Template-Type: ReDIF-Paper 1.0
Series: Tinbergen Institute Discussion Papers
Creation-Date: 1997-12-09
Number: 97-124/1
Author-Name: Hendrik P. van Dalen
Author-Email: vandalen@few.eur.nl
Author-Workplace-Name: Erasmus University Rotterdam and NIDI, The Hague
Title: Acquiring Knowledge over the Economist’s Lifetime
Abstract: In this paper the reading behaviour of economists is examined to see whether particular typesof knowledge - basic and applied - imply different investment patterns. As it turns out, thereading intensity of advanced theoretical and empirical literature declines with three to fourpercent per year of experience, although researchers and economists with a mathematicalbackground start with a higher initial stock of knowledge of this type of literature. Businessand government economists concentrate on applied literature and news magazines; a type ofliterature which is not frequently read by mathematical economists. However, themathematical economists catch up with their non-mathematical colleagues in 12 to 15 yearstime. Furthermore, the introduction of graduate schools in Dutch academia has not broughtabout a fundamental change in reading habits. The biggest factor in explaining the divergencein reading behaviour among economists remains the mathematical, c.q. econometricsbackground in undergraduate training.
File-Url: https://papers.tinbergen.nl/97124.pdf
File-Format: application/pdf
File-Size: 94581 bytes
Handle: RePEc:tin:wpaper:19970124