The Jigsaw Puzzle of Economical Research in the Colombian Caribbean : A Balance from the Past Decade (1996-2005)

In this article it is realized an inventory of the production of academic and scientific articles about economics in Colombian Caribbean Coast in the last 10 years. The document analyses the scientific production in economics realized in the Caribbean Coast and about the Caribbean Coast, in order to establish a map of the regional economic research and realize an approximation to the accumulated production and the general tendencies of the publications. To accomplish this goal, it was used the JEL (Journal of Economic Literature) Classification System as a platform for completing the puzzle by topics. Among other aspects, the study shows that three non-university institutions are responsible for the 67% of the regional academic production about economics. 40% of total considered production was realized by the 10% of the Caribbean Coast researches. 51% of the JEL Classifications have not being approached by region researches. Finally, there are few institutions with a systemic and deep job in a specific topic, which is why there are many possibilities of specialization for institution that have not defined its research lines and want to be pioneers in some economic analysis topic