Does Data Disclosure Increase Citations? Empirical Evidence from a Natural Experiment in Leading Economics Journals

37 Pages Posted: 14 Feb 2019

See all articles by Mark J. McCabe

Mark J. McCabe

Boston University - Questrom School of Business; SKEMA Business School, Université Côte d’Azur (GREDEG), Sophia Antipolis, France

Frank Mueller-Langer

University of the Bundeswehr Munich; Max Planck Institute for Innovation and Competition; European Commission, Joint Research Center

Date Written: January 29, 2019

Abstract

Does data disclosure have an impact on citations? Four leading economics journals introduced a data disclosure policy between 2004 and 2006. We use panel data consisting of 17,135 article citing-year observations from 1996 to 2015 for articles published in these journals. Empirical articles that did not disclose data (46% of the sample) serve as a control group. Evidence for a positive open data citation effect is weak (6% and not statistically significant). On the other hand, the citation impacts of publication are substantial and precisely estimated. Pure theory, hybrid and purely empirical articles enjoy citations benefits of 22%, 32% and 44%, respectively. Our pre- and post-publication citation data allow us to identify the citation effects of data disclosure and publication, while controlling for intrinsic article quality.

Keywords: data disclosure, diffusion of knowledge, natural experiment, panel data

JEL Classification: L17, O33, C80, L59

Suggested Citation

McCabe, Mark J. and Mueller-Langer, Frank, Does Data Disclosure Increase Citations? Empirical Evidence from a Natural Experiment in Leading Economics Journals (January 29, 2019). Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3329272 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3329272

Mark J. McCabe (Contact Author)

Boston University - Questrom School of Business ( email )

595 Commonwealth Avenue
Boston, MA MA 02215
United States

HOME PAGE: http://sites.google.com/site/markjmccabe1/home

SKEMA Business School, Université Côte d’Azur (GREDEG), Sophia Antipolis, France ( email )

60 rue Dostoïevski
SKEMA Business School, Economics Department
Sophia Antipolis, 06902
France

HOME PAGE: http://sites.google.com/site/markjmccabe1/home

Frank Mueller-Langer

University of the Bundeswehr Munich ( email )

Munich
Germany

Max Planck Institute for Innovation and Competition ( email )

Munich
Germany

European Commission, Joint Research Center

Seville
Spain

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