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Begin New Search Topic Economics Author Matthias Aistleitner

1. The Focus of Academic Economics: Before and After the Crisis

Author:
Ernest Aigner, Matthias Aistleitner, Florentin Glötzl, and Jakob Kapeller
Publication Date:
05-2018
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Institute for New Economic Thinking (INET)
Abstract:
Has the global financial crisis of 2007ff had a visible impact on the economics profession? To answer this question we employ a bibliometric approach and compare the content and orientation of economic literature before and after the crisis with reference to two different samples: A large-scale sample consisting of more than 440,000 articles published between 1956 and 2016 and a smaller sample of 400 top-cited papers before and after the crisis. Our results suggest that – unlike the Great Depression of the 1930s – the current financial crisis did not lead to any major theoretical or methodological changes in contemporary economics, although the topic of financial instability received increased attention after the crisis.
Topic:
Economics, Academia, and Economic Crisis
Political Geography:
Global Focus

2. Citation Patterns in Economics and Beyond

Author:
Matthias Aistleitner, Jakob Kapeller, and Stefan Steinerberger
Publication Date:
11-2018
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Institute for New Economic Thinking (INET)
Abstract:
In this paper we comparatively explore three claims concerning the disciplinary character of economics by means of citation analysis. The three claims under study are: (1) economics exhibits strong forms of institutional stratification and, as a byproduct, a rather pronounced internal hierarchy, (2) economists strongly conform to institutional incentives and (3) modern mainstream economics is a largely selfreferential intellectual project mostly inaccessible to disciplinary or paradigmatic outsiders. The validity of these claims is assessed by means of an interdisciplinary comparison of citation patterns aiming to identify peculiar characteristics of economic discourse. In doing so, we emphasize that citation data can always be interpreted in different ways, thereby focusing on the contrast between a ‘cognitive’ and an ‘evaluative’ approach towards citation data.
Topic:
Economics, Sociology, Academia, Citation, and Hierarchy
Political Geography:
Global Focus