TY - JOUR AU - Jin, Ginger Zhe AU - Jones, Benjamin AU - Lu, Susan Feng AU - Uzzi, Brian TI - The Reverse Matthew Effect: Catastrophe and Consequence in Scientific Teams JF - National Bureau of Economic Research Working Paper Series VL - No. 19489 PY - 2013 Y2 - October 2013 DO - 10.3386/w19489 UR - http://www.nber.org/papers/w19489 L1 - http://www.nber.org/papers/w19489.pdf N1 - Author contact info: Ginger Zhe Jin University of Maryland Department of Economics 3115F Tydings Hall College Park, MD 20742-7211 Tel: 301/405-3484 Fax: 301/405-3542 E-Mail: jin@econ.umd.edu Benjamin Jones Northwestern University Kellogg School of Management Department of Management and Strategy 2211 Campus Drive Evanston, IL 60208 Tel: 847/491-3177 Fax: 847/467-1777 E-Mail: bjones@kellogg.northwestern.edu Susan Feng Lu KRA 441 Krannert School of Management Purdue University Rochester, NY, 14620 E-Mail: lu428@purdue.edu Brian Uzzi Kellogg School of Management 2001 Sheridan Road Evanston, IL 60208 E-Mail: uzzi@kellogg.northwestern.edu AB - Teamwork pervades modern economies, yet teamwork can make individual roles difficult to ascertain. In the sciences, the canonical "Matthew Effect" suggests that eminent team members garner credit for great works at the expense of less eminent team members. We study this phenomenon in reverse, investigating how damaging events, article retractions, affect citations to the authors' prior publications. We find that retractions impose little citation penalty on eminent coauthors, but less eminent coauthors face substantial citation declines, especially when teamed with an eminent author. This asymmetry suggests a "Reverse Matthew Effect" for team-produced catastrophes. A Bayesian model provides a candidate interpretation. ER -