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The Economics of Citation

Author

Listed:
  • Jeong-Yoo Kim

    (Kyung Hee University)

  • Insik Min

    (Kyung Hee University)

  • Christian Zimmermann

    (University of Connecticut)

Abstract

This paper studies the citation decision of a scientific author. When an author can make his argument more persuasive by citing a related work, this is called the correlation effect. On the other hand, when an author cites someone else’s work, he gives the impression that he views the cited author as more competent than himself; this is called the signaling effect. These two effects are the main causes of citation bias. Using data from Research Papers in Economics or RePEc, a decentralized database of working papers, journal articles and professional books, we empirically show that a citation bias exists in this field. The empirical finding is obtained by controlling for many variables that affect citation patterns, such as network factors (co-authorship and an author’s affiliation) and language.

Suggested Citation

  • Jeong-Yoo Kim & Insik Min & Christian Zimmermann, 2011. "The Economics of Citation," Korean Economic Review, Korean Economic Association, vol. 27, pages 93-114.
    • Handle: RePEc:kea:keappr:ker-20110630-27-1-05
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    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Christian Zimmermann, 2013. "Academic Rankings with RePEc," Econometrics, MDPI, vol. 1(3), pages 1-32, December.
    2. Jerry R. Green & Suzanne Scotchmer, 1995. "On the Division of Profit in Sequential Innovation," RAND Journal of Economics, The RAND Corporation, vol. 26(1), pages 20-33, Spring.
    3. Trueman, Brett, 1994. "Analyst Forecasts and Herding Behavior," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 7(1), pages 97-124.
    4. Jeong‐Yoo Kim & Jinho Park, 2006. "On Prejudice," Scottish Journal of Political Economy, Scottish Economic Society, vol. 53(4), pages 505-522, September.
    5. Peter Senn, 2005. "Influence and the Referee Process," European Journal of Law and Economics, Springer, vol. 19(2), pages 199-206, April.
    6. Stigler, George J & Friedland, Claire, 1975. "The Citation Practices of Doctorates in Economics," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 83(3), pages 477-507, June.
    7. Bikhchandani, Sushil & Hirshleifer, David & Welch, Ivo, 1992. "A Theory of Fads, Fashion, Custom, and Cultural Change in Informational Cascades," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 100(5), pages 992-1026, October.
    8. Wright, Malcolm & Armstrong, J. Scott, 2007. "Verification of Citations: Fawlty Towers of Knowledge?," MPRA Paper 4149, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    9. Abhijit V. Banerjee, 1992. "A Simple Model of Herd Behavior," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 107(3), pages 797-817.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Blog mentions

    As found by EconAcademics.org, the blog aggregator for Economics research:
    1. Economics of Citation
      by Amol Agrawal in Mostly Economics on 2008-08-25 17:22:53

    Citations

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    Cited by:

    1. Ferda, HALICIOGLU, 2014. "Research Ranking Place of Turkish Economists in the World," MPRA Paper 54058, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    2. Tol, Richard S.J., 2013. "The Matthew effect for cohorts of economists," Journal of Informetrics, Elsevier, vol. 7(2), pages 522-527.
    3. David L. Anderson & John Tressler, 2013. "The Relevance of the “h-” and “g-” Index to Economics in the Context of A Nation-Wide Research Evaluation Scheme: The New Zealand Case," Economic Papers, The Economic Society of Australia, vol. 32(1), pages 81-94, March.
    4. David Anderson & John Tressler, 2018. "The Impact of Citation Timing: A Framework and Examples," Review of Economics and Institutions, Università di Perugia, vol. 9(2).
    5. Arye Hillman & Ngo Van Long, 2017. "The social cost of contestable benefits," CIRANO Working Papers 2017s-11, CIRANO.
    6. Arye L. Hillman & Ngo Van Long, 2017. "Rent Seeking: The Social Cost of Contestable Benefits," CESifo Working Paper Series 6462, CESifo.
    7. David L. Anderson & John Tressler, 2017. "Researcher rank stability across alternative output measurement schemes in the context of a time limited research evaluation: the New Zealand case," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 49(45), pages 4542-4553, September.
    8. Arye L. Hillman & Heinrich W. Ursprung, 2016. "Academic exclusion: some experiences," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 167(1), pages 1-20, April.
    9. Shi Young Lee & Sanghack Lee & Sung Hee Jun, 2010. "Author and article characteristics, journal quality and citation in economic research," Applied Economics Letters, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 17(17), pages 1697-1701.
    10. François Larmande & Jean-Pierre Ponssard, 2004. "EVA and the Controllability-congruence Trade-off: An Empirical Investigation," CESifo Working Paper Series 1257, CESifo.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Citation Bias; Correlation Effect; Signaling Effect; Strategy;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • D81 - Microeconomics - - Information, Knowledge, and Uncertainty - - - Criteria for Decision-Making under Risk and Uncertainty

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