Incentives and the Effects of Publication Lags on Life Cycle Research Productivity in Economics

John Conley, Mario Crucini (), Robert Driskill and Ali Onder

No 1122, Vanderbilt University Department of Economics Working Papers from Vanderbilt University Department of Economics

Abstract: We investigate how increases in publication delays have affected the life-cycle of publications of recent Ph.D. graduates in economics. We construct a panel dataset of 14,271 individuals who were awarded Ph.D.s between 1986 and 2000 in US and Canadian economics departments. For this population of scholars, we amass complete records of publications in peer reviewed journals listed in the JEL (a total of 368,672 observations). We find evidence of significantly diminished productivity in recent relative to earlier cohorts when productivity of an individual is measured by the number of AER equivalent publications. Diminished productivity is less evident when number of AER equivalent pages is used instead. Our findings are consistent with earlier empirical findings of increasing editorial delays, decreasing acceptance rates at journals, and a trend toward longer manuscripts. This decline in productivity is evident in both graduates of top thirty and non-top thirty ranked economics departments and may have important implications for what should constitute a tenurable record. We also find that the research rankings of the faculty do not line up with the research quality of their students in many cases.

Keywords: Academia; Economists; Research Productivity; Performance Evaluation; Tenure Process; Graduate Programs; Department Rankings (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: A11 A23 J24 J29 J44 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2011-11
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-eff, nep-hrm and nep-sog
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (9)

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http://www.accessecon.com/pubs/VUECON/vu11-w22.pdf First version, November 2011 (application/pdf)

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Working Paper: Incentives and the Effects of Publication Lags on Life Cycle Research Productivity in Economics (2011)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:van:wpaper:1122

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