The source is REPEC, here is the list. I believe if I were starting out today, I would end up as a law professor, not an economist, though perhaps I would do economics in a legal guise.
I might add that number of citations and influence are, in my view, diverging. Steve Levitt has had a huge influence on economics, an influence which is underrepresented in his number of citations. You won’t cite him just because you’ve been inspired by the kind of paper he writes, and how many other economics papers are there on girls’ names or soccer kicks? Furthermore the more that economic research fragments, and becomes less theoretical, the more that the most cited papers are likely to be macroeconomics, as this list illustrates. At least macro papers will still share a common topic.
Hat tip to Economic Logic.
Just a clarification. They are most cited by papers in the REPEC system which includes a lot of working papers. They are not necessarily the most cited by published papers. In other words, the SSCI might well give a different ranking.
Why law professor as opposed to econ professor – less dismal? More status? 3 years for law degree versus x yeas for PhD?
Lots more bright folks chasing law degrees at Harvard, seeking to be in top 10%, than seeking econ grad degrees (though law folks are probably less good with stats).
The law/econ prof is not such a novelty compared to the pure econ prof.
Hence a top law prof doing law and econ probably has not as much influence as a top econ prof doing econ.
Maybe easier to get tenure in the law/econ niche, but then we get no more than we “pay” for, generally speaking, yes?
Are citation numbers truely indicative of quality?
The proof of the pudding is in the eating. Revealed preference indicates that
the work of guys like Levitt and Wolfers contribute little to the
advancement of economic science. Primarily Wolfers et al are publicists,
made famous largely from blogs or papers having little direct bearing on
economics (albeit ones that make good headlines). Moreover, their citation
records are – to put it as charitably as possible – absolutely pathetic.
Tyler,
You still can become a law professor!
One also needs to consider the quality of a citation. Many citations are perfunctory at best. At least in economics people err on the side of not citing things. In business strategy and management you can get cited just because you talked about some concept the paper wants to use. It’s almost like people are citing precedent.
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It seems we will be in economy ression for quite a long time. We can see the economy crisis effect everywhere.
thank you for this article
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