16 Decembre 2019 - Séminaire du LED- Alexandre Truc (LED- CIRST)- The Interdisciplinarity of Economics

Date de publication : 21 déc. 2019 23:41:37

Abstract: Economics is often perceived as an insular discipline that has little consideration forother social sciences and humanities (SSH). This reputation has been challenged recently: according to recent research [Angrist et al, 2019, JEL], this perception wouldbe historically inaccurate and even further from the truth today. By systematicallystudying citation patterns since the 1950 in thousands of journals, we offer the bestestablished conclusions to date of the interdisciplinary practices involving economics.Our results do show that the discipline is uniquely insular from a historical pointof view. But we also document an important turn after the 1990s that drasticallytransformed the discipline has it became more open, very quickly, to the influence ofmanagement, environmental sciences, and to a lesser degree, a variety of SSH. Whilethis turn made economics less uniquely insular, as of today economics remains the leastoutward-looking discipline with management among all SSH. Finally, if economics isnot as uniquely insular as in the 1970s and 1980s, it has characteristics that distinguishit from other SSH. Most notably, interdisciplinarity in economics has been consistentlymore practiced within the less influential journals. While economics is chang. Authors: François Claveau, Olivier Santerre, Alexandre Truc