| Abstract: |
Following an international trend, Italy has reformed its university system,
especially concerning methods and tools for research evaluation, which are
increasingly focused on a number of bibliometric indexes. To study the impact
of these changes, we analyse the changing profiles of economists who have won
competitions for full professorship in the last few decades in Italy. We
concentrate on individual characteristics and mainly on scientific production.
We show that the identification of a univocal and standardized concept of
“research quality” within the new research assessments has progressively
imposed a strategy of “homologation”, especially for women. We find that women
economists are at a higher risk of discrimination than their male colleagues
and thus they are more likely to conform their research activities to the
standardized profile imposed by the gender-blind application of biased
bibliometric methods. |