TY  - JOUR
AU  - Weinberg,Bruce A.
AU  - Galenson,David W.
TI  - Creative Careers: The Life Cycles of Nobel Laureates in Economics
JF  - National Bureau of Economic Research Working Paper Series
VL  - No. 11799
PY  - 2005
Y2  - November 2005
UR  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w11799
L1  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w11799.pdf
N1  - Author contact info:
Bruce A. Weinberg
Department of Economics
Ohio State University
410 Arps Hall
1945 North High Street
Columbus, OH  43210
Tel: 614/292-5642
Fax: 614/292-3906
E-Mail: weinberg.27@osu.edu

David Galenson
Department of Economics
University of Chicago
1126 East 59th Street
Chicago, IL  60637
Tel: 773/702-8258
Fax: 773/702-8490
E-Mail: galenson@uchicago.edu
AB  - This paper studies life cycle creativity among Nobel laureate economists. We identify two distinct life cycles of scholarly creativity. Experimental innovators work inductively, accumulating knowledge from experience. Conceptual innovators work deductively, applying abstract principles. We find that conceptual innovators do their most important work earlier in their careers than experimental laureates. For instance, our estimates imply that the probability that the most conceptual laureate publishes his single best work peaks at age 25 compared to the mid-50s for the most experimental laureate. Thus while experience benefits experimental innovators, newness to a field benefits conceptual innovators.
ER  -