, 2021. "What’s Worth Knowing? Economists’ Opinions about Economics," ECONtribute Discussion Papers Series 102, University of Bonn and University of Cologne, Germany.
    9. J. Ignacio Conde-Ruiz & Juan José Ganuza & Manu Garcia & Luis A. Puch, 2021. "Gender distribution across topics in Top 5 economics journals: A machine learning approach," Economics Working Papers 1771, Department of Economics and Business, Universitat Pompeu Fabra.
    10. Bosworth, Steven J. & Della Giusta, Marina, 2024. "When Matthew Met Larry: Explaining the Persistence of Gender Underrepresentation in High Status Organizations," IZA Discussion Papers 17460, IZA Network @ LISER.
    11. Singhal, Karan & Sierminska, Eva, 2024. "Inequality in the Economics Profession," IZA Discussion Papers 17584, IZA Network @ LISER.
    12. Valentina Paredes & M. Daniele Paserman & Francisco J. Pino, 2025. "Does Economics Make You Sexist?," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 107(5), pages 1247-1259, September.
    13. Paula Pereda, Fabiana Rocha & Liz Matsunaga & Maria Dolores Montoya Diaz & Renata Narita & Bruna Borges, 2021. "Gender differences in the academic career of economics in Brazil," Revista Cuadernos de Economia, Universidad Nacional de Colombia, FCE, CID, vol. 40(84), pages 815-892.
    14. Lena Janys, 2021. "Testing the Presence of Implicit Hiring Quotas with Application to German Universities," Papers 2109.14343, arXiv.org, revised Nov 2021.
    15. Auriol, Emmanuelle & Friebel, Guido & Weinberger, Alisa & ,, 2021. "Women in Economics: Europe and the World," CEPR Discussion Papers 16686, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    16. Galván, Estefanía & Tenenbaum, Victoria, 2026. "Gender gaps in academia: The role of children," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 241(C).
    17. Daniel Stockemer & Gabriela Galassi & Engi Abou-El-Kheir, 2025. "A Fresh Look at the Publication and Citation Gap Between Men and Women: Insights from Economics and Political Science," Staff Working Papers 25-13, Bank of Canada.
    18. Gauri Kartini Shastry & Olga Shurchkov, 2024. "Reject or revise: Gender differences in persistence and publishing in economics," Economic Inquiry, Western Economic Association International, vol. 62(3), pages 933-956, July.
    19. Lena Janys, 2022. "Testing the Presence of Implicit Hiring Quotas with Application to German Universities," ECONtribute Discussion Papers Series 165, University of Bonn and University of Cologne, Germany.
    20. Piera Bello & Alessandra Casarico & Debora Nozza, 2023. "Research Similarity and Women in Academia," CESifo Working Paper Series 10657, CESifo.

    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • I20 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Education - - - General
    • J16 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Economics of Gender; Non-labor Discrimination
    • Z13 - Other Special Topics - - Cultural Economics - - - Economic Sociology; Economic Anthropology; Language; Social and Economic Stratification

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Lists

    This item is featured on the following reading lists, Wikipedia, or ReplicationWiki pages:
    1. Papers using RePEc data

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:fda:fdaddt:2025-07. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Marta Fernández (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.fedea.net .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.