How Does the Market Use Citation Data? The Hirsch Index in Economics
Working Paper 16419
DOI 10.3386/w16419
Issue Date
A large literature following Hirsch (2005) has proposed citation-based indexes that could be used to rank academics. This paper examines how well several such indexes match labor market outcomes using data on the citation records of young tenured economists at 25 U.S. departments. Variants of Hirsch's index that emphasize smaller numbers of highly-cited papers perform better than Hirsch's original index and have substantial power to explain which economists are tenured at which departments. Adjustment factors for differences across fields and years of experience are presented.
Published Versions
"How Does the Market Use Citation Da ta? The Hirsch Index in Economics," American Economic Journal: Applied Economics , 5 (3), 63-90, 2013. citation courtesy of