A bibliometric account of Chinese economics research through the lens of the China Economic Review

Very few studies on the assessment and evolution of Chinese economics research draw on quantitative methods, namely bibliometrics. Bibliometrics is a powerful tool that helps to explore, organize and analyze large amounts of information in a quantitative manner. Selecting the most important economic journal focusing on the Chinese economy – the China Economic Review (CER) – we classified and assessed all the (512) articles that have been published in CER from its founding (1989) to December 2010. Based on these articles, and undertaking an exploratory statistical analysis on three databases – a ‘bibliographic’ database (512 articles), a ‘roots’ database (over 10 thousand citations), and an ‘influence’ database (over 3 thousand citations), we concluded that: 1) ‘Economic Development, Technological Change, and Growth’; ‘Economic Systems’, and ‘International economics’ are the most important topics for Chinese economics literature; 2) there is a trend in Chinese economics research for growing ‘rigor’, associated to a noticeable rise in the weight of formal/mathematical-based articles; 3) the ‘International economics’ topic does not influence nor is it influenced by Chinese economics literature; and 4) Chinese economics literature is characterized by a certain level of endogamy, given that its range of influence is rather concentrated (geographically) in China and the USA.     

Ranking U.S. Economics Programs by Faculty and Graduate Publications: An Update Using 1994–2009 Data

This article ranks academic institutions by pages published in top economics journals over the 1994–2001 and 2002–2009 periods. Because it uses a methodology similar to several earlier articles, this article permits a consideration of how institutions' ranks have changed over the past 35 years. I construct rankings based on publications by individuals affiliated with each institution, by faculty members in the economics departments at each institution, and by alumni of each doctoral program. With few exceptions, the positions of programs near the top of the rankings change little over time. However, much more dramatic changes in rank occur for lower‐ranked institutions.     

Coauthorship and publication efficiency

This study extends a recent paper by Jean Louis Heck and Peter A. Zaleski [1991] on trends in economics journal publication from 1969–89. The primary purpose of the work is to analyze the impact on article production of an observed dramatically increasing tendency toward coauthorship among scholars in economics. A simple model is tested with total (per capita) articles as a function of time, American Economic Association (AEA) membership, and articles coauthored per year. Results suggest that the increasing trend toward coauthorship enhances productivity in total and per-capita article production. The authors would like to thank Gary Shelley, Janet K. Smith, Peter Zaleski, and an anonymous referee for comments on previous versions of this paper.     

Core authors and rankings in economics

This study ranks contributors to the economics profession using the textbook citation method. A survey of professors in 35 top-tier departments of economics produced a list of the most often used graduate-level microeconomics, macroeconomics, and econometrics texts. The textbooks identified from the survey are evaluated in this study for citations to journal articles. Authors of journal articles cited in textbooks are ranked according to the number of times their works are cited in textbooks. The results are compared to the findings of recent studies using different methods. Different methodologies are found to produce significantly different results.     

Editorial Favoritism in Economics?

Are articles by authors with institutional connections or personal ties to the publishing journal's editor(s)/coeditors of lower quality than those authored without such connections? Examination of articles published in six core economics journals in 1990 found that articles authored by those with such connections, especially service on the publishing journal's editorial board, are statistically and numerically of higher quality than articles by those without such connections. In addition, this quality difference does not decrease over time.     

The fallacy of Washington consensus and the role of the Government: interpreting some Chinese contributions to development policy from aspects of Chang’e 4

Students of economics may have heard of that economics, especially the kind of mainstream neoclassical economics taught in most universities on earth today, is an imitation of physical science in some fundamental fashion. However, few economists would imagine that economics can be as effective as physical science, not even in the remote future. China’s Chang’e 4 mission to the far side of the Moon provides a golden opportunity for economists to explore this fascinating possibility from the aspect of astrodynamics.

This article, inspired by thoughts of Justin Yifu Lin and Angang Hu among others regarding China’s economic reform, demonstrates that physics explaining the Three-Body Problem of classical mechanics may as well be understood as guiding principles when dealing with issues in development economics. Several aspects of ‘Washington consensus’ are examined in relation to the concerns raised by Chinese scholars. The study concludes that neoliberal interpretations of modern economics are basically inconsistent with the neoclassical framework outlined in standard economics textbooks.     

