Growth of the Professional Literature in Economics and Other Fields, and Some Implications.

The article focuses on growth of the professional literature in economics. The article presents estimates that are made of growth rates in economics and psychology, and comparisons are made with those of biology, electrical engineering, and physics. Some implications of continued growth, particularly for the university, are examined briefly. In a mathematical appendix, it explores the estimation of the average rate of growth when data periods are not of uniform duration, and the size of the literature that existed at the time the flow of new articles was first observed.