Measuring productivity of research in economics. A cross-country study using DEA.

Using a sample of 21 OECD-countries we measure productivity in
top-edge economic research by using data envelopment analysis
(DEA). DEA is a tool for evaluating relative efficiency and is
widely used when there are multiple inputs and outputs and one
lacks a specific functional form of a production function. The
publications in 10 economics journals with the highest average
impact factor over the time period 1980-1998 are taken as research
output. Inputs are measured by R&D expenditures, number of
universities with economics departments and (as uncontrolled
variable) total population. Under constant returns-to-scale the USA
are in dominant position with remarkable distance to other
countries. Under variable returns-to-scale the efficiency frontier
is created by the USA with most productive scale size (MPSS), and
by Ireland and New Zealand, which are technical efficient but scale
inefficient. All countries - except the USA - display increasing
returns-to-scale, which shows that they have a possibility to
improve their efficiency by scaling up their research activities.