IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jecomi/v10y2022i5p110-d811566.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Committees or Markets? An Exploratory Analysis of Best Paper Awards in Economics

Author

Listed:
  • Franklin G. Mixon

    (Center for Economic Education, Columbus State University, Columbus, GA 31907, USA)

  • Benno Torgler

    (School of Economics and Finance, Queensland University of Technology, Brisbane, QLD 4000, Australia)

  • Kamal P. Upadhyaya

    (Department of Economics, University of New Haven, West Haven, CT 06516, USA)

Abstract

Despite the general usefulness of citations as a sort of test of the value of one’s work in the marketplace of ideas, journals and publishers tend to use alternative bases of judgment, namely committees, in selecting candidates for the conferral of journals’ best paper awards. Given that recognition—sometimes in the form of compensation and on other occasions in the form of awards—in academe is geared toward incentivizing the production of impactful research and not some less desirable goal or outcome, it is important to understand the sensitivity in the outcomes of best paper award selection processes to the types of processes used. To that end, this study compares the selection of best paper awards for journals affiliated with several of the world’s top economic associations by committees to a counterfactual process that is based on citations to published studies. Our statistical exploration indicates that in most cases and for most awards, the most cited paper was not chosen. This requires further discussion as to the core characteristics that quantitatively represent the highest impact.

