Do large departments make academics more productive? Sorting and agglomeration economies in research
Résumé
We study how departments’ characteristics impact academics’ quantity and quality of publications
in economics. Individual time-varying characteristics and individual fixed-effects are
controlled for. Departments’ characteristics have an explanatory power at least equal to a fourth
of that of individual characteristics and possibly as high as theirs. An academic’s quantity and
quality of publications in a field increase with the presence of other academics specialised in
that field and with the share of the field’s output in the department. By contrast, department’s
size, proximity to other large departments, homogeneity in terms of publication performance,
presence of colleagues with connections abroad, and composition in terms of positions and
age matter at least for some publication measures but only when individual fixed effects are
not controlled for. This suggests a role for individual positive sorting where these characteristics
only attract more able academics. A residual negative sorting between individuals’ and
departments’ unobserved characteristics is simultaneously exhibited.
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