IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/ces/ceswps/_1673.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Evaluation of Researchers: A Life Cycle Analysis of German Academic Economists

Author

Listed:
  • Michael Rauber
  • Heinrich Ursprung

Abstract

In this paper we ague that any meaningful bibliometric evaluation of researchers needs to take into account that research productivity follows distinct life cycles. Using an encompassing data set portraying the research behavior of German academic economists, we first show that research productivity crucially depends on career age and vintage. Based on the identified effects, we develop a simple formula that shows how a researcher’s performance compares to that of his or her peers. This kind of information may serve as an input for performance-related remuneration and track-record based allocation of research grants. We then go on to investigate the persistence of individual productivity. The Persistence issue is of special importance in the academic labor market because of the irrevocable nature of tenure. Finally, we show how life cycle considerations can be used in evaluations of university departments in order to render the resulting rankings insensitive to the age structure of the evaluated faculties.

Suggested Citation

  • Michael Rauber & Heinrich Ursprung, 2006. "Evaluation of Researchers: A Life Cycle Analysis of German Academic Economists," CESifo Working Paper Series 1673, CESifo.
    • Handle: RePEc:ces:ceswps:_1673
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.cesifo.org/DocDL/cesifo1_wp1673.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Sharon M. Oster & Daniel S. Hamermesh, 1998. "Aging And Productivity Among Economists," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 80(1), pages 154-156, February.
    2. Levin, Sharon G & Stephan, Paula E, 1991. "Research Productivity over the Life Cycle: Evidence for Academic Scientists," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 81(1), pages 114-132, March.
    3. James E. Hartley & James W. Monks & Michael D. Robinson, 2001. "Economists' Publication Patterns," The American Economist, Sage Publications, vol. 45(1), pages 80-85, March.
    4. Michael Rauber & Heinrich W. Ursprung, 2008. "Life Cycle and Cohort Productivity in Economic Research: The Case of Germany," German Economic Review, Verein für Socialpolitik, vol. 9(4), pages 431-456, November.
    5. Frank, Bjorn & Schulze, Gunther G., 2000. "Does economics make citizens corrupt?," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 43(1), pages 101-113, September.
    6. Bronwyn Hall & Jacques Mairesse & Laure Turner, 2007. "Identifying Age, Cohort, And Period Effects In Scientific Research Productivity: Discussion And Illustration Using Simulated And Actual Data On French Physicists," Economics of Innovation and New Technology, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 16(2), pages 159-177.
    7. Bell, John G & Seater, John J, 1978. "Publishing Performance: Departmental and Individual," Economic Inquiry, Western Economic Association International, vol. 16(4), pages 599-615, October.
    8. Pierre-Philippe Combes & Laurent Linnemer, 2003. "Where are the Economists Who Publish? Publication Concentration and Rankings in Europe Based on Cumulative Publications," Journal of the European Economic Association, MIT Press, vol. 1(6), pages 1250-1308, December.
    9. Tom Coupé & Valérie Smeets & Frédéric Warzynski, 2006. "Incentives, Sorting and Productivity along the Career: Evidence from a Sample of Top Economists," The Journal of Law, Economics, and Organization, Oxford University Press, vol. 22(1), pages 137-167, April.
    10. 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.
    11. Onur Baser & Elda Pema, 2004. "Publications over the Academic Life-cycle: Evidence for Academic Economists," Economics Bulletin, AccessEcon, vol. 1(1), pages 1-8.
    12. Moore, William J & Newman, Robert J & Turnbull, Geoffrey K, 2001. "Reputational Capital and Academic Pay," Economic Inquiry, Western Economic Association International, vol. 39(4), pages 663-671, October.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Hartwig, Jochen, 2015. "Structural change, aggregate demand and employment dynamics in the OECD, 1970–2010," Structural Change and Economic Dynamics, Elsevier, vol. 34(C), pages 36-45.
    2. Jörg Heining & Jürgen Jerger & Jörg Lingens, 2008. "Deutsche Hochschulkarrieren im Fach Volkswirtschaftslehre. Eine deskriptive Analyse von Lebenslaufdaten," Perspektiven der Wirtschaftspolitik, Verein für Socialpolitik, vol. 9(3), pages 306-328, August.
    3. Thomas Bolli & Jörg Schläpfer, 2015. "Job mobility, peer effects, and research productivity in economics," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 104(3), pages 629-650, September.
    4. Ioana Alexandra Horodnic & Adriana Zaiţ, 2015. "Motivation and research productivity in a university system undergoing transition," Research Evaluation, Oxford University Press, vol. 24(3), pages 282-292.
    5. Heining, Jörg & Jerger, Jürgen & Lingens, Jörg, 2007. "Success in the Academic Labour Market for Economics - The German Experience," University of Regensburg Working Papers in Business, Economics and Management Information Systems 422, University of Regensburg, Department of Economics.
    6. repec:jns:jbstat:v:227:y:2007:i:2:p:187-208 is not listed 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. Rauber Michael & Ursprung Heinrich W., 2008. "Life Cycle and Cohort Productivity in Economic Research: The Case of Germany," German Economic Review, De Gruyter, vol. 9(4), pages 431-456, December.
