Academic productivity under spotlight at economics workshop

Jun 28, 2007

Why are some economics departments in Australian universities more research productive than others? And in international rankings of economics departments by their research performance, why do Australian universities fare poorly relative to natural comparators?

These were some of the questions posed at a recent workshop entitled “The Contribution of Human and Social Capital to Academic Productivity” attended by University of Wollongong staff and visiting academics.

It was organised by the Centre for Human and Social Capital Research within UOW’s School of Economics.Workshop organiser and presenter, Associate Professor Joan Rodgers, co-authored a paper with Dr Frank Neri from the School of Economics which investigated why some economics departments in Australian universities were more research productive than others.

“The hypothesis is simple: research productivity depends upon the human capital of department members and the department-specific conditions under which they work,” their paper highlighted.

They produced results to help explain why a small number of departments consistently outperform the others in studies that rank Australian economics departments according to research output.

Another paper by Professor Richard Pomfret of the University of Adelaide reviewed the literature ranking universities and economics departments.

“In international rankings of economics departments by their research performance, Australian universities fare poorly relative to natural comparators. Several hypotheses can explain this phenomenon – inappropriate measures, low productivity, time spent on non-research activities, age and cohort effects and lack of resources,” according to Professor Pomfret.

Professor Chris Doucouliagos of Deakin University investigated the incentive effects of the Department of Education, Science and Training (DEST) point system.

"Journals and conferences are contemporaneous substitutes – an expansion in conference publications displaces journal publications. There is also a 'DEST effect'," he said.

"On average, conference papers are not converted into subsequent journal papers ... post-graduate enrolments are shown to contribute only to conferences and have no effect on journal publications. Research income has a positive effect on both conferences and journal publications," Professor Doucouliagos said.

Other topics discussed during the workshop included: “Is it harder to soar with eagles when you work with turkeys”; and “Ranking and clustering of the Faculties of Commerce research performance in Australia”.