IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/pra/mprapa/106083.html

Sweden is calling: What shapes the delay in the Nobel Prize discoveries? A research note

Author

Listed:
  • Polemis, Michael
  • Stengos, Thanasis

Abstract

The scope of this study is to shed light on the determinants of the time gap between the publication of a Nobel discovery and the bestowment of the prize across three science fields (Physics, Chemistry, and Medicine). The econometric evidence supports that the delay gap is inversely related to the age of the Laureate when the Nobel-worthy contribution was published in Physics and Chemistry but not in Medicine. An increase of the age of the researcher by one year leads to a reduction of the Nobel delay by almost three months on average while sharing the Prize for the same research delays the award by approximately 1.2 years. Lastly, important theoretical discoveries increase the delay by 3.3 years on average, while obtaining the last education degree a year later delays the Nobel Prize by 4.7 months on average.

Suggested Citation

  • Polemis, Michael & Stengos, Thanasis, 2021. "Sweden is calling: What shapes the delay in the Nobel Prize discoveries? A research note," MPRA Paper 106083, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    • Handle: RePEc:pra:mprapa:106083
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://mpra.ub.uni-muenchen.de/106083/1/MPRA_paper_106083.pdf
    File Function: original version
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Santo Fortunato, 2014. "Growing time lag threatens Nobels," Nature, Nature, vol. 508(7495), pages 186-186, April.
    2. Romualdas Karazija & Alina Momkauskaitė, 2004. "The Nobel prize in physics - regularities and tendencies," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 61(2), pages 191-205, October.
    3. Baffes, John & Vamvakidis, Athanasios, 2011. "Are you too young for the Nobel Prize?," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 40(10), pages 1345-1353.
    4. Benjamin F. Jones, 2010. "Age and Great Invention," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 92(1), pages 1-14, February.
    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. Michael L. Polemis & Thanasis Stengos, 2022. "What shapes the delay in the Nobel Prize discoveries? A research note," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 127(2), pages 803-811, February.
    2. Pandelis Mitsis, 2022. "The Nobel Prize time gap," Humanities and Social Sciences Communications, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 9(1), pages 1-11, December.
    3. R. Bjørk, 2019. "The age at which Noble Prize research is conducted," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 119(2), pages 931-939, May.
    4. R. Bjørk, 2020. "The journals in physics that publish Nobel Prize research," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 122(2), pages 817-823, February.
    5. Chiang Kao & Hui-Lan Pao, 2023. "The most productive age of the management scholars in Taiwan," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 128(12), pages 6719-6738, December.
    6. Caifeng Ma & Cheng Su & Junpeng Yuan & Yishan Wu, 2012. "Papers written by Nobel Prize winners in physics before they won the prize: an analysis of their language and journal of publication," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 93(3), pages 1151-1163, December.
    7. Ufuk Akcigit & Murat Celik & Daron Acemoglu, 2014. "Young, Restless and Creative: Openness to Disruption and Creative Innovations," 2014 Meeting Papers 377, Society for Economic Dynamics.
    8. Basso, Henrique S. & Jimeno, Juan F., 2021. "From secular stagnation to robocalypse? Implications of demographic and technological changes," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 117(C), pages 833-847.
    9. Lutz Bornmann & Russell J. Funk, 2025. "Popper’s probability calculus and the decline of scientific disruptiveness," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 130(8), pages 4801-4807, August.
    10. Alex Bell & Raj Chetty & Xavier Jaravel & Neviana Petkova & John Van Reenen, 2019. "Who Becomes an Inventor in America? The Importance of Exposure to Innovation," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 134(2), pages 647-713.
    11. Fares Bounajm & Jean-Philippe Cayen & Michael Francis & Christopher Hajzler & Kristina Hess & Guillaume Poulin-Bellisle & Peter Selcuk, 2019. "Évaluation de la croissance de la production potentielle mondiale : avril 2019," Staff Analytical Notes 2019-13fr, Bank of Canada.
    12. Dietmar Harhoff, 2008. "Innovation, Entrepreneurship und Demographie," Perspektiven der Wirtschaftspolitik, Verein für Socialpolitik, vol. 9(s1), pages 46-72, May.
    13. Önder, Ali Sina & Schweitzer, Sascha & Yilmazkuday, Hakan, 2021. "Specialization, field distance, and quality in economists’ collaborations," Journal of Informetrics, Elsevier, vol. 15(4).
    14. Claudio Fassio & Fabio Montobbio & Alessandra Venturini, 2015. "How do Native and Migrant Workers Contribute to Innovation? A Study on France, Germany and the UK," Discussion Papers 30, Central European Labour Studies Institute (CELSI).
    15. Yunus Aksoy & Henrique S. Basso & Ron P. Smith & Tobias Grasl, 2019. "Demographic Structure and Macroeconomic Trends," American Economic Journal: Macroeconomics, American Economic Association, vol. 11(1), pages 193-222, January.
    16. Kim, Hoolda & Song Lee, Bun, 2023. "Aging workforce, wages, and productivity: Do older workers drag productivity down in Korea?," The Journal of the Economics of Ageing, Elsevier, vol. 24(C).
    17. Matthias Krapf, 2015. "Age and complementarity in scientific collaboration," Empirical Economics, Springer, vol. 49(2), pages 751-781, September.
    18. Claudio Fassio & Sona Kalantaryan & Alessandra Venturini, 2020. "Foreign Human Capital and Total Factor Productivity: A Sectoral Approach," Review of Income and Wealth, International Association for Research in Income and Wealth, vol. 66(3), pages 613-646, September.
    19. Myriam Mariani & Marzia Romanelli, 2006. ""Stacking" or "Picking" Patents? The Inventors' Choice Between Quantity and Quality," LEM Papers Series 2006/06, Laboratory of Economics and Management (LEM), Sant'Anna School of Advanced Studies, Pisa, Italy.
    20. Banal-Estanol, A. & Macho-Stadler, I., 2007. "Financial incentives in academia: research versus development," Working Papers 07/09, Department of Economics, City St George's, University of London.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    JEL classification:

    • C23 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Single Equation Models; Single Variables - - - Models with Panel Data; Spatio-temporal Models
    • C80 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Data Collection and Data Estimation Methodology; Computer Programs - - - General
    • D20 - Microeconomics - - Production and Organizations - - - General

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    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:pra:mprapa:106083. 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: Joachim Winter (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/vfmunde.html .

    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.