Do Men and Women-Economists Choose the Same Research Fields?: Evidence from Top-50 Departments

This paper describes the gender distribution of research fields in economics by means of a new dataset about researchers working in the world top-50 Economics departments, according to the rankings of the Econphd.net website. We document that women are unevenly distributed across fields and test some behavioral implications from theories underlying such disparities. Our main findings are that the probability that a woman works in a given field is positively related to the share of women in that field (path-dependence), and that the share of women in a field decreases with their average quality. These patterns, however, are weaker for younger female researchers. Further, we document how gender segregation of fields has evolved over different Ph.D. cohorts.Banco de Santande

Central Bank Economic Research: Output, Demand, Productivity, and Relevance

The economic research of 30 central banks in OECD and Latin America countries from 2000 to 2007 is evaluated in this study. An international comparison based on four indexes that measure central bank research output, demand, productivity and relevance is included. From this view, the European Central Bank, the United States Federal Reserve Bank-Board of Governors- and the Bank of Canada showed the best results. The Central Bank of Colombia achieves an important position among the central banks selected for the study and holds that position in most of the indexes. Three aspects of research were examined in depth: i) focus of the research agenda, ii) the way research is organized, and iii) strategies for its development for six leading central banks in the sample, based on the results of the measure, including the Central Bank of Colombia. The study shows a tendency of central banks to develop studies with academic institutions. This practice allows them to broad the range of their analysis, by having an outside perspective, while getting expertise with recent techniques and theories for better economic analysis, which contributes to policy design.Central Banks, economic research. Classification JEL: E59, A11.

No Trade, Informed Trading, and Accuracy of Information

We present a model in which there is uncertainty about realization of a risky asset value for an informed trader. We introduce two states such that in the "narrow" state the informed trader has better information than in the "wide" state. Then, we show that the informed trader in the wide state does not trade in equilibrium if the information that the informed trader with better information has is sufficiently accurate and the probability of the narrow state is sufficiently high. We use the framework presented by Glosten and Milgrom (1985) and extend the assumption that the informed trader knows the terminal value of the risky asset. Finally, we obtain the conditions under which the informed trader would not trade in equilibrium.Market microstructure; Glosten-Milgrom; Price formation; Asymmetric information; Bid-ask spreads.

Testing William Baumol’s “Toward a Newer Economics: The Future Lies Ahead!â€

20 years ago, William Baumol provided an interesting wish list that outlined his hopes for the future of economics over the next hundred years. Impatiently, this paper puts his wish list to the test by comparing the characteristics of publications that appeared in the American Economic Review before Baumol’s contribution in 1991 (1984 to 1988) and those published 20 years later (2004 to 2008), and by looking at the Job Openings for Economists between 1991 and 2009. Focusing on issues such as the role of mathematics, the short-run orientation of macroeconomics, the emphasis of economic history versus the history of economic ideas, as well as a more concrete menu of wishes for applied economics, we observe that this was not just a wish list, but is in many ways a list that offers an accurate picture of what has changed over time and what has happened in recent years.American Economic Review, William Baumol, Mathematics, Macroeconomics, Applied Economics, Job Openings

Coauthorship and Thematic Networks in AAEP Annual Meetings

We analyze the coauthorship production of the AAEP Annual Meeting since 1964. We use social network analysis for creating coauthorship networks and given that any paper must be tagged with two JEL codes, we use this information for also structuring a thematic network. Then we calculate network metrics and find main actors and clusters for coauthors and topics. We distinguish a gender gap in the sample. Thematic networks show a cluster of codes and the analysis of the cluster shows the preeminence of the tags related to trade, econometric, distribution/poverty and health and education topics.Comment: 30 pages, 12 Figures, 16 Table

Keeping Up With Fashion: Recent Trends in the Subfields of Study of Doctoral Students in Economics

