Do large departments make academics more productive? agglomeration and peer effects in research

Bosquet, Clément and Combes, Pierre-Philippe (2013) Do large departments make academics more productive? agglomeration and peer effects in research. SERC Discussion Papers (SERCDP0133). Spatial Economics Research Centre, London School of Economics and Political Science, London, UK.

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Abstract

We study the effect of a large set of department characteristics on individual publication records. We control for many individual time-varying characteristics, individual fixed-effects and reverse causality. Department characteristics have an explanatory power that can be as high as that of individual characteristics. The departments that generate most externalities are those where academics are homogeneous in terms of publication performance and have diverse research fields, and, to a lesser extent, large departments, with more women, older academics, star academics and foreign co-authors. Department specialisation in a field also favours publication in that field. More students per academic does not penalise publication. At the individual level, women and older academics publish less, while the average publication quality increases with average number of authors per paper, individual field diversity, number of published papers and foreign co-authors.

Item Type:	Monograph (Discussion Paper)
Official URL:	http://www.spatialeconomics.ac.uk/SERC/publication...
Additional Information:	© 2013 The Authors
Divisions:	Geography & Environment Spatial Economics Research Centre
Subjects:	H Social Sciences > HM Sociology L Education > L Education (General) Q Science > Q Science (General)
JEL classification:	I - Health, Education, and Welfare > I3 - Welfare and Poverty J - Labor and Demographic Economics > J2 - Time Allocation, Work Behavior, and Employment Determination and Creation; Human Capital; Retirement > J24 - Human Capital; Skills; Occupational Choice; Labor Productivity R - Urban, Rural, and Regional Economics > R1 - General Regional Economics > R12 - Size and Spatial Distributions of Regional Economic Activity; Interregional Trade
Date Deposited:	28 Jul 2014 07:28
Last Modified:	13 Sep 2024 20:26
Funders:	Economic and Social Research Council, Department for Business, Innovation & Skills (BIS), Welsh Assembly Government
URI:	http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/id/eprint/58306

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