IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/iza/izadps/dp14156.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Measuring Research Excellence Amongst Economics Lecturers in the UK

Author

Listed:
  • McManus, Richard

    (University of Canterbury)

  • Mumford, Karen A.

    (University of York)

  • Sechel, Cristina

    (University of Sheffield)

Abstract

Using a rich new data source, we explore the selection of economics Lecturers into the last UK Research Excellence Framework (REF) exercise. Only some one-in-two (54%) of these Lecturers were submitted to REF2014; 57% of men and 46% of women. The decision making of Institutions is found to be well approximated by a simplified selection approach; focusing on working papers and higher quality journal publications. Our results also reveal sizeable conditional differences in the probability of selection, especially so in departments with higher research rankings. More than half of the variance in selection probability remains unexplained, revealing considerable idiosyncrasies in the management of submissions and uncertainty across the discipline in this research assessment process.

Suggested Citation

  • McManus, Richard & Mumford, Karen A. & Sechel, Cristina, 2021. "Measuring Research Excellence Amongst Economics Lecturers in the UK," IZA Discussion Papers 14156, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    • Handle: RePEc:iza:izadps:dp14156
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://docs.iza.org/dp14156.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Bertocchi, Graziella & Gambardella, Alfonso & Jappelli, Tullio & Nappi, Carmela A. & Peracchi, Franco, 2015. "Bibliometric evaluation vs. informed peer review: Evidence from Italy," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 44(2), pages 451-466.
    2. Brown, Alasdair & Yang, Fuyu, 2015. "Does society underestimate women? Evidence from the performance of female jockeys in horse racing," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 111(C), pages 106-118.
    3. 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.
    4. Shelly Lundberg & Jenna Stearns, 2019. "Women in Economics: Stalled Progress," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 33(1), pages 3-22, Winter.
    5. Vuong, Quang H, 1989. "Likelihood Ratio Tests for Model Selection and Non-nested Hypotheses," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 57(2), pages 307-333, March.
    6. Karen Mumford & Cristina Sechel, 2020. "Pay and Job Rank among Academic Economists in the UK: Is Gender Relevant?," British Journal of Industrial Relations, London School of Economics, vol. 58(1), pages 82-113, March.
    7. Smith, Simon & Ward, Vicky & House, Allan, 2011. "‘Impact’ in the proposals for the UK's Research Excellence Framework: Shifting the boundaries of academic autonomy," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 40(10), pages 1369-1379.
    8. M. Mitka & K. Mumford & C. Sechel, 2015. "The 10th Royal Economic Society Women’s Committee Survey: The Gender Balance of Academic Economics in the UK," Discussion Papers 15/10, Department of Economics, University of York.
    9. Hengel, E., 2017. "Publishing while Female. Are women held to higher standards? Evidence from peer review," Cambridge Working Papers in Economics 1753, Faculty of Economics, University of Cambridge.
    10. Geuna, Aldo & Piolatto, Matteo, 2016. "Research assessment in the UK and Italy: Costly and difficult, but probably worth it (at least for a while)," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 45(1), pages 260-271.
    11. Sofronis Clerides & Panos Pashardes & Alexandros Polycarpou, 2011. "Peer Review vs Metric‐based Assessment: Testing for Bias in the RAE Ratings of UK Economics Departments," Economica, London School of Economics and Political Science, vol. 78(311), pages 565-583, July.
    12. Friederike Mengel & Jan Sauermann & Ulf Zölitz, 2019. "Gender Bias in Teaching Evaluations," Journal of the European Economic Association, European Economic Association, vol. 17(2), pages 535-566.
    13. Amanda Bayer & Cecilia Elena Rouse, 2016. "Diversity in the Economics Profession: A New Attack on an Old Problem," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 30(4), pages 221-242, Fall.
    14. Hamermesh, Daniel S., 2015. "Age, Cohort and Co-Authorship," IZA Discussion Papers 8828, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    15. Arne Risa Hole, 2017. "Ranking Economics Journals Using Data From a National Research Evaluation Exercise," Oxford Bulletin of Economics and Statistics, Department of Economics, University of Oxford, vol. 79(5), pages 621-636, October.
    16. Mumford, Karen & Sechel, Cristina, 2019. "Job satisfaction amongst academic economists in the UK," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 182(C), pages 55-58.
    17. Boring, Anne, 2017. "Gender biases in student evaluations of teaching," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 145(C), pages 27-41.
    18. Heather Sarsons, 2017. "Recognition for Group Work: Gender Differences in Academia," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 107(5), pages 141-145, May.
    19. Ben R Martin, 2011. "The Research Excellence Framework and the ‘impact agenda’: are we creating a Frankenstein monster?," Research Evaluation, Oxford University Press, vol. 20(3), pages 247-254, September.
