Accumulating Knowledge over the Economist's Lifetime
研究了经济学家的阅读行为，发现基础知识的阅读强度随经验每年下降3%至6%，而应用知识的投资保持不变；数学背景的经济学家在应用文献上需12至15年才能赶上非数学背景的同行。
In this paper the reading behaviour of economists is examined to see whether particular types of knowledge-basic and applied-imply different investment patterns. The reading intensity of papers containing advanced economics declines with 3 to 6% per year of experience, although researchers and economists with a mathematical background start with a higher initial stock of knowledge of this type of literature. Investment in applied knowledge remains constant over time. Applied literature is not frequent read by mathematical economists, although they catch up with their non-mathematical colleagues in 12 to 15 years time. Besides the nature of knowledge, institutional incentives seem to matter. First, business and government economists concentrate on applied literature and new magazines. Second, the introduction of 'American' style graduate schools in Dutch academia has not brought about a fundamental change in the reading of advanced literature, but there are some signs that 'American' style PhDs are turning away from the locally applied economic literature.