American and European Economics and Economists

Abstract

America and Europe differ with regard to what economics is understood to be, how it is practiced, and how professional academic economists behave. Specifically, 1) American (U.S. and Canadian) economists contribute by far the largest share of journal publications and are cited much more often than European economists, while (West-) European economists consider other aspects of their professional activities more relevant, in particular participating in local and national affairs; 2) economic research by Americans tends to focus on abstract issues defined within the profession itself and involves fads, while the activities of European economists (though not necessarily their research) are more concerned with practical issues and follow a more steady course: and 3) American academics are geared to postgraduate teaching, while in Europe they are mostly engaged in undergraduate teaching. These differences can be explained by the different market conditions faced by American and European economists: in America, the academic market is much larger, and the degree of government intervention is typically much smaller. This paper explores how this leads to different focuses for European and American economists. In addition, it asks whether the ongoing economic unification in Europe may not alter these patterns.

European economics: An analysis based on publications in the core journals

“…Finally, we have shown that European economic institutions are well behind their North-American counterparts in terms of economic research publications in the 10 leading economic journals considered. This finding raises concerns about the current state and impact of economic research in Europe relative to North-America and is in agreement with Frey and Eichenberger (1993) and Portes (1987). Providing a more thorough explanation of this phenomenon will be the subject matter of future research.…”

“…Frey and Eichenberger (1993) provide some explanations, based on the different market conditions faced by U.S. and European economists. Table 3 reports the percentage of publication rates of North-American and European affiliations in each journal.…”

“…For example, students can use these rankings as a proxy for the quality of particular institutions, scholars to determine the most suitable environment for academic research, departments that are hiring junior faculty members to screen prospective candidates, and governments to direct research funds to the most promising institutions. Moreover, given the current debate on the state and adequacy of economic research in Europe (see Portes, 1987;Frey and Eichenberger, 1993;Kirman and Dahl, 1994;Elliott et al, 1998) these rankings can provide a recent measure of the economic research activity in Europe across institutions and countries. They also shed some light on the current state and relevant impact of economic research in Europe relative to North America.…”

A pesquisa em economia no Brasil: uma avaliação empírica dos conflitos entre quantidade e qualidade

“…A Seção 4 discute explicações alternativas para a baixa publicação internacional dos brasileiros, e a Seção 5 conclui com uma discussão sobre os incentivos existentes no Brasil para a quantidade e qualidade de produção científica em Economia. Além de oferecer um ambiente propício à seleção dos melhores cérebros, Frey e Eichenberger (1992, 1993 argumentam que a mobilidade do mercado acadêmico americano e o processo de promoção de suas universidades cumprem um importante papel na construção da liderança em pesquisa dos EUA. As universidades americanas estão preocupadas não apenas com a quantidade da produção de seus pesquisadores, mas também com a sua qualidade.…”

Does Economics Have an Effect? Towards an Economics of Economics

“…The incentives to work in scientific advisory boards mainly consist in the reputation and a certain prominence gained. For persons who seriously embark on an academic career, these incentives are only weak or even negative (Frey and Eichenberger 1993, the special issue of Kyklos edited by R.L. Frey and B.S.…”