Theory versus Application: Does Complexity Crowd Out Evidence?

Donald F. Gordon hypothesized that mathematical complexity in economics is inversely related to operational ism. Here we (i) operationalize Gordon's hypothesis, (ii) test for the significance of trends in complexity for the American Economic Review, Economic Journal, Journal of Political Economy, and Quarterly Journal of Economics, and (iii) test Gordon's hypothesis hy conducting analyses of the contents of articles from the American Economic Review (AER), as well as the contents of articles citing the AER articles. The results do not refute the hypothesis that complexity crowds out operationalism in economics. Additionally, the presence of significant, positive trends toward complexity suggests that the magnitude of the crowding out is on the rise in these journals.     

Terrorism and its Determinants in the Sub‐Saharan Africa Region: Some New Insights

Terrorism is undesirable as it adversely affects the economic development of countries. This study explores the determinants of terrorism in 29 countries of sub‐Saharan Africa (SSA). The data is extracted from reliable sources spanning over 2005 to 2016. Econometric techniques relevant for panel data that control for unobserved heterogeneity (fixed effects) and endogeneity (generalized method of moment) are employed to estimate the specified models. The results indicated that low growth in per capita incomes along with political instability are the main driving forces responsible for terrorism. Similarly, military expenditures are influencing terrorism positively whereas corruption has impacted terrorism negatively in the SSA region. Further, the growth of both physical as well as human capital reduces terrorism. The paper suggests that the region should take appropriate steps for increasing income of the population, education and capital stock, along with ensuring political stability to eradicate terrorism from the region.     

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.     

河北省农村公共物品供给机制研究

当前农村公共物品供给严重不足,阻碍了城乡一体化建设的快速推进。文章通过对河北省现状的实地调查,指出了当前河北省农村公共物品供给所存在的主要问题,并进行了深入地分析。在此基础上,尝试探讨和构建一套新的农村公共物品供给机制,以期对河北省农村公共物品的供给提供一定的理论指导。     

The impact of terrorism on public debt in African countries

Given the increase in the number of terrorist attacks in African countries, a better understanding of the relationship between terrorism, the informal economy and public debt is essential for policymakers. The model is empirically tested for 47 countries during the period 1996–2015. We use ordinary least squares (OLS), random effects (ER) and system generalized method of moments (GMM). Three terrorism indicators are used: the uncertain, the domestic, and the transnational. The results confirm that the rise in terrorism and the informal economy lead to an increase in public debt. The results also show that the informal economy magnifies the effect of terrorism on public debt. In addition, the results suggest that a larger informal economy reduces income taxes and therefore increases public debt and the increase in public spending reinforces the effects of terrorism on public debt. The reduction of terrorism should therefore be governments’ primary political objective. Given the detected complementarity between terrorism and the informal economy, the reduction of terrorism would also reduce the size of the informal economy and the public debt. The reduction of terrorism will also minimize the harmful effects of terrorism on public debt through public spending.     

Impact of Terrorism on Cross-Border Mergers and Acquisitions (M&As): Prevalence,Frequency and Intensity

This paper contributes to the literature on the impact of terrorism on international business by focusing on the specific case of cross-border mergers and acquisitions (M&As) using bilateral data for 59 countries over the period 2000–2011. We are interested in the following set of questions: (a) the impact of source and host country terrorism on bilateral M&A flows using various measures of terrorism (i.e. prevalence, frequency and intensity); (b) whether terrorism affects developing countries differently; (c) whether good institutions in developing host countries can offset the negative effects of terrorism; and (d) whether terrorism incidents in a particular economy has negative spillovers to its neighbors. To preview the main conclusions, we find that an augmented gravity model fits the data well. While the occurrence of terrorism in either the host or source does not appear to have any impact on bilateral M&A, the frequency and intensity of terrorist attacks significantly deter M&A flows, especially in the latter. We also find that good institutions negate the impact of terrorist attacks in the developing host country. There is also some evidence that regional spillovers reduce M&As in the host country.     

In honor of Michael Grossman

This symposium is to celebrate the accomplishments of Michael Grossman on the occasion of his retirement from teaching. The articles selected are all written by Mike's former students and colleagues, and were presented in a session at the 2017 Annual Meeting of the Southern Economic Association. Each of the articles celebrate Mike's scholarly legacy in developing the field of health economics.     

