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on Sociology of Economics |
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Issue of 2007‒11‒10
four papers chosen by Jonas Holmström Swedish School of Economics and Business Administration |
| By: | Benno Torgler; Nemanja Antic; Uwe Dulleck |
| Abstract: | This paper turns Snow-White’s magic mirror onto recent economics Nobel Prize winners, top economists and happiness researchers, and through the eyes of the “man in the street” seeks to determine who the happiest academic is. The study not only provides a clear answer to this question but also unveils who is the ladies’ man and who is the sweetheart of the aged. It also explores the extent to which information matters and whether individuals’ self-reported happiness affects their perceptions about the happiness of these superstars in economics. |
| Keywords: | happiness, subjective well-being, perceptions, superstars, economists |
| JEL: | A11 D10 I31 |
| Date: | 2007–10–17 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:qut:auncer:2007-95&r=sog |
| By: | Beirlant, J.; Einmahl, J.H.J. (Tilburg University, Center for Economic Research) |
| Abstract: | The last decade methods for quantifying the research output of individual researchers have become quite popular in academic policy making. The h- index (Hirsch, 2005) constitutes an interesting quality measure that has attracted a lot of attention recently. It is now a standard measure available for instance on theWeb of Science. In this paper we establish the asymptotic normality of the empirical h-index. The rate of convergence is non-standard: ph=(1 + nf(h)), where f is the density of the citation distribution and n the number of publications of a researcher. In case that the citations follow a Pareto-type or a Weibull-type distribution as defined in extreme value theory, our general result nicely specializes to results that are useful for constructing confidence intervals for the h-index. |
| Keywords: | Asymptotic normality;confidence interval;extreme value theory;research output;scientometrics;tail empirical process. |
| JEL: | C13 C14 |
| Date: | 2007 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:dgr:kubcen:200786&r=sog |
| By: | Jaan Masso; Raul Eamets; Hanna Kanep |
| Abstract: | The aim of the current paper is to estimate the need for new PhDs in the Estonian academic sector for the 5-year period 2007–2012 using a survey of employers, such as universities, institutions of applied higher education and research institutes. The doctoral workforce in all countries around the world constitutes a rather small segment of the labour market; however, PhDs provide a crucial input for educational and R&D activities not only through their employment in the academic sector, but nowadays also increasingly in the public and private sector. Our results show that academic institutions would prefer to hire a rather high proportion of new PhDs – almost 100% of the current number. On the one hand total demand is high due to a high replacement demand brought on by retirements in the next years as a result of the |
| Keywords: | PhD, higher education, research and development, academic fields |
| JEL: | I2 J4 |
| Date: | 2007 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:mtk:febawb:59&r=sog |
| By: | Antonella Cugini (Università di Padova); Giovanna Michelon (Università di Padova) |
| Abstract: | Notwithstanding a growing interest towards performance management systems for universities, little is known on their application to academic departments. Being an institution dedicated to research, a department presents specific characteristics: creativity, professional autonomy, low degree of repetitiveness, uncertainty on results, unclear relation between input and output. Such peculiarities make the evaluation and measurement of its performance particularly difficult. The purpose of the paper is the exploration and development of a performance evaluation approach which is suitable for the particular features of an academic department. As this paper is explorative in nature, we use a qualitative methodology, to identify dimensions of performance evaluation suitable for application to an academic department. Data are collected for the case study of a department of the University of Padua, Italy. After identifying the relations between the four perspective of the balanced scorecard and identifying the strategic maps, the case study proposes a set of goals and measures which are suitable to satisfy the managerial needs of the analyzed department. The paper contributes to the performance evaluation literature in three main ways. It extends the concept of customer by considering a wider systems of stakeholders; it emphasize the strategic role of the financial dimension as a driver for achieving the mission and it highlights the need to coordinate the different stakeholders involved in the enhancement of strategy, from academic and administrative staff, to different types of customers and the community in general. |
| Keywords: | performance measurement, strategy map, balanced scorecard, university, departments |
| JEL: | M10 M41 |
| Date: | 2007–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pad:wpaper:0054&r=sog |