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Publishing and Promotion in Economics: The Tyranny of the Top Five

Principal Investigator(s):  View help for Principal Investigator(s) James J. Heckman, The University of Chicago; Sidharth Moktan, London School of Economics

Version:  View help for Version V1

Name File Type Size Last Modified
  tyranny_replication_files-master 03/18/2020 12:47:PM
readme.pdf application/pdf 179 KB 03/18/2020 08:45:AM
tyranny_replication_files-master.zip application/zip 2.9 MB 03/18/2020 08:45:AM

Project Citation: 

Heckman, James J., and Moktan, Sidharth. Publishing and Promotion in Economics: The Tyranny of the Top Five. Nashville, TN: American Economic Association [publisher], 2020. Ann Arbor, MI: Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research [distributor], 2020-03-18. https://doi.org/10.3886/E118326V1

Project Description

Summary:  View help for Summary
This paper examines the relationship between placement of publications in Top Five (T5) journals and receipt of tenure in academic economics departments. Analyzing the job histories of tenure-track economists hired by the top 35 U.S. economics departments, we find that T5 publications have a powerful influence on tenure decisions and rates of transition to tenure. A survey of the perceptions of young economists supports the formal statistical analysis. Pursuit of T5 publications has become the obsession of the next generation of economists. However, the T5 screen is far from reliable. A substantial share of influential publications appear in non-T5 outlets. Reliance on the T5 to screen talent incentivizes careerism over creativity.
Funding Sources:  View help for Funding Sources Institute for New Economic Thinking (INO17-00009)

Scope of Project

Subject Terms:  View help for Subject Terms tenure and promotion practices; career concerns; economics publishing; citations
JEL Classification:  View help for JEL Classification
      A14 Sociology of Economics
      I23 Higher Education; Research Institutions
      J44 Professional Labor Markets; Occupational Licensing
      O31 Innovation and Invention: Processes and Incentives
Geographic Coverage:  View help for Geographic Coverage United States of America
Time Period(s):  View help for Time Period(s) 1/1/1990 – 12/31/2017
Collection Date(s):  View help for Collection Date(s) 1/1/2017 – 3/31/2018
Universe:  View help for Universe Top 50 Economics Departments in the United States, tenure track hires, publication and citation histories, economics journals publication data.
Data Type(s):  View help for Data Type(s) other; survey data
Collection Notes:  View help for Collection Notes This archive contains pre-processed non-survey data that is ready for analysis. Raw data files are not provided for two reasons. First, the raw files identify author name, alma mater and institutional affiliation—we have de-identified these fields in the replication files. Second, the raw files contain relatively large extracts of citation and publications data obtained from sources such as Scopus.com and EconLit under the University of Chicago’s institutional subscription to these services. Due to data use agreements, these files can only be shared to specific parties upon written request to and explicit written approval from the data providers as outlined below.

Methodology

Response Rate:  View help for Response Rate This applies to the survey portion of the study. Out of the universe of tenure-track faculty surveyed in the Top 50 Economics departments in the US, the overall response rate was 40% (N=308) across all 50 departments, with response rates of 44% (N=210) for assistant professors and 34% (N=97) for associate professors. The overall response rate was highest for departments ranked 41–50 (43%), and lowest for the top 10 departments (37%). Assistant professors had higher response rates than associate professors across all department rank groups except the top 10 departments, for which the response rate was 37% in both groups. Position- and department rank-specific response rates are reported in Online Appendix Figure O-A29
Sampling:  View help for Sampling The survey invited the entire population of tenure-track faculty hired by the Top 50 Economics departments in the US during the year 2018. 

The non-survey portion of the analysis collects work-history and publications/citations data for tenure-track faculty hired by the Top 35 departments between 1996-2010.
Data Source:  View help for Data Source Survey implemented by authors, Scopus, Repec, Econlit, CVs posted online and faculty webpages, university announcements of tenure and promotion decisions (via minutes of meetings held by Board of Trustees, Regents, Provosts and/or the President’s office; via campus-wide newsletters; or through departmental newsletters). 
Collection Mode(s):  View help for Collection Mode(s) web scraping; web-based survey
Unit(s) of Observation:  View help for Unit(s) of Observation journal, individual

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Published Versions

V3 [2020-04-23]

V2 [2020-04-22]

V1 [2020-03-18]

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