Rising concentration for economics awards
We analyze the academic affiliations of nearly 6,000 award-winning researchers in 18 major fields in the natural sciences, engineering, and social sciences from the 1820s to the 2020s, focusing on the 1960s onward. The analysis reveals a trend of declining concentration in the institutional affiliations of award-winning researchers, shifting from a few science-strong universities in […] The post…
An analysis of nearly 6,000 award-winning researchers in 18 major fields from the 1820s to the 2020s shows a trend of declining concentration in the institutional affiliations of award-winning researchers. This shift began in the 1960s and is observed across all fields except economics, which has become the most concentrated field over time.
The higher concentration of prizewinning work in economics can be attributed to several factors. First, the field tends to sort researchers more strongly by institutional prestige. Second, economics relies less on specialized equipment and instruments compared to other fields. Lastly, the assessment of findings in economics is based on a synthesis of evidence rather than decisive experiments or proofs.
The authors discuss the benefits and costs of this high and rising institutional concentration within the economics field.
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