Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Economics in Latin America: a bibliometric analysis

  • Published:
Scientometrics Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Bibliometrics is a research field that studies quantitatively the bibliographic material. This study analyzes the academic research developed in Latin America in economics between 1994 and 2013. The article uses the Web of Science database in order to collect the information and provides several bibliometric indicators including the total number of publications and citations, and the h-index. The results indicate that Brazil, Mexico, Chile, Argentina and Colombia are the only countries with a significant amount of publications in economics in Web of Science although Costa Rica and Uruguay have considerable results in per capita terms. The annual evolution shows a significant increase during the last 5 years that seems to continue in the future, probably with the objective of reaching similar standards than the most competitive countries around the World. The results also show that development, agricultural and health economics are the most significant topics in the region.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

References

  • Axarloglou, K., & Theoharakis, V. (2003). Diversity in economics: An analysis of journal quality perceptions. Journal of the European Economic Association, 1(6), 1402–1423.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Baltagi, B. H. (2007). Worldwide econometrics rankings: 1989–2005. Econometric Theory, 23(5), 952–1012.

    Article  MathSciNet  Google Scholar 

  • Bjork, S., Offer, A., & Söderberg, G. (2014). Time series citation data: The Nobel Prize in economics. Scientometrics, 98(1), 185–196.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bonilla, C., Merigó, J. M., & Torres-Abad, C. (2015). Leading institutions in economics in Latin America. CQN Working Papers, 2015-05, University of Chile, Chile.

  • Broadus, R. N. (1987). Toward a definition of “Bibliometrics”. Scientometrics, 12(5–6), 373–379.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Combes, P. P., & Linnemer, L. (2003). Where are the economists who publish? Publication concentration and rankings in Europe based on cumulative publications. Journal of the European Economic Association, 1(6), 1250–1308.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Coupé, T. (2003). Revealed performances: Worldwide rankings of economists and economics departments, 1990–2000. Journal of the European Economic Association, 1(6), 1309–1345.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Davies, J. B., Kocher, M. G., & Sutter, M. (2008). Economics research in Canada: A long-run assessment of journal publications. Canadian Journal of Economics, 41(1), 22–45.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Du, Y., & Teixeira, A. A. C. (2012). A bibliometric account of Chinese economics research through the lens of the China Economic Review. China Economic Review, 23(4), 743–762.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Dusansky, R., & Vernon, C. J. (1998). Rankings of US economics departments. Journal of Economic Perspectives, 12(1), 157–170.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Fagerberg, J., Fosaas, M., & Sapprasert, K. (2012). Innovation: Exploring the knowledge base. Research Policy, 41(7), 1132–1153.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • García-Castrillo, P., Montañés, A., & Sanz-Gracia, F. (2002). A worldwide assessment of scientific production in economics (1992–1997). Applied Economics, 34, 1453–1475.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Harzing, A. W., & Mijnhardt, W. (2015). Proof over promise: Towards a more inclusive ranking of Dutch academics in economics and business. Scientometrics, 102(1), 727–749.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hirsch, J. E. (2005). An index to quantify an individual’s scientific research output. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 102(46), 16569–16572.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hudson, J. (2013). Ranking journals. The Economic Journal, 123(570), F202–F222.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kalaitzidakis, P., Mamuneas, T. P., & Stengos, T. (1999). European economics: An analysis based on publications in the core journals. European Economic Review, 43(4), 1150–1168.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kalaitzidakis, P., Mamuneas, T. P., & Stengos, T. (2011). An updated ranking of academic journals in economics. Canadian Journal of Economics, 44(4), 1525–1538.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kim, E. H., Morse, A., & Zingales, L. (2006). What has mattered to economics since 1970. Journal of Economic Perspectives, 20(4), 189–202.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kirman, A., & Dahl, M. (1994). Economic research in Europe. European Economic Review, 38(3–4), 505–522.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kocher, M. G., & Sutter, M. (2001). The institutional concentration of authors in top journals of economics during the last two decades. The Economic Journal, 111(472), F405–F421.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Koljatic, M., & Silva, M. (2001). The international publication productivity of Latin American countries in the economics and business administration fields. Scientometrics, 51(2), 381–394.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Laband, D. N. (2013). On the use and abuse of economics journal rankings. The Economic Journal, 123(570), F223–F254.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Laband, D. N., & Piette, M. J. (1994). The relative impacts of economics journals: 1970–1990. Journal of Economic Literature, 32(2), 640–666.

