Geographic Diversity in Economic Publishing

Abstract

Is the representation of editors at prestigious economics journals geographically diverse? Using data on the affiliations of academics working in an editorial capacity at such journals, we map the locations of editorial power within the economics profession. This allows us to rank institutions, countries and continents according to this measure of power. In addition, by considering the average distance of a journal's editorial affiliations from a geographic mean, we rank journals by geographic diversity. The magnitudes of the geographic differences we find are striking. Over half the journals we consider have over two thirds of their editorial power located in the USA. A large majority of journals have a tiny editorial contribution from academics located outside of North America and Europe. Any one of the states of California, Massachusetts and Illinois has more power than the four continents of Asia, South America, Africa and Australasia combined. Comparing to authorship data, we find that most editorial teams are both less geographically diverse and more USA-centric than the authors they publish.

Keywords: editorial power, geography, diversity, economics

JEL Classification: A1