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Role models in finance: Lessons from life cycle productivity of prolific scholars

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Abstract

This paper examines the nature of lifecycle intellectual contributions (publication productivity and quality) of prolific scholars in finance, i.e., those that have published twelve or more scholarly papers in finance journals. Like other scholars, their productivity increases dramatically in the years before tenure and early success seems to be a useful forecast of future quality and quantity of publications. However, unlike the average finance Ph.D., these role models begin publishing earlier and they maintain a high level of productivity over long periods with productivity appearing to decline only slightly after tenure. Further, there is increasing tendency to publish with co-authors and there is high concentration of these prolific scholars especially at the five top-rated finance journals. Our findings have important implications for aspiring new finance professors.

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Notes

  1. The factors that seem to contribute to this low percentage of repeat publishers in finance most likely include the large effort required to prepare a publishable paper and the low acceptance rates in finance journals. For example, the acceptance rate for the Journal of Finance declined from about 20% in the late 1960s to about 8% in the late 1980s (Zivney and Bertin, 1992). However, such declines in acceptance rates were somewhat offset by increases in the number of finance journals (Zivney and Bertin, 1992).

  2. While we recognize other aspects of scholarly productivity are also important and of interest, in this study we have chosen to focus on the volume of publications by each of these finance professionals.

  3. The twelve publications requirement for author inclusion in the data set does result in a slight selection bias, particularly for those scholars that received their Ph.D. during the 1980s so that their time horizon for journal publication is shorter than scholars from earlier cohorts.

  4. Tenure is not a selection criterion. For example, Fisher Black, who is among the authors in our study, is not an academic. Some prolific authors working at the Federal Reserve are also included in our study

  5. The twenty journals for which citation counts are available are generally the higher ranked journals. While we consider a broader set of journals in developing publication counts, we assess quality based on high quality citations.

  6. We are not able to find the graduation year for 48 scholars, and so Table 5 reports the total publication records of the remaining 348 scholars at various points in their careers.

  7. The estimates of c reported by Chung and Cox (1990) are (in parenthesis): JF (2.10), JFQA (2.26), FM (2.51), JBF (2.84), JFEC (1.95), FAJ (2.47), JFM (3.26), JPM (2.44), FR (3.00), JFR (2.65), and JBFA (2.57).

  8. This strong concentration may reflect concentration of publishing skills or a reputation effect, or both factors.

  9. For details on models for count data, please refer to Green (2000).

  10. These time periods reflect the patterns observed in the data and as reflected in Fig. 1. In addition, these periods also reflect average times to tenure, to promotion to full professor, and other temporal milestones.

  11. While not reported, the coefficient estimates for the dummy variables are statistically different from each other.

  12. These findings should be viewed with some caution due to the nature of the data and the possible associated selection bias reflected in the data for the most recent cohorts.

  13. We would like to thank an anonymous referee for suggesting the addition of this section.

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Acknowledgments

The authors are grateful to their colleagues, an anonymous reviewer, Johnny Chan, and Betty Simkins for useful comments but remain responsible for the contents.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. International Business and Finance, University of Akron, Akron, OH, 44325, USA

    Raj Aggarwal

  2. John Carroll University, University Heights, OH, 44118, USA

    David Schirm

  3. Kent State University, Kent, OH, 44242, USA

    Xinlei Zhao

Authors
  1. Raj Aggarwal
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  2. David Schirm
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  3. Xinlei Zhao
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Raj Aggarwal.

Appendix A: Finance Journals Included in this Study (Bold included in Social Science Citation Index)

Appendix A: Finance Journals Included in this Study (Bold included in Social Science Citation Index)

  • Advances in Futures and Options Research (AFOR)

  • Advances in Financial Planning and Forecasting (AFPF)

  • Advances in Investment Analysis and Portfolio Management (AIAPM)

  • Advances in Pacific Basin Business, Economics and Finance (APBBEF)

  • Advances in Quantitative Analysis of Finance and Accounting (AQAFA)

  • Advances in Working Capital Management (AWCM)

  • Applied Financial Economics (AFE)

  • Financial Analysts Journal (FAJ)

  • Financial Management (FM)

  • Financial Markets, Institutions and Instruments (FMII)

  • Financial Practice and Education (FPE)

  • Financial Review (FR)

  • Financial Services Review (FSR)

  • Geneva Papers on Risk and Insurance Theory (GENEVA)

  • Global Finance Journal (GFJ)

  • International Journal of Finance (IJF)

  • International Review of Economics and Finance (IREF)

  • International Review of Financial Analysis (IRFA)

  • Journal of Applied Corporate Finance (JACF)

  • Journal of Bank Research (JBR)

  • Journal of Banking of Finance (JBF)

  • Journal of Business (JB)

  • Journal of Business Finance and Accounting (JBF A)

  • Journal of Corporate Finance (JCF)

  • Journal of Economics and Finance (JEF)

  • Journal of Empirical Finance (JEMPF)

  • Journal of Finance (JF)

  • Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis (JFQA)

  • Journal of Financial Economics (JFEC)

  • Journal of Financial Education (JFED)

  • Journal of Financial Engineering (JFENG)

  • Journal of Financial Intermediation (JFI)

  • Journal of Financial Research (JFR)

  • Journal of Financial Services Research (JFSR)

  • Journal of Fixed Income (JFINC)

  • Journal of Futures Markets (JFM)

  • Journal of Housing Research (JHR)

  • Journal of International Financial Markets, Institutions & Money (JIFMIM)

  • Journal of International Money and Finance (JIMF)

  • Journal of Investing (JINV)

  • Journal of Money, Credit and Banking (JMCB)

  • Journal of Multinational Financial Management (JMFM)

  • Journal of Portfolio Management (JPM)

  • Journal of Real Estate Finance and Economics (JREFE)

  • Journal of Real Estate Literature (JREL)

  • Journal of Real Estate Research (JRER)

  • Journal of Risk and Insurance (JRI)

  • Journal of Risk and Uncertainty (JRU)

  • Journal of Small Business Finance (JSBF)

  • Journal of the Am. Real Estate & Urban Econ. Assoc. (AREUEA)

  • Mathematical Finance (MATHFIN)

  • Pacific-Basin Finance Journal (PBFJ)

  • Quarterly Review of Economics and Finance (QREF)

  • Recent Developments in International Banking and Finance (RDIBF)

  • Research in Finance (RIF)

  • Research in Financial Services (RFSER)

  • Review of Financial Economics (RFE)

  • Review of Financial Studies (RFS)

  • Review of Futures Markets (RFM)

  • Review of Quantitative Finance and Accounting (RQFA)

  • Source: Heck JL, 1996 The McGraw-Hill finance literature index Fifth Edition, McGraw Hill New York.

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Aggarwal, R., Schirm, D. & Zhao, X. Role models in finance: Lessons from life cycle productivity of prolific scholars. Rev Quant Finan Acc 28, 79–100 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11156-006-0004-9

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11156-006-0004-9

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