Suggested Citation

  • Franklin G. Mixon & Benno Torgler & Kamal P. Upadhyaya, 2022. "Committees or Markets? An Exploratory Analysis of Best Paper Awards in Economics," Economies, MDPI, vol. 10(5), pages 1-15, May.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jecomi:v:10:y:2022:i:5:p:110-:d:811566
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2227-7099/10/5/110/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2227-7099/10/5/110/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. repec:cra:wpaper:2014-23 is not listed on IDEAS
    2. Neckermann, Susanne & Cueni, Reto & Frey, Bruno S., 2014. "Awards at work," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 31(C), pages 205-217.
    3. Franklin G. Mixon Jr & Kamal P. Upadhyaya, 2012. "The Economics Olympics: Ranking U.S. Economics Departments Based on Prizes, Medals, and Other Awards," Southern Economic Journal, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 79(1), pages 90-96, July.
    4. Bruno S. Frey & Susanne Neckermann, 2008. "Awards in Economics - Towards a New Field of Inquiry," CREMA Working Paper Series 2008-33, Center for Research in Economics, Management and the Arts (CREMA).
    5. Michael Kosfeld & Susanne Neckermann & Xiaolan Yang, 2017. "The Effects Of Financial And Recognition Incentives Across Work Contexts: The Role Of Meaning," Economic Inquiry, Western Economic Association International, vol. 55(1), pages 237-247, January.
    6. Combes, Pierre-Philippe & Linnemer, Laurent & Visser, Michael, 2008. "Publish or peer-rich? The role of skills and networks in hiring economics professors," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 15(3), pages 423-441, June.
    7. Tom Coupé, 2004. "What Do We Know about Ourselves? on the Economics of Economics," Kyklos, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 57(2), pages 197-215, May.
    8. Tommaso Colussi, 2018. "Social Ties in Academia: A Friend Is a Treasure," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 100(1), pages 45-50, March.
    9. John P. Conley & Ali Sina Onder, 2014. "The Research Productivity of New PhDs in Economics: The Surprisingly High Non-success of the Successful," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 28(3), pages 205-216, Summer.
    10. Franklin G. Mixon & Kamal P. Updahyaya, 2011. "From London to the Continent: Ranking European Economics Departments on the Basis of Prestigious Medals and Awards," Ekonomia, Cyprus Economic Society and University of Cyprus, vol. 14(2), pages 119-126, Winter.
    11. Xiaodan Zhu & Peter Turney & Daniel Lemire & André Vellino, 2015. "Measuring academic influence: Not all citations are equal," Journal of the Association for Information Science & Technology, Association for Information Science & Technology, vol. 66(2), pages 408-427, February.
    12. Daniel S. Hamermesh, 2018. "Citations in Economics: Measurement, Uses, and Impacts," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 56(1), pages 115-156, March.
    13. Kocher, Martin G & Sutter, Matthias, 2001. "The Institutional Concentration of Authors in Top Journals of Economics during the Last Two Decades," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 111(472), pages 405-421, June.
    14. Thelwall, Mike, 2017. "Confidence intervals for normalised citation counts: Can they delimit underlying research capability?," Journal of Informetrics, Elsevier, vol. 11(4), pages 1069-1079.
    15. João R. Faria & Franklin G. Mixon & Kamal P. Upadhyaya, 2016. "Human capital, collegiality, and stardom in economics: empirical analysis," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 106(3), pages 917-943, March.
    16. Ho Fai Chan & Benno Torgler, 2012. "Econometric Fellows and Nobel Laureates in Economics," Economics Bulletin, AccessEcon, vol. 32(4), pages 3365-3377.
    17. Schneider, Jesper W., 2013. "Caveats for using statistical significance tests in research assessments," Journal of Informetrics, Elsevier, vol. 7(1), pages 50-62.
    18. Frey, Bruno & Gallus, Jana, 2017. "Honours versus Money: The Economics of Awards," OUP Catalogue, Oxford University Press, number 9780198798507.
    19. Franklin G. Mixon & Jr. & Kamal P. Upadhyaya, 2019. "Research Productivity and the Ranking of Junior Economics Faculty: An Appraisal of Alternative Metrics," Advances in Management and Applied Economics, SCIENPRESS Ltd, vol. 9(2), pages 1-2.
    20. Kalaitzidakis, P. & Mamuneas, T.P. & Stengos, T., 2003. "Rankings of Academic Journals and Institutions," Working Papers 2003-8, University of Guelph, Department of Economics and Finance.
    21. Pierre-Philippe Combes & Laurent Linnemer & Michael Visser, 2008. "Publish or Peer-rich," Post-Print hal-00558189, HAL.
    22. Ho Fai Chan & Benno Torgler, 2015. "The implications of educational and methodological background for the career success of Nobel laureates: an investigation of major awards," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 102(1), pages 847-863, January.
    23. Ho Fai Chan & Ali Sina Önder & Benno Torgler, 2016. "The first cut is the deepest: repeated interactions of coauthorship and academic productivity in Nobel laureate teams," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 106(2), pages 509-524, February.
    24. Pantelis Kalaitzidakis & Theofanis P. Mamuneas & Thanasis Stengos, 2003. "Rankings of Academic Journals and Institutions in Economics," Journal of the European Economic Association, MIT Press, vol. 1(6), pages 1346-1366, December.
    25. Frey Bruno S. & Gallus Jana, 2014. "The Power of Awards," The Economists' Voice, De Gruyter, vol. 11(1), pages 1-5, November.
    26. Franklin G. Mixon, Jr. & Kamal P. Upadhyaya, 2008. "A Citations-Based Appraisal of New Journals in Economics Education," International Review of Economic Education, Economics Network, University of Bristol, vol. 7(1), pages 36-46.
    27. Tolga Yuret, 2018. "Path to success: an analysis of US educated elite academics in the United States," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 117(1), pages 105-121, October.
    28. Franklin G. Mixon & Benno Torgler & Kamal P. Upadhyaya, 2017. "Scholarly impact and the timing of major awards in economics," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 112(3), pages 1837-1852, September.
    29. João R. FARIA & Franklin G. MIXON, Jr. & Kamal P. UPADHYAYA, 2017. "Human capital and collegiality in academic beehives: Theory and analysis of European Economics faculties," Theoretical and Applied Economics, Asociatia Generala a Economistilor din Romania - AGER, vol. 0(1(610), S), pages 147-162, Spring.
    30. Franklin G. Mixon & Kamal P. Upadhyaya, 2012. "The Economics Olympics: Ranking U.S. Economics Departments Based on Prizes, Medals, and Other Awards," Southern Economic Journal, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 79(1), pages 90-96, July.
