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Core authors and rankings in economics

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Abstract

This study ranks contributors to the economics profession using the textbook citation method. A survey of professors in 35 top-tier departments of economics produced a list of the most often used graduate-level microeconomics, macroeconomics, and econometrics texts. The textbooks identified from the survey are evaluated in this study for citations to journal articles. Authors of journal articles cited in textbooks are ranked according to the number of times their works are cited in textbooks. The results are compared to the findings of recent studies using different methods. Different methodologies are found to produce significantly different results.

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Liner, G.H. Core authors and rankings in economics. Atlantic Economic Journal 29, 459–468 (2001). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02299334

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