Recognition stimulates productivity: no surprises there!

Posted on February 17, 2013 by Nicholas Gruen
Posted in Economics and public policy
Does The John Bates Clark Medal Boost Subsequent Productivity And Citation Success?, Ho Fai Chan, Bruno S. Frey, Jana Gallus, Benno Torgler Despite the social importance of awards, they have been largely disregarded by academic research in economics. This paper investigates whether a specific, yet important, award in economics, the John Bates Clark Medal, raises recipients? subsequent research activity and status compared to a synthetic control group of non-recipient scholars with similar previous research performance. We find evidence of positive incentive and status effects that raise both productivity and citation levels.

1 Comments

  1. GrueBleen
    February 19, 2013

    Well I guess it wouldn't come as a great surprise to an economist that a little bit of 'incentivation' would affect other, albeit younger, economists. It's good to see that rational expectations theory works just as effectively on its adherents as it does on us more benighted folk.

    However, I note that a woman didn't win the award until Susan C Athey in 2007; but that three of the most recent five awards went to women. Is this a demonstration that 'incentivation' doesn't work as well with women as with men, or that there were very few women of superior ability in economics until 2007, or just that the American Economic Association is every bit as male chauvinist as the Nobel committee ?