Measuring Nepotism through Shared Last Names: The Case of Italian Academia

Stefano Allesina

PLOS ONE, 2011, vol. 6, issue 8, 1-6

Abstract: Nepotistic practices are detrimental for academia. Here I show how disciplines with a high likelihood of nepotism can be detected using standard statistical techniques based on shared last names among professors. As an example, I analyze the set of all 61,340 Italian academics. I find that nepotism is prominent in Italy, with particular disciplinary sectors being detected as especially problematic. Out of 28 disciplines, 9 – accounting for more than half of Italian professors – display a significant paucity of last names. Moreover, in most disciplines a clear north-south trend emerges, with likelihood of nepotism increasing with latitude. Even accounting for the geographic clustering of last names, I find that for many disciplines the probability of name-sharing is boosted when professors work in the same institution or sub-discipline. Using these techniques policy makers can target cuts and funding in order to promote fair practices.

Date: 2011
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:plo:pone00:0021160

DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0021160

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