Where Economics Has Been Headed? Multiple Identities and Diversity in Economic Literature: Evidence from Top Journals Over the Period 2000-2006 - A First Note

Abstract

This short paper presents some preliminary results of an ongoing research work focusing on richness and diversity of economic literature. The key idea is that each article published in an economic journal retains multiple identities. These multiple identities are captured through the use of JEL codes. A sample of ten top generalist journals has been selected. The relative abundance of all JEL categories has been computed for the period 2000-2006. Moreover, a degree of diversity has been proposed for both the sampled journals and the entire Econlit database.

Keywords: JEL, Econlit, Economic Journals, multiple identities, identity, relative abundance, diversity, evenness, richness

JEL Classification: A10