The Micro-Geography of Academic Research:How Distinctive is Economics?

John Gibson

Working Papers in Economics from University of Waikato

Abstract: This study examines micro-geographic clustering of academic research, focusing on economics. Three U.S. ZIP codes are associated with articles in the top five economics journals that garnered one-half of all citations to the articles published in these journals over 2000 to 2015. This remarkable degree of micro-geographic concentration is not apparent in any other discipline. Outside of economics the top three ZIP codes are associated with just 12% of citations to their top five journals, on average. 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 distinctively high level of spatial concentration in economics research is not consistent with hypotheses about disciplinary differences stemming from market forces or from reliance on research infrastructure located in specific locations.

Keywords: citations; economics; micro-geography; scientometrics; spatial concentration (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: A12 R12 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 22 pages
Date: 2018-02-21
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-geo, nep-hme, nep-sog and nep-ure
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

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Journal Article: The micro‐geography of academic research: How distinctive is economics? (2021)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:wai:econwp:18/03

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