Economic Research Evolves: Fields and Styles
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aer.p20171117.pdf
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Author(s)
Lu, Susan Feng
Angrist, Joshua
Azoulay, Pierre
Ellison, Glenn David
Hill, Ryan Reed
Date Issued
May 2017
Journal
American Economic Review
Publisher
American Economic Association
Citation
Angrist, Joshua et al. “Economic Research Evolves: Fields and Styles.” American Economic Review 107, 5 (May 2017): 293–297
Version
Final published version
Abstract
We examine the evolution of economics research using a machine-learning-based classification of publications into fields and styles. The changing field distribution of publications would not seem to favor empirical papers. But economics' empirical shift is a within-field phenomenon; even fields that traditionally emphasize theory have gotten more empirical. Empirical work has also come to be more cited than theoretical work. The citation shift is sharpened when citations are weighted by journal importance. Regression analyses of citations per paper show empirical publications reaching citation parity with theoretical publications around 2000. Within fields and journals, however, empirical work is now cited more.
MIT Department
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Economics
Sloan School of Management
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Article is made available in accordance with the publisher's policy and may be subject to US copyright law. Please refer to the publisher's site for terms of use.
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DOI of Published Version
https://doi.org/10.1257/AER.P20171117
