Top5itis Revisited: Some Thoughts on the Notion of General Interest in Economics

Roberto Serrano

doi:10.29105/ensayos43.1-5

Authors

Roberto Serrano Department of Economics, Brown University.

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.29105/ensayos43.1-5

Keywords:

Top5itis, General Interest

Abstract

Top5itis is a disease that currently affects the economics discipline. It refers to the obsession of the profession of academic economists with the so-called “top5” journals, also referred to as “top general-interest” journals. This paper offers some thoughts regarding the notion of “general-interest” in economics and discusses some of the practices in these journals.

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Author Biography

Roberto Serrano, Department of Economics, Brown University.

Roberto Serrano is the Harrison S. Kravis University Professor of Economics at Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island. He has held visiting appointments at IMDEA Social Sciences in Madrid, the Center for Rationality of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Universitat Pompeu Fabra of Barcelona, the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, Universidad Carlos III and CEMFI in Madrid, and Harvard University. His fields of interest are microeconomic theory and game theory. He has made contributions to several areas, including implementation theory and mechanism design, bargaining theory, the economics of risk, uncertainty and information, and the theory of general economic equilibrium. Prof. Serrano received his Ph.D. in economics from Harvard University in 1992. He also holds an M.A. in economics from Harvard University and a B.A. in economics from Universidad Complutense de Madrid, Spain.

References

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Heckman, J., Akerlof, G., Deaton, A., Fudenberg, D., and Hansen, L. (2017), “Publishing and Promotion in Economics: The Curse of the Top5,” discussion session at the American Economic Association annual meetings, https://www.aeaweb.org/webcasts/2017/curse.

Serrano, R. (2018), “Top5itis,” Economics Bulletin 38, No. 2, p. A2. DOI: https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3103083

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