    20. Pierre Régibeau & Katharine E. Rockett, 2016. "Research assessment and recognized excellence: simple bibliometrics for more efficient academic research evaluations," Economic Policy, CEPR, CESifo, Sciences Po;CES;MSH, vol. 31(88), pages 611-652.
    21. Hicks, Diana, 2012. "Performance-based university research funding systems," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 41(2), pages 251-261.
    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. Paredes, Valentina & Paserman, M. Daniele & Pino, Francisco J., 2020. "Does Economics Make You Sexist?," IZA Discussion Papers 13223, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    2. Richard McManus & Karen Mumford & Cristina Sechel, 2017. "The Selection of Economics Lecturers into the 2014 UK Research Excellence Framework Exercise: Outputs and Gender," Discussion Papers 17/16, Department of Economics, University of York.
    3. Laura Hospido & Carlos Sanz, 2021. "Gender Gaps in the Evaluation of Research: Evidence from Submissions to Economics Conferences," Oxford Bulletin of Economics and Statistics, Department of Economics, University of Oxford, vol. 83(3), pages 590-618, June.
    4. Laura Hospido & Carlos Sanz, 2019. "Gender gaps in the evaluation of research: evidence from submissions to economics conferences (Updated March 2020)," Working Papers 1918, Banco de España, revised Mar 2020.
    5. Lena Janys, 2021. "Testing the Presence of Implicit Hiring Quotas with Application to German Universities," Papers 2109.14343, arXiv.org, revised Nov 2021.
    6. Giliberto Capano & Benedetto Lepori, 2024. "Designing policies that could work: understanding the interaction between policy design spaces and organizational responses in public sector," Policy Sciences, Springer;Society of Policy Sciences, vol. 57(1), pages 53-82, March.
    7. 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.
    8. Martina Viarengo & Ugo Panizza & Enrico Nano, 2021. "A Generation of Italian Economists," CID Working Papers 400, Center for International Development at Harvard University.
    9. Funk, Patricia & Iriberri, Nagore & Savio, Giulia, 2024. "Does scarcity of female instructors create demand for diversity among students? Evidence from an M-Turk experiment," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 90(C).
    10. Gamage, Danula K. & Sevilla, Almudena & Smith, Sarah, 2020. "Women in Economics: A UK Perspective," IZA Discussion Papers 13477, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    11. Fabiana Rocha, Paula Pereda, & Liz Matsunaga & Maria Dolores Montoya Diaz & Renata Narita, & Bruna Borges, 2021. "Gender differences in the academic career of economics in Brazil," Revista Cuadernos de Economia, Universidad Nacional de Colombia, FCE, CID, vol. 40(84), pages 815-892, October.
    12. Valerie K. Bostwick & Bruce A. Weinberg, 2022. "Nevertheless She Persisted? Gender Peer Effects in Doctoral STEM Programs," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 40(2), pages 397-436.
    13. Erich Battistin & Marco Ovidi, 2017. "Rising Stars," Working Papers 843, Queen Mary University of London, School of Economics and Finance.
    14. Priyanka Chakraborty & Danila Serra, 2021. "Gender and leadership in organizations: Promotions, demotions and angry workers," Working Papers 20210104-001, Texas A&M University, Department of Economics.
    15. Lena Janys, 2022. "Testing the Presence of Implicit Hiring Quotas with Application to German Universities," ECONtribute Discussion Papers Series 165, University of Bonn and University of Cologne, Germany.
    16. Arceo-Gomez, Eva O. & Campos-Vazquez, Raymundo M., 2019. "Gender stereotypes: The case of MisProfesores.com in Mexico," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 72(C), pages 55-65.
    17. Emily C. Marshall & Brian O’Roark, 2023. "Journal Authorship by Gender: A Comparison of Economic Education, General Interest, and Fields From 2009 to 2019," The American Economist, Sage Publications, vol. 68(1), pages 100-109, March.
    18. Chinetti Simone, 2023. "The gender gap in academic productivity during the pandemic: Is childcare responsible?," IZA Journal of Labor Economics, Sciendo & Forschungsinstitut zur Zukunft der Arbeit GmbH (IZA), vol. 12(1), pages 1-35, January.
    19. Verónica Amarante & Marisa Bucheli & María Inés Moraes & Tatiana Pérez, 2021. "Women in Research in Economics in Uruguay," Revista Cuadernos de Economia, Universidad Nacional de Colombia, FCE, CID, vol. 40(84), pages 763-790, October.
    20. Rodrigo Dorantes-Gilardi & Aurora A. Ramírez-Álvarez & Diana Terrazas-Santamaría, 2023. "Is there a differentiated gender effect of collaboration with super-cited authors? Evidence from junior researchers in economics," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 128(4), pages 2317-2336, April.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    quality; outputs; selection; gender; REF; inclusivity;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • J00 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - General - - - General
    • J44 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Particular Labor Markets - - - Professional Labor Markets and Occupations
    • J71 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Labor Discrimination - - - Hiring and Firing

    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:iza:izadps:dp14156. 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: Holger Hinte (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/izaaade.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.