    Google Scholar 

  • Landström, H., Harirchi, G., & Aström, F. (2012). Entrepreneurship: Exploring the knowledge base. Research Policy, 41(7), 1154–1181.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Merigó, J. M., Gil-Lafuente, A. M., & Yager, R. R. (2015a). An overview of fuzzy research with bibliometric indicators. Applied Soft Computing, 27, 420–433.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Merigó, J. M., Mas-Tur, A., Roig-Tierno, N., & Ribeiro-Soriano, D. (2015b). A bibliometric overview of the Journal of Business Research between 1973 and 2014. Journal of Business Research,. doi:10.1016/j.busres.2015.04.006.

    Google Scholar 

  • Merigó, J. M., & Yang, J. B. (2015). Accounting research: A bibliometric analysis. Australian Accounting Review. doi:10.1111/auar.12109.

    Google Scholar 

  • Pieters, R., & Baumgartner, H. (2002). Who talks to whom? Intra- and interdisciplinary communication of economics journals. Journal of Economic Literature, 40(2), 483–509.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Podsakoff, P. M., MacKenzie, S. B., Podsakoff, N. P., & Bachrach, D. G. (2008). Scholarly influence in the field of management: A bibliometric analysis of the determinants of university and author impact in the management literature in the past quarter century. Journal of Management, 34(4), 641–720.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ramos, R., Royuela, V., & Suriñach, J. (2007). An analysis of the determinants in Economics and Business publications by Spanish universities between 1994 and 2004. Scientometrics, 71(1), 117–144.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Rodríguez, D. (2006). Publishing performance of Spanish academics: 1970–2004. Spanish Economic Review, 8(4), 255–270.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Scott, L. C., & Mitias, P. M. (1996). Trends in rankings of economics departments in the US: An update. Economic Inquiry, 34(2), 378–400.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Stern, D. I. (2013). Uncertainty measures for economics journal impact factors. Journal of Economic Literature, 51(1), 173–189.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Sternberg, R., & Litzenberger, T. (2005). The publication and citation output of German faculties of economics and social sciences: A comparison of faculties and disciplines based upon SSCI data. Scientometrics, 65(1), 29–53.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Wagstaff, A., & Culyer, A. J. (2012). Four decades of health economics through a bibliometric lens. Journal of Health Economics, 31(2), 406–439.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Yu, X., & Gao, Z. (2010). An updated ranking of the economic research institutions in China (2000–2009). China Economic Review, 21(4), 571–581.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Yu, D., & Shi, S. (2015). Researching the development of Atanassov intuitionistic fuzzy set: Using a citation network analysis. Applied Soft Computing, 32, 189–198.

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgments

We would like to thank the editors, the anonymous reviewers and Eduardo Engel (University of Chile), for valuable comments that have improved the quality of the paper.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Management Control and Information Systems, University of Chile, Av. Diagonal Paraguay 257, 8330015, Santiago, Chile

    Claudio A. Bonilla, José M. Merigó & Carolina Torres-Abad

Authors
  1. Claudio A. Bonilla
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. José M. Merigó
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Carolina Torres-Abad
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to José M. Merigó.

Electronic supplementary material

Below is the link to the electronic supplementary material.

Supplementary material 1 (DOCX 37 kb)

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Bonilla, C.A., Merigó, J.M. & Torres-Abad, C. Economics in Latin America: a bibliometric analysis. Scientometrics 105, 1239–1252 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11192-015-1747-7

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11192-015-1747-7

Keywords

Search

Navigation