Bibliometrics vs. Diversity in the Top Academic Career Positions in Economics in Italy

Following an international trend, Italy has reformed its university system, especially concerning methods and tools for research evaluation, which are increasingly focused on a number of bibliometric indexes. To study the impact of these changes, we analyse the changing profiles of economists who have won competitions for full professorship in the last few decades in Italy. We concentrate on individual characteristics and mainly on scientific production. We show that the identification of a univocal and standardized concept of “research quality” within the new research assessments has progressively imposed a strategy of “homologation”, especially for women. We find that women economists are at a higher risk of discrimination than their male colleagues and thus they are more likely to conform their research activities to the standardized profile imposed by the gender-blind application of biased bibliometric methods.