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on Sociology of Economics |
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Issue of 2009‒02‒22
three papers chosen by Jonas Holmström Swedish School of Economics and Business Administration |
| By: | Cavaleri, Pietro; Keren, Michael; Ramello, Giovanni B.; Valli, Vittorio |
| Abstract: | The aim of this article is to report on an experiment in publishing an open access journal and learn from it about the larger field of open access publishing. The experiment is the launch of the European Journal of Comparative Economics (EJCE), an on-line refereed and open access journal, founded in 2004 by the European Association for Comparative Economic Studies and LIUC University in Italy. They embarked upon this project in part to respond to the rising concentration in the market for scientific publishing and the resulting use of market power to raise subscription prices and restrict access to scientific output. We had hoped that open access journals could provide some countervailing power and increase competition in the field. Our experience running a poorly endowed journal has shown that entry to the field may be easy, yet that making it a sustainable enterprise is not straightforward. |
| Keywords: | Open-access publishing, online journals, scientific publication |
| JEL: | L17 L22 L86 O34 |
| Date: | 2009–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:uca:ucapdv:118&r=sog |
| By: | Marie-Louise Vierø (Queen's University) |
| Abstract: | This paper develops an equilibrium sorting model with utility maximizing researchers who differ in their ability on one side of the market, and research output-maximizing universities and an outside sector on the other side. In equilibrium, the top of the ability distribution is allocated to the academic sector, while the bottom of the ability distribution is allocated to the outside sector. For low values of the outside option, the academic sector is unaffected by it and some researchers exit from academia involuntarily. For higher values of the outside option, an increase in the value decreases the difference in average quality between the higher and lower ranked universities. The paper also consider the universities' problems of allocating resources across fields. The better university will typically be active in both fields while the lower ranked university will often specialize. The latter result can explain why a highly ranked university for example typically will have both a department of theoretical physics and a department of applied physics, while a lower ranked university typically focuses on the more applied field. |
| Keywords: | Sorting, Universities, Academia, Optimizing Institutions, Ranking |
| JEL: | C78 D02 |
| Date: | 2008–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:qed:wpaper:1198&r=sog |
| By: | Nicolas CARAYOL (GREThA UMR CNRS 5113); Agenor LAHATTE (OST) |
| Abstract: | This paper proposes a theory for establishing dominance relations between universities on the basis of their scientific production and the number of citations their publications received in given time window. We apply this theory to the ranking of French Universities. |
| Keywords: | Ranking; dominance relations; citations |
| JEL: | D63 I23 |
| Date: | 2009 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:grt:wpegrt:2009-02&r=sog |