EVALUATING THE PERFORMANCE OF SOUTH AFRICAN ECONOMICS DEPARTMENTS

Over the past decade, economics departments in South Africa have seen major changes and a certain level of disruption. Much of this can be attributed to the integration of our discipline into the global arena after a period of academic isolation. This paper presents a survey of economics departments and covers everything from staff profiles and qualifications to curricula, and research output. This paper indicates that there has been some improvement in the state of economics at South African universities since 2003 when the previous survey was conducted. Research output is largely up as is the proportion in international journals, and more researchers are producing in leading international economics publications. However, the gap between South African economics departments and their international counterparts remains large.     

Ranking Economics Journals,Economics Departments,and Economists Using Teaching-Focused Research Productivity

This paper constructs new rankings of economics journals, economics departments, and economists that employ a measure of teaching-focused research productivity, an area of growing importance in recent years. The ranking methodologies presented here use information from articles that were published from 1991 through the early part of 2005 within the Journal of Economic Literature's “economic education” classifications (A200-A290). The Journal of Economic Literature tops the list of journals, followed by the Review of Economics and Statistics and the American Economic Review. Among the top institutions are Vanderbilt University, Indiana University, and the University of Wisconsin. Others that rank high here, such as Oberlin College and Denison University, do not often fare as well using methodologies that evaluate more traditional types of economics research. Finally, among the economists we find that John Siegfried, William Becker, and Michael Watts are ranked above other economists.     

Examining the Performance of the South African Economics Departments, 2005‐2014

This study examines the teaching and research activities of 17 Economics Departments in 2005‐2014 by consulting the information from each university's faculty prospectus, publication in accredited local and international peer‐reviewed journals, Economic Society of South Africa conference participation, Economic Research Southern Africa working paper series and the National Research Foundation. The results indicate there is big variation in the departments’ teaching and research activities during the period. Nonetheless, research output increased, in particular publication in accredited international journals in both absolute and proportional terms.     

The Scholarly Status of Blacks in the Economics Profession: Have the National Economic Association and the Review of Black Political Economy Mattered?

This paper considers whether the National Economic Association and its journal the Review of Black Political Economy have enhanced the scholarly status of black economists. A bibliometric analysis reveals that while the typical black economist has never published in the Review of Black Political Economy, the share of black economists publishing in the Review of Black Economy approximates the share of all articles published on the economic and political economy of race by black economists, and the share of articles published in the Review of Black Political Economy by black economists appears higher than typical journals in economics—particularly for black economists employed at Historically Black Colleges and Universities. We also find that similar to other economics journals non-black economists dominate the share of published articles, and publications in the Review of Black Political Economy appear to be consistent with Lotka’s Law of scientific productivity suggesting that the journal is a standard outlet for research no different from any other science journal. Our results imply a plausible counterfactual that if the National Economic Association and Review of Black Political Economy did not exist, the scholarly status of blacks in the economics profession would have been lower than currently observed.     

The Causal Effects of Participation in the American Economic Association Summer Minority Program

This article examines whether participation by underrepresented minority groups in the American Economics Association Summer Minority Program (AEASMP) has causal effects on outcomes associated with success as academic economists. We estimate both propensity score weighted and Heckit parameter estimates of (1) the average effect of treatment and (2) the effect of treatment on the treated. Our results, which vary across specifications of potential outcomes and propensity score truncated samples, suggest that AEASMP participation by black American Ph.D. economists has a positive and causal impact on 4 outcomes associated with success as an academic economist. However if the probability of selection into the treatment by the nontreated is similar to that of the treated, the results suggest that AEASMP participation by black American Ph.D. economists has a positive and causal effect on research productivity and in gaining access to research funding.     

