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The scientific community is just that - a community - and the success/influence of any one individual likely reflects, at least in certain measure, the contributions made previously by others. This suggests that rather than merely ranking economists on the basis of raw citation counts, one might gain real insights about the giants laboring in relative obscurity by identifying who the authors of exceptionally influential papers drew their inspiration from. We identify the most-highly-cited (409) papers published in economics from 2001-2005, then examine who the authors of these high-impact papers drew from in terms of developing the ideas/arguments/applications presented in these papers. We find that a very small group of individuals had a comparatively large impact on the economics profession, in terms of influencing the subsequent work of authors of extraordinarily highly-cited papers. Further, there is relatively little consistency between our list of 'giants' and Nobel Prize winners in Economics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It is widely accepted that interdisciplinary research and cooperation is urgently necessary, but is difficult to carry out. In this paper we intend to show that both aspects of this statement hold for cooperation between economists and physical scientists; we also offer suggestions for overcoming these difficulties.
Over the past two decades the problems of environmental pollution and potential energy shortage have stimulated interdisciplinary work between economists and physical scientists. One outcome of this intellectual convergence has been the realization by many economists that economies have a physical underpinning that cannot be ignored, while many physical scientists have come to recognize that problems of pollution and energy use have also a social and economic aspect. A second and less fortunate resultant of this contact between the disciplines has been some cases of mutual incomprehension and dismissive hostility between economists and physical scientists. In this paper we seek to understand how such problems of incomprehension may arise and how they may be avoided. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper argues that there are no insuperable obstacles to making quantitative science-aided comparisons of the welfare effects of economic policies on different people. This contradicts the belief commonly held by economists that in principle meaningful interpersonal utility comparisons cannot be made.
The paper is intended as a contribution to the theory of governmental decision-making with respect to social redistribution problems. Examples of such problems include a) taxation and welfare transfers, i.e., who among the citizens should retain which portions of the national product; and b) population policy, i.e., how many people should be allowed to become claimants to the national wealth. The paper is not intended to cast any light whatsoever on positive consumer choice theory or the psychological study of decision-making. The approach described here is generally consistent with the recent discussion of 'social indicators'. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Throughout his life the English philosopher, economist and jurist Jeremy Bentham exhibited a marked interest in the design and the transfer of institutions. What is more, he was determined that his proposals illuminate the course of institutional design all over the world during his era. His work along these lines thus represents an obvious example of the work of a hands-on expert on codification. In this paper we review the theoretical and practical activities undertaken by Bentham on the issue of codification and discuss them in the context of a rational choice model of the economics of expertise. While experts may claim to be concerned with the advancement of the public interest, it seems safer to consider them as economic agents just like the rest of us. The different activities undertaken by Jeremy Bentham in terms of offering proposals for codification throughout the world in the early 19th century represent a fascinating case-study on the economics of expertise. Our examination of his activities in this sense will also allow us to discuss the contemporary relevance of Bentham's enterprise. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While economic theory has been applied to fields such diverse as religion, arts, law and crime in past years, journalism has until recently remained a blind spot of economic analysis. Media economists may have described media markets, but few economists so far have studied self-interested journalists as actors in information-attention markets. Frequently, it is still assumed that journalists serve the public, strive for objectivity in their news products, and seek to act as a ‘fourth estate’ in democracy. We consider this a ‘nirvana approach’ to journalism, and we seek to demonstrate instead that media content is severely influenced by rational journalists' and other communication professionals' self interests. In this paper we outline an Economic Theory of Journalism, referring to the few scholars of economics and of mass communication who have, explicitly or implicitly, used economic theory as an analytical tool to analyze journalism. We argue that economic concepts like principal-agent theory, free-riding, external effects, the tragedy of the commons, and the tyranny of small decisions can fruitfully be applied in order to provide more in-depth explanations of often-criticized developments in journalism such as the rising influence of PR and spin doctors on journalism, ‘pack reporting’, and ‘horse-race journalism’. We conclude that an Economic Theory of Journalism will enable both economists and scholars of journalism to identify and predict more systematically the failures of journalism, the excesses and the blind spots of media