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The strategies of economic research - An empirical study

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  • Martin Paldam

    (Department of Economics and Business Economics, Aarhus University, Denmark)

Abstract

The paper analyzes the structure of strategies of economic research on a sample of all regular research papers in 10 general interest journals every 5th year from 1997 to 2017. It is 3,415 papers, with an annual upward trend of 3.3%. I have classified the papers into eight categories: The fraction in theory and empirics are almost equal large. Most empiric papers use the classic strategy, which derives an operational model from theory and run regressions. Several trends are highly significant - notably two main ones: The fraction of theoretical papers has fallen by 26 pp (percentage points), while the fraction of papers using the classic strategy has increased by 15 pp. Many papers using the classic strategy have been analyzed using meta-analysis, which show that the typical paper exaggerate the results reported substantially. There is no reason to believe that other strategies have smaller problems.

Suggested Citation

  • Martin Paldam, 2018. "The strategies of economic research - An empirical study," Economics Working Papers 2018-04, Department of Economics and Business Economics, Aarhus University.
    • Handle: RePEc:aah:aarhec:2018-04
    as

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    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Christoph Engel, 2011. "Dictator games: a meta study," Experimental Economics, Springer;Economic Science Association, vol. 14(4), pages 583-610, November.
    2. Garret Christensen & Edward Miguel, 2018. "Transparency, Reproducibility, and the Credibility of Economics Research," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 56(3), pages 920-980, September.
    3. Doucouliagos, Hristos & Paldam, Martin & Stanley, T.D., 2018. "Skating on thin evidence: Implications for public policy," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 54(C), pages 16-25.
    4. Lenka Fiala & Sigrid Suetens, 2017. "Transparency and cooperation in repeated dilemma games: a meta study," Experimental Economics, Springer;Economic Science Association, vol. 20(4), pages 755-771, December.
    5. Bergh, Andreas & Wichardt, Philipp C., 2018. "Mine, Ours or Yours? Unintended Framing Effects in Dictator Games," Working Paper Series 1205, Research Institute of Industrial Economics.
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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Research strategies; survey of journals;

    JEL classification:

    • A14 - General Economics and Teaching - - General Economics - - - Sociology of Economics
    • B41 - Schools of Economic Thought and Methodology - - Economic Methodology - - - Economic Methodology

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