Book Reviews

Book reviewed in this articles:
Asia's Next Giant: South Korea and Late Industrialization. By Alice M. Amsden.
Fisheries development
Economics of Fishery Management in the Pacific Islands Region. Edited by H. Campbell; K. Menz and G. Waugh.
Regional co-operation
ASEAN Industrial Co-operation: Future Perspectives and an Alternative Scheme. Edited by Chee Peng Lim and Jang-Won Sun.
China's Social Economic Zones
The Political Economy of China's Special Economic Zones. By George T. Crane.
Australia's relations with Asia
Australia and the Northeast Asian Ascendancy. By Ross Garnaut.
Economic success in East Asia
Achieving Industrialization in East Asia. Edited by Helen Hughes.
Paradoxes in PNG economy
Growth, Structural Change and Economic Policy in Papua New Guinea: Implications for Agriculture. By Frank G. Jarrett and Kym Anderson.
History of banking in East Asia
The Hong Kong Bank in the Period of Imperialism and War, 1895–1918. Volume II of the History of the Hong Kong and Shanghai Banking Corporation. By Frank H. H. King with David J. S. King and Catherine E. King.
Mercantilism vs. classical economics
National Economics. By Alejandro Lichauco.
Thai economic history
Economic Development of Thailand, 1850–1950: Response to the Challenge of the World Economy. By Sompop Manarungsan.
Predictable catastrophe
City on the Rocks: Hong Kong's Uncertain Future. By Kevin Rafferty.
Mouldering Pearl: Hong Kong at the Crossroads. By Felix Patrikeef.
Development of Singapore's economy
Management of Success: The Moulding of Modern Singapore. Edited by Kernial Singh Sandhu and Paul Wheatley.
Economics of food
Food Price Policy in Asia: A Comparative Study. Edited by Terry Sicular.
Development economics
Proceedings of the World Bank Annual Conference on Development Economics 1989.     

Visualising defence and war in economic history journals (1989–2018)

ABSTRACT

Economics usually takes for granted a peaceful world with peaceful market transactions, where war and conflict are anomalies to the current state of business life. However, as History shows violence is a pervasive phenomenon. How is the current state of the art of research on war and defence in economic history journals? This paper provides an overview of research published on this topic by a selection of economic history journals since the fall of Berlin wall. By means of bibliometric and cluster analysis, and using visualising analytical tools, we show the production, main topics, authors, sources, etc. on this research area, and compare with the treatment received in economic journals. The main findings are that publications in economic history journals have increased in the last decades; cover a list of themes broader than that in economic journals; give an increasing importance to quantitative techniques; cite sources from the same area as well as from the top economic journals; and show a relative lack of appeal to neighbouring disciplines. Although economics and economic history influence each other, the direction of the scientific knowledge is going mostly from economics towards economic history rather than the opposite.     

Book Reviews

Book reviews in this article:
BEENHAKKER, H. L. Capital Investment Planning for Management and Engineering . J. C. du Plessis
GHOSH, Santikumar. Development Performance and Stagflation A. L. Müller
KELLEY, Allen C. and WILLIAMSON, Jeffrey G. Lessons from Japanese Development - An Analytical Economic History. R. Lubinsky
LEFTWICH, Adrian (Ed.) South Africa: Economic Growth and Political Change Gavin Maasdorp
MCQUEEN, Matthew. The Economics of Development: Problems and Policies H. Zarenda
BEENHAKKER, H. L. Capital Investment Planning for Management and Engineering .     

Academic Anti-Semitism and the Austrian School: Vienna, 1918–1945

The theme of academic anti-Semitism has been widely discussed recently in histories of the interwar period of the University of Vienna, in particular its Faculty of Law and Policy Sciences. This paper complements these studies by focusing on the economics chairs of this faculty and, more generally, on the fate of the younger generation of the Austrian School of Economics. After some introductory remarks the paper concentrates on three case studies: the neglect of Mises in all three appointments of economics chairs in the 1920s; the anti-Semitic overtones in the conflict between Hans Mayer and Othmar Spann, both professors of economics in the faculty; and on anti-Semitism as a determinant of success or failure in academia, and consequently of the emigration of Austrian economists. Finally, we have a short look at the development of economics at the University of Vienna during and after the Nazi regime.     

