Network Effects in Knowledge Creation: Evidence from Academia

This paper makes use of a sample of articles published between 1999 and 2013 by economists affiliated in Portuguese institutions to examine the impact of co-authorship over the quality of academic research. We build a unique database to characterize the role played by distinct affiliations and educational backgrounds on this process, while controlling for experience and individual quality levels. Mentoring relations are identified as one possible source of negative bias on the measurement of teamwork productivity, which we proxy for and quantify here for the first time. The empirical results also suggest that co-authorship across domestic institutions does not carry any significant impact on research quality, but international collaboration enhances it. A doctorate earned abroad is shown to directly improve publication outcomes, besides making it easier to establish partnerships across frontiers. These findings underscore the importance of accessing external knowledge networks in academia, offering relevant policy insights for a large number of small and less developed countries.