    2. Raquel Carrasco & Javier Ruiz-Castillo, 2014. "The Evolution Of The Scientific Productivity Of Highly Productive Economists," Economic Inquiry, Western Economic Association International, vol. 52(1), pages 1-16, January.
    3. repec:bla:germec:v:9:y:2008:i::p:431-456 is not listed on IDEAS
    4. repec:cte:werepe:we1216 is not listed on IDEAS
    5. Pedro Albarrán & Raquel Carrasco & Javier Ruiz-Castillo, 2017. "Geographic mobility and research productivity in a selection of top world economics departments," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 111(1), pages 241-265, April.
    6. ONISHI Koichiro & NAGAOKA Sadao, 2012. "Life-cycle Productivity of Industrial Inventors: Education and other determinants," Discussion papers 12059, Research Institute of Economy, Trade and Industry (RIETI).
    7. Perianes-Rodríguez, Antonio, 2014. "Within and across department variability in individual productivity : the case of economics," UC3M Working papers. Economics we1404, Universidad Carlos III de Madrid. Departamento de Economía.
    8. 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.
    9. Rajeev K. Goel & Devrim Göktepe-Hultén, 2020. "Drivers of innovation productivity of academic researchers through career advancement," The Journal of Technology Transfer, Springer, vol. 45(2), pages 414-429, April.
    10. John P. Conley & Mario J. Crucini & Robert A. Driskill & Ali Sina Onder, 2011. "Incentives and the Effects of Publication Lags on Life Cycle Research Productivity in Economics," Vanderbilt University Department of Economics Working Papers 1122, Vanderbilt University Department of Economics.
    11. Daniel S. Hamermesh & Lea‐Rachel Kosnik, 2024. "Why do older scholars slow down?," Economic Inquiry, Western Economic Association International, vol. 62(1), pages 488-499, January.
    12. John Gibson & David L. Anderson & John Tressler, 2014. "Which Journal Rankings Best Explain Academic Salaries? Evidence From The University Of California," Economic Inquiry, Western Economic Association International, vol. 52(4), pages 1322-1340, October.
    13. Klaus Beckmann & Andrea Schneider, 2013. "The interaction of publications and appointments: new evidence on academic economists in Germany," Education Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 21(4), pages 415-430, September.
    14. Peter Burridge & J. Paul Elhorst & Katarina Zigova, 2016. "Group Interaction in Research and the Use of General Nesting Spatial Models," Advances in Econometrics, in: Spatial Econometrics: Qualitative and Limited Dependent Variables, volume 37, pages 223-258, Emerald Group Publishing Limited.
    15. Launov, Andrey & Graber, Michael & Wälde, Klaus, 2007. "How to get tenured (in Germany, in Economics)," W.E.P. - Würzburg Economic Papers 75, University of Würzburg, Department of Economics.
    16. Adam Ayaita & Kerstin Pull & Uschi Backes-Gellner, 2019. "You get what you ‘pay’ for: academic attention, career incentives and changes in publication portfolios of business and economics researchers," Journal of Business Economics, Springer, vol. 89(3), pages 273-290, April.
    17. Mariani, Myriam & Romanelli, Marzia, 2007. ""Stacking" and "picking" inventions: The patenting behavior of European inventors," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 36(8), pages 1128-1142, October.
    18. Günther G. Schulze & Susanne Warning & Christian Wiermann, 2008. "Zeitschriftenrankings für die Wirtschaftswissenschaften – Konstruktion eines umfassenden Metaindexes," Perspektiven der Wirtschaftspolitik, Verein für Socialpolitik, vol. 9(3), pages 286-305, August.
    19. Jia, Ruixue & Nie, Huihua & Xiao, Wei, 2019. "Power and publications in Chinese academia," Journal of Comparative Economics, Elsevier, vol. 47(4), pages 792-805.
    20. Joao Ricardo Faria & Peter McAdam, 2014. "Does Tenure Make Researchers Less Productive? The Case of the “Specialist”," School of Economics Discussion Papers 0514, School of Economics, University of Surrey.
    21. Myriam Mariani & Marzia Romanelli, 2006. ""Stacking" or "Picking" Patents? The Inventors' Choice Between Quantity and Quality," LEM Papers Series 2006/06, Laboratory of Economics and Management (LEM), Sant'Anna School of Advanced Studies, Pisa, Italy.
    22. Libman, A., 2010. "Economics in Germany – from National to Global," Journal of the New Economic Association, New Economic Association, issue 8, pages 155-158.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    research productivity; performance evaluation; life cycles; rankings;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • A11 - General Economics and Teaching - - General Economics - - - Role of Economics; Role of Economists
    • A14 - General Economics and Teaching - - General Economics - - - Sociology of Economics
    • J24 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor - - - Human Capital; Skills; Occupational Choice; Labor Productivity
    • J41 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Particular Labor Markets - - - Labor Contracts
    • M51 - Business Administration and Business Economics; Marketing; Accounting; Personnel Economics - - Personnel Economics - - - Firm Employment Decisions; Promotions

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    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:ces:ceswps:_1673. 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: Klaus Wohlrabe (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/cesifde.html .

    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.