coverage, and we claim that economics and mass communications need to observe and to inspire each other more closely in the future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There are three positions concerning the economic effects of human rights discussed among economists. Some economists argue that only property rights matter for economic growth and basic human rights can even make the legal system less efficient. Others argue that negative rights are generally welfare increasing while positive rights tend to reduce income and growth over time. Yet a third group of economists argues that elements of all groups of human rights are a precondition for making productive use of one's resources and are thus efficiency-enhancing. Based on a cross-country analysis, the effects of different groups of human rights on economic growth are estimated in this paper. The transmission channels through which the different rights affect growth are identified by estimating their effects on investment and overall productivity. Basic human rights have indeed a positive effect on investment, but do not seem to contribute to productivity. Social rights, in turn, are not conducive to investment in physical capital but do contribute to productivity improvements. None of the four groups of rights covered in this analysis ever has a significant negative effect on any of the economic variables included. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the distribution of economic research as catalogued in the Journal of Economic Literature across countries of the world and attempts to explain those patterns. We report the number of articles published on each country and estimate a series of regressions to understand this pattern. We find that measures of a country's size (physical and economic), connections with the outside world and data availability explain much of the pattern of research. We also find that tourism receipts, whether English is an official language, and the number of economic research institutions are significantly correlated with the amount of research done on a country. After controlling for all the variables, we find only three regions (all in Africa) with significantly less research published by economists in Journal of Economic Literature cataloged articles than North America. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on three strategies which could help to keep in touch with the present rapid changes of the environment, the microelectronic revolution, globalization and liberalization, neoliberalism and privatization and so forth. This changed environment may lead to fundamental changes in macroeconomic assumptions and policy problems. Robert Skidelsky, the author of an impressive three volume biography of economist John Maynard Keynes and a great admirer of Keynes, in one of his papers remarks on the enormous changes that have taken place since the "General Theory," adding that in view of them, a "new Keynes" is needed.

There is widespread belief among economists that the separation of ownership and control tends to reduce the performance of companies while competition tends to improve it. Irrespective of their theoretical appeal these assumptions have not been tested very often. Using an unbalanced panel of about 300 German wineries (compiled from four different editions of a highly respected and widely used wine guide), the paper shows that firms run by ‘managing directors’ produce higher quality and more expensive wines than otherwise identical owner-managed firms. Since firms have identical production functions and due to the intense competition in the sector under consideration it is very likely that differences in human capital explain the observed productivity differences. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since quite some time, economists have been aware of the fact that also the behavior of economists generates questions that need to be answered. Why, for example, do economists use an alphabetic ordering of names when they co-author an article? And what determines the success of an academic economist? Or, how does studying economics affect behavior? At the same time, economists have also noticed that the economics profession generates data that can be used to test theoretical ideas proposed by economists. In this paper, the author gives an overview of such research that takes economists and their behavior as a subject of study. He will focus on three topics: the education of economists, the publication habits of economists and the labor market of economists. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Discusses the folding of the `International Economic Papers,' a journal sponsored by the International Economic Association, as evidence of professional `Gleischaltung' in North American and European economists. Demand for economists who emphasize accounting, mathematical and statistical techniques; Importance of competence in the English language; Publication of the `Classics in the Theory of Public Finance'.

This paper has reviewed the theoretical and empirical work of economists on the deterrent effects of punishment for criminal activity. Although the general theory does not yield unambiguous predictions many empirical workers have, surprisingly, hung the 'testing' of economic models on the presence or absence of deterrent effects of certainty and severity of punishment. Unfortunately much of the literature seems impaired by bias due to measurement error[4]. This seems confirmed by the recurring combination of a negative arrest rate effect on crime with a zero or negative effect of crime on the police. Despite the unsatisfactory nature of much of the research there is still scope for future developments. These could profitably be in greater exploration of victimisation surveys and samples of post-release prisoners, more studies where police recording bias. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]