Twitter and Citations

Ho Fai Chan, Ali Onder, Sascha Schweitzer and Benno Torgler
Additional contact information
Sascha Schweitzer: Reutlingen University
Benno Torgler: Queensland University of Technology

No 2023-04, Working Papers in Economics & Finance from University of Portsmouth, Portsmouth Business School, Economics and Finance Subject Group

Abstract: Social media, especially Twitter, plays an increasingly important role among researchers in showcasing and promoting their research. Does Twitter affect academic citations? Making use of Twitter activity about columns published on VoxEU, a renowned online platform for economists, we develop an instrumental variable strategy to show that Twitter activity about a research paper has a causal effect on the number of citations that this paper will receive. We find that the existence of at least one tweet, as opposed to none, leads to 16-25% more citations. Doubling the overall Twitter engagement generates up to 16% more citations.

Keywords: Productivity; Social Media; Twitter; Citations; Economists (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: J24 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 13
Date: 2023-06-19
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-pay and nep-sog
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:pbs:ecofin:2023-04

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