Methods used in economic research. An empirical study of trends and levels

Martin Paldam

No 19-002, Working Papers CEB from ULB -- Universite Libre de Bruxelles

Abstract: The methodological approaches used in economic research are analyzed on a sample of all 3,415 regular research papers published in 10 general interest journals every 5th year from 1997 to 2017. The number of papers published increases by 3.3% p.a. The papers are classified into three main groups with eight sub-groups: The main groups of theory and empirics are almost equally large. Most empiric papers use the classic method, which derives an operational model from theory and run regressions. Two main trends are highly significant: The fraction of theoretical papers has fallen by 26 pp (percentage points), while the fraction of papers using the classic method has increased by 15 pp. Almost 10% papers using the classic method have been analyzed using meta-analysis, which show that the results reported in the typical paper are exaggerated. There is little reason to believe that other methods have smaller problems.

Keywords: Research methods; Survey of journals (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: A14 B41 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 22 p.
Date: 2019-01-07
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