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on Sociology of Economics |
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Issue of 2007‒01‒13
ten papers chosen by Jonas Holmstrom Swedish School of Economics and Business Administration |
| By: | Dubois, P.; Hernandez Perez, A.; Ivaldi, M. |
| Abstract: | This paper analyzes the demand and cost structure of the french market of academic journals, taking into account its intermediary role between researchers, who are both producers and consumers of knowledge. This two sidedness feature will echoes similar problems already observed in electronic markets-payment card systems, video games console, etc-such as the chicken and egg problem, where readers won't buy a journal if they do not expect its articles to be academically relevant and researchers, that live under the mantra "publish or perish", will not submit to a journal with either limited public reach or weak reputation. After the merging of several databases, we estimate the aggregated nested logit demand system combined simultaneously with a cost function. We identify the structural parameters of this market and find that price elasticities of demand are quite large and margins relatively low, indicating that this industry experiences competitive constraints. ...French Abstract : Cet article analyse la structure de la demande et des coûts du marché français des revues scientifiques. Nous estimons un "nested logit" pour le modèle de demande et identifions les paramètres structurels de ce marché. Nous trouvons que les élasticités prix de la demande sont assez grandes et les marges relativement faibles ce qui indique que cette industrie est relativement concurrentielle. |
| Keywords: | REVUE; RECHERCHE SCIENTIFIQUE; PUBLICATION PERIODIQUE; EVALUATION; CHERCHEUR |
| Date: | 2006 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:rea:inrawp:200606&r=sog |
| By: | Pedro Cosme Vieira (Faculdade de Economia, Universidade do Porto); Aurora A.C. Teixeira (CEMPRE, Faculdade de Economia do Porto, Universidade do Porto) |
| Abstract: | Although there is considerable consensus that Finance, Management, and Marketing are ‘science’, some debate remains with regard to whether these three areas comprise autonomous, organized and settled scientific research fields. In this paper we aim to explore this issue by analyzing the occurrence of citations in the top-ranked journals in the areas of Finance, Management, and Marketing. We put forward a modified version of the ‘network cluster’ as proposed by Klamer and Van Dalen (2002) and conclude that Finance is a ‘Relatively autonomous, organized and settled field of research’ whereas Management and (to a larger extent) Marketing are relatively non-autonomous and hybrid fields of research’. Complementary analysis based on sub-discipline rankings using the recursive methodology of Liebowitz and Palmer (1984) confirms the above conclusions. |
| Keywords: | Citations; Science; Autonomy |
| JEL: | C89 A12 |
| Date: | 2006–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:por:fepwps:233&r=sog |
| By: | Martin Gregor (Institute of Economic Studies, Faculty of Social Sciences, Charles University, Prague, Czech Republic) |
| Abstract: | We survey the state-of-the-art methods of how to rank economic departments on the basis of a sample of 14 studies conducted in years 1995-2005. We cover a diversity of rankings: U.S., worldwide, E.U., those of developed academic nations and those of developing academic nations. Each method rests on a specific goal: while some identify top-notch research, others reflect quantity and thus are able to discriminate down the ranking. We also document novelties in ranking-construction such as sensitivity analysis, parallel rankings, instant updates and journal weights based on impact-adjusted impact factors. |
| Keywords: | ranking economic departments; journal ranking; citation analysis |
| JEL: | A11 D29 I29 |
| Date: | 2006–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:fau:wpaper:wp2006_01&r=sog |
| By: | Ajay K. Agrawal; Avi Goldfarb |
| Abstract: | We report evidence indicating that Bitnet adoption facilitated increased research collaboration between US universities. However, not all institutions benefited equally. Using panel data from seven top engineering journals, Bitnet connection records, and a variety of institution ranking data, we find that medium-ranked universities were the primary beneficiaries; they benefited largely by increasing their collaboration with top-ranked schools. Furthermore, we find that the magnitude of this effect was greatest for co-located pairs. These results suggest that the most salient effect of lowering communication costs may have been to facilitate gains from trade through the specialization of research tasks. Thus, the advent of Bitnet -- and likely subsequent versions, including the Internet -- seems to have increased the role of second-tier universities in the national innovation system as producers of new, high-quality knowledge. |
| JEL: | O33 R11 Z13 |
| Date: | 2006–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:12812&r=sog |
| By: | Johan P. Olsen; Peter Maassen |
| Date: | 2007–01–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:erp:arenax:p0228&r=sog |
| By: | Roland Andersson (Royal Institute of Technology, Stockholm); John Quigley (University of California at Berkeley); Mats Wilhelmsson (Royal Institute of Technology, Stockholm) |
| Abstract: | During the past fifteen years, Swedish higher education policy has emphasized the spatial decentralization of post-secondary education. We analyze this policy as a natural experiment, and we investigate the economic effects of this decentralization on productivity and output. We rely upon a twelve-year panel of output, employment and investment for Sweden's 285 municipalities, together with data on the location of university researchers and students, to estimate the effects of exogenous changes in educational policy upon regional development. We find important and significant effects of this policy upon output and productivity, suggesting that the economic effects of the decentralization on regional development are economically important. |