    31. Ho Fai Chan & Ali Sina Önder & Benno Torgler, 2015. "Do Nobel laureates change their patterns of collaboration following prize reception?," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 105(3), pages 2215-2235, December.
    32. Feldman, Maryann P & Kelley, Maryellen R, 2003. "Leveraging Research and Development: Assessing the Impact of the U.S. Advanced Technology Program," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 20(2), pages 153-165, March.
    33. Steven D. Levitt & Susanne Neckermann, 2014. "What field experiments have and have not taught us about managing workers," Oxford Review of Economic Policy, Oxford University Press and Oxford Review of Economic Policy Limited, vol. 30(4), pages 639-657.
    34. Diana Hicks & Paul Wouters & Ludo Waltman & Sarah de Rijcke & Ismael Rafols, 2015. "Bibliometrics: The Leiden Manifesto for research metrics," Nature, Nature, vol. 520(7548), pages 429-431, April.
    35. Franklin G. Mixon & Kamal P. Upadhyaya, 2016. "Ranking economics departments in the US South: an update," Applied Economics Letters, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 23(17), pages 1224-1228, November.
    36. Frey Bruno S. & Neckermann Susanne, 2009. "Abundant but Neglected: Awards as Incentives," The Economists' Voice, De Gruyter, vol. 6(2), pages 1-4, February.
    37. Franklin Mixon & Kamal Upadhyaya, 2001. "Ranking economics departments in the US South," Applied Economics Letters, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 8(2), pages 115-119.
    38. João R. FARIA & Franklin G. MIXON, Jr. & Kamal P. UPADHYAYA, 2017. "Human capital and collegiality in academic beehives: Theory and analysis of European Economics faculties," Theoretical and Applied Economics, Asociatia Generala a Economistilor din Romania / Editura Economica, vol. 0(1(610), S), pages 147-162, Spring.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Franklin G. Mixon & Benno Torgler & Kamal P. Upadhyaya, 2017. "Scholarly impact and the timing of major awards in economics," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 112(3), pages 1837-1852, September.
    2. Ho F. Chan & Franklin G. Mixon & Benno Torgler, 2018. "Relation of early career performance and recognition to the probability of winning the Nobel Prize in economics," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 114(3), pages 1069-1086, March.
    3. Konstantinos Chatzimichael & Pantelis Kalaitzidakis & Vangelis Tzouvelekas, 2017. "Measuring the publishing productivity of economics departments in Europe," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 113(2), pages 889-908, November.
    4. Ho Fai Chan & Franklin G. Mixon & Benno Torgler, 2019. "Fame in the sciences: a culturomics approach," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 118(2), pages 605-615, February.
    5. João R. Faria & Franklin G. Mixon & Kamal P. Upadhyaya, 2016. "Human capital, collegiality, and stardom in economics: empirical analysis," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 106(3), pages 917-943, March.
    6. Franklin G. Mixon & Kamal P. Upadhyaya, 2024. "When forgiveness beats permission: Exploring the scholarly ethos of clinical faculty in economics," American Journal of Economics and Sociology, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 83(1), pages 75-91, January.
    7. Ho Fai Chan & Benno Torgler, 2020. "Gender differences in performance of top cited scientists by field and country," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 125(3), pages 2421-2447, December.
    8. Franklin G. Mixon & Jr. & Kamal P. Upadhyaya, 2019. "Research Productivity and the Ranking of Junior Economics Faculty: An Appraisal of Alternative Metrics," Advances in Management and Applied Economics, SCIENPRESS Ltd, vol. 9(2), pages 1-2.
    9. Erich Battistin & Marco Ovidi, 2022. "Rising Stars: Expert Reviews and Reputational Yardsticks in the Research Excellence Framework," Economica, London School of Economics and Political Science, vol. 89(356), pages 830-848, October.
    10. Püttmann, Vitus & Thomsen, Stephan L. & Trunzer, Johannes, 2020. "Zur Relevanz von Ausstattungsunterschieden für Forschungsleistungsvergleiche: Ein Diskussionsbeitrag für die Wirtschaftswissenschaften in Deutschland," Hannover Economic Papers (HEP) dp-679, Leibniz Universität Hannover, Wirtschaftswissenschaftliche Fakultät, revised Mar 2021.
    11. James J. Heckman & Sidharth Moktan, 2020. "Publishing and Promotion in Economics: The Tyranny of the Top Five," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 58(2), pages 419-470, June.
    12. Richard S. J. Tol, 2022. "Rise of the Kniesians: the professor-student network of Nobel laureates in economics," The European Journal of the History of Economic Thought, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 29(4), pages 680-703, July.
    13. Chan, Ho Fai & Frey, Bruno S. & Gallus, Jana & Torgler, Benno, 2014. "Academic honors and performance," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 31(C), pages 188-204.
    14. Franklin G. Mixon & Kamal P. Updahyaya, 2011. "From London to the Continent: Ranking European Economics Departments on the Basis of Prestigious Medals and Awards," Ekonomia, Cyprus Economic Society and University of Cyprus, vol. 14(2), pages 119-126, Winter.
    15. Ali Sina Önder & Sascha Schweitzer, 2017. "Catching up or falling behind? Promising changes and persistent patterns across cohorts of economics PhDs in German-speaking countries from 1991 to 2008," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 110(3), pages 1297-1331, March.
    16. João Ricardo Faria & Franklin G. Mixon & William C. Sawyer, 2023. "Human Capital, Networks and Segmentation in the Market for Academic Economists," Economies, MDPI, vol. 11(6), pages 1-15, June.
    17. John H. Huston & Roger W. Spencer, 2018. "Using Network Centrality to Inform Our View of Nobel Economists," Eastern Economic Journal, Palgrave Macmillan;Eastern Economic Association, vol. 44(4), pages 616-628, September.
    18. Elisabeth Maria Schlagberger & Lutz Bornmann & Johann Bauer, 2016. "At what institutions did Nobel laureates do their prize-winning work? An analysis of biographical information on Nobel laureates from 1994 to 2014," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 109(2), pages 723-767, November.
    19. Ho Fai Chan & Franklin G. Mixon & Jayanta Sarkar & Benno Torgler, 2022. "Recognition and longevity: an examination of award timing and lifespan in Nobel laureates," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 127(6), pages 3629-3659, June.
    20. Raffaele Miniaci & Michele Pezzoni, 2020. "Social connections and editorship in economics," Canadian Journal of Economics/Revue canadienne d'économique, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 53(3), pages 1292-1317, August.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jecomi:v:10:y:2022:i:5:p:110-:d:811566. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.