Econometric approaches to the measurement of research productivity

The measurement of research productivity is receiving more and more attention. Besides scholars that are interested in understanding how research works and evolves over time, there are supranational, national and local governments, and national evaluation agencies, as well as various stakeholders, including managers of academic and research institutions, scholars and more generally the wider public, who are interested in the accountability and transparency of the scholarly production process. The main objective of this chapter is to analyze econometric approaches to research productivity and efficiency, highlighting what econometric approaches to research assessment can offer and what their benefit is, compared to traditional bibliometric or informetric approaches. We describe the nature of, and the ambiguities connected to, the measurement of research productivity, as well as the potential of econometric approaches for research measurement and assessment. Finally, we propose a checklist when developing econometric models of research assessment as a starting point for further research.