Social Ties in Academia: A Friend Is a Treasure

Tommaso Colussi IZA—Institute of Labor Economics Posted Online March 02, 2018 https://doi.org/10.1162/REST_a_00666 © 2018 The President and Fellows of Harvard College and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Review of Economics and Statistics Volume 100 | Issue 1 | March 2018 p.45-50 Abstract Authors Supplemental Material This paper employs a unique data set on articles, authors, and editors of the top general interest journals in economics to investigate the role of social connections in the publication process. Ties between editors and authors are identified based on their academic histories. About 43% of the articles published in these journals are authored by scholars connected to one editor at the time of the publication. Ph.D. students and faculty colleagues of an editor also improve their publication outcomes when this editor is in charge of a journal.