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Gender disparities in the field of economics

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Abstract

In order to analyse the gender disparities in scientific research output in the field of economics, this paper selected the Web of Science database as the source database. We collected and screened 257,642 articles written by 130,397 authors from 1933 to 2017 in the field of economics. In this study, we use mathematical statistics and bibliometrics indexes to quantitatively analyse the gap between male and female authors in many aspects, including the output and influence in different level of journals and institutions, the dynamic evolution of output and influence and collaboration modes with gender disparities. In addition, we have analyzed the disparities in output and influence of male and female authors among different countries. The results show that male authors dominate in the economics research field according to their high output and influence. However, female authors also show advantage when it comes to the research influence. Finally, we conducted a dynamic analysis of the contribution and collaboration of men and women over the course of their careers, and our findings again demonstrate the importance of women’s participation in scientific collaboration. This study can provide an insight of gender different in economics research.

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Acknowledgements

We would like to express our thanks to Professor Cassidy R. Sugimoto and Professor Vincent Larivière in data collection and their commenting on an early draft of the paper. This research also received the financial support from National Science Foundation of China: Study on the Structure and Evolution of the Scientific Collaboration Network of Academicians from the Perspective of Symbiosis: A Case Study of Academicians of CAS and NAS under Grant No. 71603015. Also supported by the Natural Science Foundation of Beijing, China (Grant No. 9182001). Our gratitude also goes to the reviewers for their valuable comments.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Economics and Management, Beijing University of Technology, Beijing, China

    Junwan Liu, Yinglu Song & Sai Yang

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  1. Junwan Liu
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Correspondence to Junwan Liu.

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Liu, J., Song, Y. & Yang, S. Gender disparities in the field of economics. Scientometrics 125, 1477–1498 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11192-020-03627-x

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