IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/wly/mgtdec/v29y2008i8p609-618.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Ability and specialization among economic researchers

Author

Listed:
  • Todd D. Kendall

    (The John E. Walker, Department of Economics, Clemson University, Clemson, SC, USA)

Abstract

It is not obvious whether a firm's more talented workers should be more specialized, and in fact, the relationship between ability and specialization seems to differ across industries. In this paper, I examine the case of knowledge production in economic research, and find that abler economists tend to publish more general research. This result suggests substitutability between general and specialized skill in research. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Suggested Citation

  • Todd D. Kendall, 2008. "Ability and specialization among economic researchers," Managerial and Decision Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 29(8), pages 609-618.
    • Handle: RePEc:wly:mgtdec:v:29:y:2008:i:8:p:609-618
    DOI: 10.1002/mde.1424
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1002/mde.1424
    File Function: Link to full text; subscription required
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1002/mde.1424?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Paglin, Morton & Rufolo, Anthony M, 1990. "Heterogeneous Human Capital, Occupational Choice, and Male-Female Earnings Differences," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 8(1), pages 123-144, January.
    2. Clive Beed & Cara Beed, 1996. "Measuring the Quality of Academic Journals: The Case of Economics," Journal of Post Keynesian Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 18(3), pages 369-396, March.
    3. Scott, Loren C & Mitias, Peter M, 1996. "Trends in Rankings of Economics Departments in the U.S.: An Update," Economic Inquiry, Western Economic Association International, vol. 34(2), pages 378-400, April.
    4. 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.
    5. Gaines H. Liner, 2002. "Core Journals in Economics," Economic Inquiry, Western Economic Association International, vol. 40(1), pages 138-145, January.
    6. Jerry G. Thursby, 2000. "What Do We Say about Ourselves and What Does It Mean? Yet Another Look at Economics Department Research," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 38(2), pages 383-404, June.
    7. Glenn Ellison, 2002. "The Slowdown of the Economics Publishing Process," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 110(5), pages 947-993, October.
    8. Edward P. Lazear, 2000. "Economic Imperialism," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 115(1), pages 99-146.
    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. Michael J. Hilmer & Christiana E. Hilmer, 2009. "Fishes, Ponds, And Productivity: Student‐Advisor Matching And Early Career Publishing Success For Economics Phds," Economic Inquiry, Western Economic Association International, vol. 47(2), pages 290-303, April.
    2. Richard Pomfret & Liang Choon Wang, 2003. "Evaluating The Research Output Of Australian Universities' Economics Departments," Australian Economic Papers, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 42(4), pages 418-441, December.
    3. 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.
    4. Kim, E. Han & Morse, Adair & Zingales, Luigi, 2006. "Are Elite Universities Losing Their Competitive Edge?," Working Papers 210, The University of Chicago Booth School of Business, George J. Stigler Center for the Study of the Economy and the State.
    5. Kim, E. Han & Morse, Adair & Zingales, Luigi, 2009. "Are elite universities losing their competitive edge?," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 93(3), pages 353-381, September.
    6. Nicholas G. Rupp, 2002. "The Publication Patterns of the Elite Economics Departments: 1995-2000," Eastern Economic Journal, Eastern Economic Association, vol. 28(4), pages 523-538, Fall.
    7. Jerry G. Thursby, 2000. "What Do We Say about Ourselves and What Does It Mean? Yet Another Look at Economics Department Research," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 38(2), pages 383-404, June.
    8. Joseph Macri & Dipendra Sinha, 2006. "Rankings Methodology for International Comparisons of Institutions and Individuals: an Application to Economics in Australia and New Zealand," Journal of Economic Surveys, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 20(1), pages 111-156, February.
    9. Anne E Winkler & Sharon G Levin & Paula E Stephan & Wolfgang Gl&aauml;nzel, 2014. "Publishing Trends in Economics across Colleges and Universities, 1991–2007," Eastern Economic Journal, Palgrave Macmillan;Eastern Economic Association, vol. 40(4), pages 560-582, September.
    10. Liran Einav & Leeat Yariv, 2006. "What's in a Surname? The Effects of Surname Initials on Academic Success," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 20(1), pages 175-187, Winter.
    11. João Ricardo Faria & Damien Besancenot & Andreas J. Novak, 2011. "Paradigm Depletion, Knowledge Production And Research Effort: Considering Thomas Kuhn'S Ideas," Metroeconomica, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 62(4), pages 587-604, November.
    12. Joseph Macri & Michael McAleer & Dipendra Sinha, 2010. "On the robustness of alternative rankings methodologies: Australian and New Zealand economics departments, 1988 to 2002," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 42(10), pages 1257-1268.
    13. Mirucki, Jean & Nicot, Bernadette & Poshyvak, Maria, 2007. "What Can EconLit Reveal Us About Ukraine's Scholarly Production?," MPRA Paper 27717, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    14. Paul Gopuran Devassy Bino & Sasidharan Subash & Ananthakrishnan Ramanathan, 2005. "Concentration in Knowledge Output: A case of Economics Journals," European Journal of Comparative Economics, Cattaneo University (LIUC), vol. 2(2), pages 261-279, December.
    15. James B. Davies & Martin G. Kocher & Matthias Sutter, 2008. "Economics research in Canada: a long-run assessment of journal publications," Canadian Journal of Economics, Canadian Economics Association, vol. 41(1), pages 22-45, February.
    16. Azar, Ofer H., 2007. "Behavioral economics and socio-economics journals: A citation-based ranking," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics (formerly The Journal of Socio-Economics), Elsevier, vol. 36(3), pages 451-462, June.
    17. repec:ner:leuven:urn:hdl:123456789/327130 is not listed on IDEAS
    18. Joseph Macri & Dipendra Sinha, 2010. "How much influence do economics professors have on rankings? The case of Australia and New Zealand," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 42(12), pages 1559-1567.
    19. Stephen Wu, 2007. "Recent publishing trends at the AER, JPE and QJE," Applied Economics Letters, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 14(1), pages 59-63.
    20. Carayol, Nicolas & Matt, Mireille, 2006. "Individual and collective determinants of academic scientists' productivity," Information Economics and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 18(1), pages 55-72, March.
    21. Seiler, Christian & Wohlrabe, Klaus, 2012. "Ranking economists on the basis of many indicators: An alternative approach using RePEc data," Journal of Informetrics, Elsevier, vol. 6(3), pages 389-402.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    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:wly:mgtdec:v:29:y:2008:i:8:p:609-618. 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: Wiley Content Delivery (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www3.interscience.wiley.com/cgi-bin/jhome/7976 .

    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.