Do working papers increase journal citations? Evidence from the top 5 journals in economics

Figures & data

Table 1. Descriptive statistics for citation count

	N	Mean	Standard	Minimum	Maximum	t-Test
			deviation			p-value
Overall
Total	3,167	154	254	1	5,424
AER	1,091	154	245	1	3,550
Econometrica	678	131	278	1	5,424
JPE	464	142	209	1	3,077
QJE	456	256	327	2	3,032
ReStud	478	101	156	1	2,027
Published as a WP before
Total	1,761	186	298	1	5,424
AER	568	185	280	1	3,550
Econometrica	368	162	352	1	5,424
JPE	257	181	256	3	3,077
QJE	299	287	365	4	3,032
ReStud	269	114	140	1	1,118
Not published as WP before
Total	1,406	113	177	1	2,192	0.000
AER	523	119	195	1	2,192	0.000
Econometrica	310	94	138	1	1,006	0.001
JPE	207	95	111	1	688	0.000
QJE	157	196	229	2	1,739	0.002
ReStud	209	84	172	1	2,027	0.019

Table 2. Regression results for the complete sample

	(1)	(2)	(3)	(4)
Estimation approach	OLS	OLS	NBR	OLS
Dependent variable	citations	log citations	citations	$asinh$
WP	47.716***	0.352***	0.361***	0.364***
	(8.565)	(0.040)	(0.048)	(0.041)
Pages	6.583***	0.094***	0.069***	0.100***
	(1.226)	(0.007)	(0.008)	(0.007)
Pages squared	−0.049**	−0.001***	−0.001***	−0.001***
	(0.021)	(0.000)	(0.000)	(0.000)
# of Authors	17.068***	0.150***	0.106***	0.155***
	(6.024)	(0.024)	(0.029)	(0.025)
Observations	3,167	3,167	3,167	3,167
R-squared	0.105	0.269		0.272
Journal-Year FE	YES	YES	YES	YES

Table 3. Regression results for the complete sample controlling for reputation of authors

	(1)	(2)	(3)	(4)
Estimation approach	OLS	OLS	NBR	OLS
Dependent variable	citations	log citations	citations	$asinh$
WP	31.011***	0.211***	0.220***	0.219***
	(8.754)	(0.044)	(0.049)	(0.046)
Pages	6.608***	0.077***	0.063***	0.081***
	(1.305)	(0.008)	(0.008)	(0.008)
Pages squared	−0.052**	−0.001***	−0.001***	−0.001***
	(0.022)	(0.000)	(0.000)	(0.000)
# of Authors	21.417***	0.107***	0.100***	0.109***
	(6.274)	(0.026)	(0.030)	(0.027)
Reputation	0.009***	0.232***	0.000***	0.234***
	(0.002)	(0.017)	(0.000)	(0.017)
Observations	2,434	2,434	2,434	2,434
R-squared	0.155	0.306		0.305
Journal-Year FE	YES	YES	YES	YES

Table 4. Regression results for each journal separately

	(1)	(2)	(3)	(4)
Estimation approach	OLS	OLS	NBR	OLS
Dependent variable	citations	log citation	citations	$asinh$
AER	28.052	0.213***	0.255***	0.220***
	(17.073)	(0.080)	(0.091)	(0.083)
Econmetrica	2.676	0.051	0.019	0.057
	(14.031)	(0.091)	(0.096)	(0.094)
JPE	57.497***	0.318***	0.355***	0.326***
	(18.122)	(0.113)	(0.119)	(0.116)
QJE	73.154**	0.293**	0.254**	0.299**
	(30.973)	(0.124)	(0.124)	(0.126)
ReStud	8.612	0.232**	0.234**	0.243**
	(18.154)	(0.107)	(0.114)	(0.112)