The micro-geography of academic research: How distinctive is economics?

This study examines micro-geographic clustering in the production and recognition of academic research. Three U.S. ZIP codes are associated with over 40 percent of articles in the top five economics journals and those articles garnered one-half of all citations in these journals from 2000 to 2015. Such micro-geographic concentration is not apparent in other disciplines, even those like chemistry that rely on specialized laboratories. Concentration of citations to economics articles whose authors are associated with a few key ZIP codes has strengthened over time, even as it has weakened for other disciplines. This micro-geographic concentration may increase systemic risk by reducing the diversity of economics research that is published and cited and may lead to insufficient research attention to local context.