Impact: What Influences Finance Research?

Abstract

Which journal articles have had the most impact on finance research? Which articles were most cited in each of the last 30 years? Which journals dominated finance research in the 1990s? Did any finance sub-discipline stand out or lag behind in the 1990s? We answer these and similar questions using a comprehensive sample of journals, an extensive time period, and a new ranking method that avoids problems inherent in the existing literature. We find that although six of the ten articles most cited by finance journals were published in econometrics or economics journals, and Journal of Finance accounts for only one of the top ten articles, Journal of Finance still dominates with the article cited most frequently in eight of the last ten years. We also find that methodological papers such as White (1980) and Hansen (1982) are very highly ranked. We use the most influential papers to construct suggested Ph.D. course reading lists.

Keywords: Research Impact, Journal Ranking, citations

JEL Classification: G0