医生薪酬激励的行为和实验经济学研究进展

医疗卫生行业供给侧改革的一个重要方面是医生的诊疗服务,而医生的行为受到薪酬支付方式及其激励机制的影响。近年来实验研究方法在卫生经济学领域得到了广泛运用,并在医生薪酬激励方面取得一系列重要的研究成果。主要包括关于按服务项目付费、按人头付费和固定工资三种基本的医疗行业薪酬支付方式的实验研究,以及对绩效工资这一经济性激励手段和公开报告等非经济性激励手段展开的实验研究。文章围绕基本支付方式、经济性激励和非经济性激励等三种影响医生行为的薪酬激励机制,对相关的行为和实验经济学研究进行了较为系统地梳理。同时总结了从现有的行为和实验研究中可能得到的启示,并展望了未来可能的研究方向。     

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.     

Farm household economics: Some policy implications for emergent farmers in Southern Africa

Farm household economics recognises the fact that production and consumption decisions are made jointly by small farm (ie surplus‐producing) households. This phenomenon is of particular importance in areas where small farm households predominate.

Most empirical applications of farm household economics have been directed at measuring the effects of price changes on consumption and have relied on the ‘separable’ approach in deriving estimates. This approach assumes that production decisions always precede consumption decisions with farm households treated as profit maximizers in production and utility maximizers in consumption. Results have clearly demonstrated consumption responses smaller than estimates based on consumer theory alone.

Although many researchers regard mathematical programming as a potentially suitable tool for simulating smallholder behaviour, proponents of new household economics would be reluctant to accept any model that does not (a) maximize utility (rather than profit) and (b) capture the ‘profit effect’ which variations in product prices have on the farm household's full‐income constraint. Attempts to include these basic postulates of farm household economics in programming models are in progress.     

Digital economy and regulatory issues. Introduction

This special issue contributes to the topical field of Internet economics. The articles focus on multi-platform competition, the changing role of telecommunications regulation, issues of net neutrality, and open source software and innovation.     

中国产业竞争力研究现状、差距与展望

采用结构化的程序和方法,对2000—2009年10年来国内产业竞争力（产业国际竞争力）相关的研究进行考察,通过检阅NSFC管理科学部认定30种重要学术期刊和CSSCI管理学和经济学部分期刊,最终确认了20种国内经济与管理研究领域的一流学术期刊和92篇与产业竞争力有关的文章为研究对象,对文章类型、理论、方法的研究进行归纳和分析,发现国内产业竞争力研究主要集中于文献综述、评价指标与方法、影响因素和提升路径等方面。通过回顾国外产业竞争力研究的发展趋势,阐述了我国产业竞争力研究的可能发展方向。     

Fame and the fortune of academic economists: How the market rewards influential research in economics

We analyze the pay and position of 1009 faculty members who teach in doctoral‐granting economics departments at 53 large public universities in the United States. Using the Web of Science, we have identified the journal articles published by these scholars and the number of times each of these articles has been subsequently cited in published research articles. We find that research influence, as measured by various measures of total citations, is a remarkably strong predictor of the salary and the prestige of the department in which professors are employed. We also examine the effect of coauthorship. Surprisingly, we find no salary penalty for sharing authorship; however, in terms of prestige of employing department, coauthorship is fully discounted.     

Exploiting the Chaos: Terrorist Target Choice Following Natural Disasters

This article explores the differences between transnational and domestic terrorism, further differentiating by private versus government targets, to estimate the effect of exogenous catastrophic shocks on a country's level of domestic and transnational terrorism. The empirical analysis uses detailed data on terrorism, natural disasters, and other relevant controls for 176 countries from 1970–2007 to illuminate several key disparities in a postdisaster target choice of terrorists. The results indicate that natural disasters incite both transnational and domestic terrorism; however, evidence is found for dissimilar motivations between the two. While both types of terrorism increase after disasters, transnational attacks against the government increase immediately following the disaster, suggesting an impetus to exploit weakened “hard” targets during the chaos. Conversely, domestic terrorism against the government takes longer to manifest, suggesting a period of time for which the public recovers and assesses the government's response.