What Economists Do: Trends in Economic Research (Economics ARTICLES‪)‬

ABSTRACT This paper integrates and extends the literature on research trends in economics. Differences in the research interests of graduate students and senior scholars are examined, as are dynamic changes in research agendas over time. Significant and persistent differences in the topical distributions of books and dissertations in economics are found; but even so, regression results suggest that graduate students are influenced by the distribution of current research across fields as well as employment opportunities when selecting thesis topics. Economists appear to be influenced by external events in selecting research subjects, and exhibit a life-cycle pattern in which they move from narrower specialties to broader, more historical subjects over time.