Book Reviews

book reviewed in this article
BROWN, B. The Dollar-Mark Axis.
BURKITT, B. and BOWERS, D. Trade Unions and the Economy.
CAIN, P. J. Economic Foundations of British Overseas Expansion
FISHER, D. Money, Banking, and Monetary Policy
FRANK, A. G. World Accumulation
HAWKE, G. R. Economics for Historians.
KUBICEK, R. V. Economic Imperialism in Theory and Practice: The Case of South African Cold Mining Finance
LALL, S. The Multinational Corporation.
LINDLEY, R. M. (ed.). Economic Change and Employment Policy.
MITCHELL, J. Price Determination and Prices Policy
TAYLOR, P. A. S. A New Dictionary of Economics.
WONNACOTT, P. Macroeconomics (2nd ed.). Homewood     

The state of Geographical Information Systems (GIS) training and research in South African universities

Geographical Information Systems or GIS has become one of the more prominent research and training tools in South African university departments in the 1990s. GIS developed in the 1970s in North America in response to the expanding capacity of computer systems and the need to integrate spatial and attribute data (Maguire et al, 1991). It was only in the mid‐1980s that the first systems were set up in South Africa, primarily at research institutions such as the Department of Water Affairs and the Institute for Natural Resources in Pietermaritzburg. Since then the use of the technology has grown exponentially and most of the country's major municipalities (Szecsei, 1990; Van Rensburg, 1992), government departments, town and regional planners (Zietsman, 1992; Venter, 1993), engineering concerns (Poolman, 1990) and universities have become regular users. At universities GIS is used more as a research tool than as a defined analytical procedure. This article reviews the development of GIS and its use in South African universities. It also discusses the advantages and impediments to the use of the technology and its development.     

Higher education expansion and the rise of China in economics research

China has seen a massive higher education expansion, which the literature has dated to the 1999–2008 period with quantitative and qualitative outcomes. However, the consequences for the publication success of Chinese authors worldwide are not well studied. We review the respective Chinese higher education policies and document the dramatic rise in publication success, with a focus on the field of Economics. A substantial set of regressions and robustness checks confirm the understanding that the higher education expansion has indeed let to a substantial worldwide rise in scientific publications in refereed economics journals fueled by the general incentives of the reform, through research collaborations and other quality improving factors.     

Origins and Rationale for the African American Economic Summit

African American economists and related social scientists have an indispensible role to play in providing culturally-informed insight into the role of economic disadvantage in the current crisis in African American health, incarceration, wealth, housing, and education. The African American Economic Summit co-sponsored by the Institute of African American Research at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and the Research Network on Racial and Ethnic Inequality at Duke University brought together over 30 experts who provided insights into the roots of the current economic status of African Americans, its broad impact on the quality of African American life, and possible remedial solutions. This volume reports on the deliberations in this first Summit.     

Job Creation and Destruction in South Africa

Analysts of the South African labour market have mainly used household surveys to analyse the labour market. It has been more difficult to explore the labour demand of firms, as a result of limited data availability. We use the Quarterly Employment Statistics survey, an enterprise survey conducted by Statistics South Africa, to explore how South African firms create and destroy jobs, thereby shedding light on many of the policy questions that are relevant in a high unemployment society like South Africa. We find that job creation and destruction rates are similar to those found in Organisation for Economic Co‐operation and Development countries. There is little evidence that labour legislation creates rigidities that prevent firms from hiring or firing workers. We also find that larger firms are better net creators of jobs than small firms and that net job creation rates are negative in manufacturing. Our research has important policy implications – particularly for the South African National Planning Commission's 2030 plan, in which new jobs are envisaged to come mainly from small‐ and medium‐sized firms. Our research suggests that this scenario is not likely without changes to policy or legislation.     

