The micro‐geography of academic research: How distinctive is economics?
| Published date | 01 September 2021 |
| Author | John Gibson |
| Date | 01 September 2021 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1111/sjpe.12271 |
Scott J Polit Econ . 2021;68:467–484. wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/sjpe
|
467
© 2021 Scottish Ec onomic Society
1 | INTRODUCTION
The degree of insularity, the strength of internal hierarchy, and the concentration of research outputs and rec-
ognition differ markedly bet ween academic disciplines. The focus of this paper is on economics, which is often
seen as insular, hiera rchical, and highly con centrated in terms of auth ors, journals, inst itutions, and regions (G lötzl
& Aigner, 2019). In terms of insularity, within- discipline citation greatly exceeds other social sciences, with the
rate that a flagship economics journal cites top journals in other social sciences only one- fifth of that for polit-
ical science and one- eighth of that for sociology (Fourcade et al., 2015). A possible distain for other disciplines
may underlie thi s asymmetry. The classic account of Life Among the Econ notes that “ their young are brought up
to feel contempt for the softer living in the warmer lands of their neighbors, such as the Polyscis and Sociogs”
Accepted: 11 Janua ry 2021
DOI: 10 .1111/sjpe.1 2271
ORIGINAL ARTICLE
The micro- geography of academic research: How
distinctive is economics?
John Gibson
Departm ent of Economics, Uni versity of
Waikato, Hamilton, New Zealand
Correspondence
John Gibson, Department of Economics,
Universit y of Waikato, Private Bag 3105,
3240 Hamilton, N ew Zealand.
Email: mail: jkgibson@waikato.ac.nz
Abstract
This study examin es micro- geographic clustering in the pro-
duction and recognition of academic research. Three U.S.
ZIP codes are associated w ith over 40 percent of articles in
the top five economic s journals and those articles ga rnered
one- half of all citations in these jo urnals from 2000 to 2015.
Such micro- geographic concentration is not apparent in
other disciplines , even those like chemistry that rely o n spe-
cialized laboratorie s. Concentration of citations to econom-
ics articles w hose authors are associated with a few key ZIP
codes has streng thened over time, even as it has weakened
for other disciplines. This micro- geographic concentration
may increase systemi c risk by reducing the diversity of eco-
nomics research t hat is published and cited and may lead to
insufficient res earch attention to local context .
KEYWORDS
citations, economics, micro- geography, scientometrics, spatial
concentration
468
|
GIBSON
(Leijonhufv ud, 1973: 327). An opinion survey of a cademics shows a simil ar pattern; a minorit y of surveyed econo-
mists agree t hat interdisciplinary k nowledge is better than k nowledge from a single discip line yet large majorities
of academics i n other disciplines agree d with this proposition (Fou rcade et al., 2015).
In terms of hierar chy, several studi es show aspects of control over th e discipline wielded by econom ists at a
few elite U.S. uni versities. Hodgson an d Rothman (1999) study the editors and a uthors of 30 top economic s jour-
nals and conclud e that an oligopoly of US inst itutions dominates th ese journals and ther eby dominates economic s
research more b roadly. It is economists at Ha rvard and the Univer sity of Chicago especi ally in this elite position; a
study of arti cles in eight top economics jo urnals that controls for aut hor and journal qualit y and article attrib utes
finds those by authors at Harvard or Chicago received far higher peer recognition (Medoff 2006). Part of this
dominance may refl ect home bias, with th ree of the eight top journals e dited at these two univer sities; Wu (2007)
finds high numb ers of in- hou se authors at the Journal of Political Economy (JPE) and Quarterly Journal of Economics
(QJE), while Fo urcade et al. (2015) find that th is is even greater in terms of where aut hors earned their PhD. Yet,
the same study found no similar home bias for the flagship journal in sociology. A somewhat circular and self-
perpetuatin g process of elite benefit m ay occur: These are the b est institutions, b ecause their econom ists publish
in the best jour nals, and these are the be st journals, becaus e the best economist s publish in them.
This hierarchy also extends to the labor market and to professional organization. A study of hiring in seven
disciplines fi nds rankings have the bigge st effect on placement i n economics (Han, 2003 ). For professional organi-
zation, of the 120 p residents of the Ameri can Economic Associati on (AEA), almost 60 % of them (n = 68) have been
from just six ins titutions: Harva rd (23), Chicago (13), Princeton (10), Yale (9), MIT (7), and St anford (6). This hierarchy
contrasts wi th other social sciences. For e xample, Fourcade et al. (2015) r eport that from one- third to one- half of
elected executives of the American Sociological Association and the American Political Science Association are
from unranked departments, and 20%– 30% are from places ranked from 21 to 100, while the AEA has no non-
appointed off icers from any depar tments ranked below 20 th, and, instead, 72% a re from the top five depar tments.
The insularity and hierarchy within academic economics lead to geographic and institutional concentration.
Gloetzl and A igner (2019), for example, stud y 3.4 million citations to 3 80,000 art icles published in 4 40 economics
journals between 1980 and 2014 and find that three- quarters of citations accrued to researchers from North
America, wh ose share of the article s was 49%. The issue of Ameri can domination in econo mics was also apparent
in earlier stu dies of top journals (Kocher & Sut ter, 2001) and of eminent economi sts (Frey & Pommerehne, 1988).
Yet studies of the concen tration of research that only co nsider national or supra- national geograp hy, such as Ek
and Henrekso n (2019), may miss an impor tant point. The product ion and recognition of researc h are even more
concentrated within countries.
This paper provi des evidence on concentr ation in economics at the m icro- geog raphic level. The prod uction of
articles, a nd recognition of rese arch in the form of citat ions, is studied at the l evel of U.S. ZIP codes, of wh ich there
are over 30,00 0.1 Yet just three of these ZIP codes: 0 2138, 60637, and 94305 are associated with a rticles in the
top five economics journals— American Economic Review (AER), Econometrica, Journal of Political Economy (JPE),
Quarterly Journal of Economics (QJE), and the Review of Economic Studies— that garne red one- half of a ll citations to
the article s published in these journ als from 2000 to 2015. This re markable degree of micro- geographic concen-
tration is not app arent in the five compara tor disciplines; on average ju st over 12% of citations accru e to their top
three ZIP codes , in terms of where the contrib utors to their respect ive top five journals are aff iliated.
This extreme degree of micro- geographic concentration highlights that even economists in the leading coun-
try may be, effectively, on the outer if they are not linked into these top ZIP codes. For example, one is hardly
any closer to the epicenter of economic research if located in, say, Moscow, Idaho, at the University of Idaho
(ZIP 8384 4) compared to being in Moscow, Russia. In fa ct, one may be even further aw ay; among almost 3,800
author- af filiations for articles i n top journals in economics s tudied here, only one is from Id aho but five are from
1Two aspects of res earch perfor mance are stud ied— publicati on in top journal s and citations— because rank ings can var y depending on th e type of
research performance measure used (Henrekson and Waldenström, 2011).
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