Research productivity and career status

Abstract

Measurement of the productivity of economists, economics departments at universities and economics institutes has a tradition, which dates back to the 1950s. This study attempts to show that such measurement can be used to explain long-run changes in the overall productivity of university departments and institutes involved in research. The underlying notion in this study is that the productivity of departments and institutes in terms of total output (publications) decreases when the productivity of research staff members and their position (career status) in their departments or institutes do not correlate well. The empirical data used by this study relates to an economics research institute and cover a period of 30 years. The hypothesis that a mismatch between productivity and position leads to a decline in the overall productivity of departments and institutes could not be refuted.