Recollections of my Career

Subroto, Professor at the Faculty of Economics, University of Indonesia (FEUI), is one of the architects of the economic policies that brought growing prosperity to Indonesia over the New Order years Educated in Dutch colonial and Japanese occupation schools, he joined Indonesia's independence struggle, and later studied economics at FEUI, McGill University, MIT, and Stanford and Harvard Universities. He taught international economics and business cycles at FEUI and was Secretary of the Faculty. With Widjojo Nitisastro, Mohammad Sadh, Ali Wardhana and Emil Salim, Subroto was appointed a Personal Economic Adviser to General (later President) Soeharto's new government in 1966 In 1968 he joined the Department of Trade, and later was minister of departments responsible for transmigration, cooperatives, mining and energy. After a 17-year ministerial career serving in four consecutive cabinets, Subroto was Secretary General of OPEC for six years from 1988 He remains active in Indonesia's nongovernmental Indonesian Institute for Energy Economics (IIEE), writing on energy problems, and is also Rector of the private Pancasila University in South Jakarta As part of our occasional series of interviews with economists who have helped shape New Order Indonesia, Professor Subroto talked with Chris Manning and Thee Kian VVie of the Bulletin's Editorial Board about his experience as a cabinet minister and as Secretary General of OPEC, and about his views on Indonesia's economic development, particularly its energy problems.     

超越新古典——新兴经济学理论创新概述

最近10多年来，随着一些非主流新兴经济学科的不断发展与成熟，一个新的、超越新古典传统的经济学理论体系正在逐步形成。本文对新兴经济学在研究方法和基本假设方面的创新进行了阐释，这种阐释有助于我们前瞻性地把握经济学未来的发展方向和趋势，有助于中国经济学家尽快融入这场正在不断向纵深发展的理论创新思潮，从而缩短中国经济学研究与国际学术前沿的差距。     

Making the Big Leagues: Factors Contributing to Publication in Elite Economics Journals

Publication in the best journals of ones discipline is for many the equivalent of making the big leagues in sports or performing at Carnegie Hall in the arts. Using individual-specific data collected from 704 economists, this study provides a multivariate analysis of the factors which contribute to publication in top economics journals. By examining only publications in elite journals, the analysis avoids pitfalls associated with weighting the quality of a wide array of journals while maintaining an emphasis on the determinants of excellence in scholarship. Empirical results indicate that many factors impact elite journal publication, including the quality of graduate education, collaboration with colleagues, presenting at professional conferences, teaching commitments, and service work.     

The scholarly output of economists: A description of publishing patterns

This paper analyzes the research productivity of a cohort of economists over the 15 years following receipt of their doctorate degrees, contrasting their results in publishing articles, books, and textbooks after controlling for the individual characteristics of the economists in the sample. Specifically, this paper considers the quality of graduate school, the type of employment, the general area of dissertation research, and the gender of each individual in the cohort. Primary conclusions indicate that scholarly journals are the most important research outlet, and that book production is a complementary activity to output in scholarly journals. Moreover, publishing success is closely related to the quality of the graduate school attended as well as the type of employer. According to this research, women do not face a statistically significant disadvantage to publishing. Finally, the analysis documents that midway through the 15-year time span covered by this study, output begins to decline, reflecting the post-tenure drop-off in research productivity.     

Book Reviews

Book reviewed in this article:
ATKINSON, A. B. Economics of Inequality.
CIPOLLA, C. M. (ed.). The Fontana Economic History of Europe: The Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries.
FINE, B. Marx's Capital.
HAZLEWOOD, A. Economic Integration: The East African Experience (Studies in the Economics of Africa).
HOLLIS, M. and NELL, E. J. Rational Economic Man. A Philosophical Critique of Neo-Classical Economics.
MILLER, M. H. and UPTON, C. W. Macroeconomics: A Neoclassical Introduction.     

Book Reviews

Book reviews in this article:
EARL, P. E. The Economic Imagination - Towards a behavioural analysis of choice
ESHAG. E. Fiscal and Monetary Policies and Problems in Developing Countries
KINDLEBERGER, C. P. A Financial History of Western Europe
LECAILLON, J, et al. Income Distribution and Economic Development
SHONFIELD, A. In Defence of the Mixed Economy
STEIN, L. Trade and Structural Change
YUDELMAN. D. The Emergence of Modern South Africa: State, Capital, and the Incorporation of Organized Labour on the South African Gold Fields, 1902–1929