| Date: | 2006–06–27 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cdl:bphupl:1022&r=sog |
| By: | Soete, Luc (UNU-MERIT and University of Maastricht); Freeman, Chris (SPRU, University of Sussex) |
| Abstract: | The science-technology-innovation system is one that is continuously and rapidly evolving. The dramatic growth over the last twenty years in the use of science, technology and innovation (STI) indicators appears first and foremost the result of a combination between on the one hand the easiness of computerized access to an increasing number of measures of STI and on the other hand the interest in a growing number of public policy and private business circles in such indicators as might be expected in societies which increasingly use organised science and technology to achieve a wide variety of social and economic objectives and in which business competition is increasingly based on innovation. As highlighted on the basis of 40 years of indicators work, frontiers and characteristics that were important last century may well no longer be so relevant today and indeed may even be positively misleading. |
| Keywords: | Technological Change, Science and Technology, Innovation, Statistical Indicators, Measurement of Economic Growth, Policy Making |
| JEL: | O31 O33 C8 |
| Date: | 2007 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:dgr:unumer:2007001&r=sog |
| By: | David Huffman (University of California, Berkeley); John Quigley (University of California, Berkeley) |
| Abstract: | Among the many sorting functions provided by institutions of higher education, there is a geographic dimension. During the years spent as students and residents of local communities, students develop specific networks and contacts, and perhaps their tastes change as well. After graduation, these students may be more likely to reside in the locality or region in which they have been educated.This paper presents evidence which suggests that the university is important in attracting human capital to the local area and in stimulating entrepreneurial talent in the region.We also measure the strength of the impact of the university on geographical location in one specific instance. For post-graduate professional business and engineering students at Berkeley, we compare the spatial distribution of residences before attending the university and again after graduation.The results are suggestive of the importance of academic institutions in the geographic pattern of agglomerations of footloose scientific firms, such as those in the Silicon Valley just south of San Francisco. The results also reinforce the self-interested reasons for government investment in high-quality educational institutions, as measured by the return on the augmented human capital stock in the region. |
| Date: | 2006–06–27 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cdl:bphupl:1044&r=sog |
| By: | Roland Andersson (Royal Institute of Technology, Sweden); John Quigley (University of California, Berkeley); Mats Wilhelmsson (Royal Institute of Technology, Sweden) |
| Abstract: | During the past fifteen years, Swedish government policy has decentralized post-secondary education throughout the country. We investigate the economic effects of this decentralization policy on the level of productivity and innovation and their spatial distribution in the Swedish economy. We analyze productivity, measured as output per worker at the level of the locality, for 284 Swedish communities during a 14 year period, and innovation, measured by commercial patents awarded in 100 Swedish labor market areas during an 8 year period. These economic outcomes, together with data documenting the decentralization of university-based researchers, permit us to estimate the effects of exogenous changes in educational policy upon increases in productivity and the locus of innovative activity. We find important and significant effects of this policy upon economic output and the locus of knowledge production, suggesting that the decentralization has affected regional development through local innovation and increased creativity. Moreover, our evidence suggests that aggregate productivity was increased by the deliberate policy of decentralization. |
| Date: | 2006–07–13 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cdl:bphupl:1068&r=sog |
| By: | Johansson-Stenman, Olof (Department of Economics, School of Business, Economics and Law, Göteborg University) |
| Abstract: | Nationalekonomiska metoder och modeller tillämpas inom de mest skiftande områden som kriminalitet, barnuppfostran och drogmissbruk. Ett skäl till ämnets framgång är dess användning av matematik. Nationalekonomins formalisering synes dock även ha inneburit insnävade beteendeantaganden mot en abstrakt Homo Economicus, där många fenomen och mekanismer som diskuterades ingående av klassikerna till stor del ignorerats. Genombrottet för beteendeekonomin (behavioral economics) på senare tid har inneburit en återgång till en rikare och mer relevant mikroekonomisk teori. Nationalekonomer bör fortsätta studera frågor som inte brukar betraktas som traditionellt ekonomiska, men det är minst lika viktigt att influenser från andra vetenskaper får fortsätta att berika nationalekonomin. <p> |
| Keywords: | Ekonomisk metodologi; nationalekonomins matematisering; beteendeekonomi; ekonomisk imperialism |
| JEL: | A11 A12 B40 |
| Date: | 2006–12–28 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:gunwpe:0243&r=sog |