We conduct an analysis of recent trends on the subfields of study that doctoral students in economics choose for their dissertations. By investigating data on the JEL classification codes of dissertations reported by the Journal of Economic Literature from 1991 to 2007, we find that the trends in the subfields of study of doctoral dissertations follow those of articles published at five major general-interest journals (American Economic Review, Quarterly Journal of Economics, Journal of Political Economy, Review of Economic Studies, and Review of Economics and Statistics). In particular, the co-movement pattern is salient in subfields such as Microeconomics (D), Health, Education, and Welfare (I), and Economic Development and Growth (O). Our findings suggest that the fashion exhibited in the top-notch research journals is one of the most influential factors when doctoral students choose a subfield.Economics Research, Doctoral Dissertation, Journal Publication, Ph.D. Economist, Economics Job Market

An exact approach for single machine scheduling with quadratic earliness and tardiness penalties

In this paper, we consider the single machine scheduling problem with quadratic earliness and tardiness costs, and no machine idle time. We propose two different lower bounds, as well as a lower bounding procedure that combines these two bounds. Optimal branch-and-bound algorithms are then presented. These algorithms incorporate the proposed lower bound, as well as an insertion-based dominance test. The lower bounding procedure and the branch-and-bound algorithms are tested on a wide set of randomly generated problems. The computational results show that the branch-and-bound algorithms are capable of optimally solving, within reasonable computation times, instances with up to 20 jobs.scheduling, single machine, quadratic earliness and tardiness, lower bounds, branch-and-bound

A Century of American Economic Review

Using information collected from American Economic Review publications of the last 100 years, we try to provide answers to various questions: Which are the top AER publishing institutions and countries? Which are the top AER papers based on citation success? How frequently is someone able to publish in AER? How equally is citation success distributed? Who are the top AER publishing authors? What is the level of cooperation among the authors? What drives the alphabetical name ordering? What are the individual characteristics of the AER authors, editors, editorial board members, and referees? How frequently do women publish in AER? What is the relationship between academic age, publication performance, and citation success? What are the paper characteristics? What influences the level of technique used in articles? Do connections have an influence on citation success? Who receives awards? Can awards increase the probability of publishing in AER at a later stage?American Economic Review, Publishing Economics, Rankings, Cooperation, Authors, Editors, Board Members, Referees, Connections, Awards, Paper Characteristics, Economic History, History of Economic Thought

A Century of American Economic Review

Using information collected from American Economic Review publications of the last 100 years, we try to provide answers to various questions: Which are the top AER publishing institutions and countries? Which are the top AER papers based on citation success? How frequently is someone able to publish in AER? How equally is citation success distributed? Who are the top AER publishing authors? What is the level of cooperation among the authors? What drives the alphabetical name ordering? What are the individual characteristics of the AER authors, editors, editorial board members, and referees? How frequently do women publish in AER? What is the relationship between academic age, publication performance, and citation success? What are the paper characteristics? What influences the level of technique used in articles? Do connections have an influence on citation success? Who receives awards? Can awards increase the probability of publishing in AER at a later stage?American Economic Review, publishing economics, rankings, cooperation,authors, editors, board members, referees, connections, awards, paper characteristics, economic history, history of economic thoug

Comparing the Early Research Performance of PhD Graduates in Labor Economics in Europe and the USA

This paper analyzes the early research performance of PhD graduates in labor economics, addressing the following questions: Are there major productivity differences between graduates from American and European institutions? If so, how relevant is the quality of the training received (i.e. ranking of institution and supervisor) and the research environment in the subsequent job placement institution? The population under study consists of labor economics PhD graduates who received their degree in the years 2000 to 2005 in Europe or the USA. Research productivity is evaluated alternatively as the number of publications or the quality-adjusted number of publications of an individual. When restricting the analysis to the number of publications, results suggest a higher productivity by graduates from European universities than from USA universities, but this difference vanishes when accounting for the quality of the publication. The results also indicate that graduates placed at American institutions, in particular top ones, are likely to publish more quality-adjusted articles than their European counterparts. This may be because, when hired, they already have several good acceptances or because of more focused research efforts and clearer career incentives.graduate programs, research productivity