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Alma Mat(t)er(s): Determinants of Early Career Success in Economics

Author

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  • Sascha Baghestanian
  • Sergey V. Popov

Abstract

We study 6000 author-publication observations to investigate predictors of early career success in six fields of Economics. To minimise the effects of ability heterogeneity on publication success chance, we concentrate on top researchers and focus on the start of their careers to minimise distortions from reputation feedback. The rank of an author’s Alma Mater turns out to be significant in 4 out of 6 subfields of Economics; first placement is significant only in one subfield. Numerically, our insights suggest that a counterfactual descent in the Alma Mater of a star author who graduated from a top 10 university by as little as 10 to 20 ranks, significantly reduces by 13 percentage points his probability of getting a top 5 publication. Lowering the ranking of his Alma Mater by another 80 ranks reduces his chances of getting a top publication by a factor of three.

Suggested Citation

  • Sascha Baghestanian & Sergey V. Popov, 2017. "Alma Mat(t)er(s): Determinants of Early Career Success in Economics," Economics Working Papers 17-02, Queen's Management School, Queen's University Belfast.
    • Handle: RePEc:qub:wpaper:1702
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    Cited by:

    1. Jakob Kapeller & Matthias Aistleitner & Stefan Steinerberger, 2017. "Citation Patterns in Economics and Beyond: Assessing the Peculiarities of Economics from Two Scientometric Perspectives," ICAE Working Papers 60, Johannes Kepler University, Institute for Comprehensive Analysis of the Economy.
    2. Simon Ek & Magnus Henrekson, 2019. "The Geography and Concentration of Authorship in the Top Five: Implications For European Economics," Scottish Journal of Political Economy, Scottish Economic Society, vol. 66(2), pages 215-245, May.
    3. Sascha Baghestanian & Sergey V. Popov, 2018. "On publication, refereeing and working hard," Canadian Journal of Economics/Revue canadienne d'économique, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 51(4), pages 1419-1459, November.
    4. Inácio Bó & Chiu Yu Ko, 2021. "Competitive screening and information transmission," Journal of Public Economic Theory, Association for Public Economic Theory, vol. 23(3), pages 407-437, June.
    5. Matthias Aistleitner & Jakob Kapeller & Stefan Steinerberger, 2018. "Citation Patterns in Economics and Beyond," Working Papers Series 85, Institute for New Economic Thinking.
    6. Vicente Safón, 2019. "Inter-ranking reputational effects: an analysis of the Academic Ranking of World Universities (ARWU) and the Times Higher Education World University Rankings (THE) reputational relationship," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 121(2), pages 897-915, November.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Academia; Publishing; Journals; Alma Mater; Affiliation;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • A11 - General Economics and Teaching - - General Economics - - - Role of Economics; Role of Economists
    • I23 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Education - - - Higher Education; Research Institutions
    • I24 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Education - - - Education and Inequality
    • J44 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Particular Labor Markets - - - Professional Labor Markets and Occupations

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