Patterns of Research Output and Author Concentration in the Economics Literature Capital

This study finds that a strong bibliometric regularity exists in the publication pattern in the economics literature; the number of authors publishing n papers is approximately l/nc of those publishing one paper. The economics literature conforms very well to the model with c = 1.84 if data are taken from a large collection of journals. When applied to individual journaIb, the result shows that values of c range from 2.04 to 3.11. This paper also reports the degree of author concentration among leading economics journals. Finally, this study finds that the graduates of three graduate programs account for more than half of the top 100 authors, indicating strong institutional dominance in the production of the most prolific authors