Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/289446 
Year of Publication: 
2024
Series/Report no.: 
ZEW Discussion Papers No. 24-010
Publisher: 
ZEW - Leibniz-Zentrum für Europäische Wirtschaftsforschung, Mannheim
Abstract: 
How important is Google for scientific research? This paper exploits the exogenous shock represented by Google's sudden withdrawal of its services from mainland China to assess the importance of access to information for the knowledge production function of scientific scholars in the field of economics. For economists, a type of scholar with a simple knowledge production function, results from difference-in-difference analyses, which compare their scientific output to scholars located in the neighboring regions, show that the scientific productivity declines by about 28% in volume and 30% in terms of citations. These results are consistent with the view that information accessibility is an important driver of scientific progress. Considering that the negative effect of the shock is stronger for top scholars located in China, Google's sudden exit bears the risk that researchers lose touch with the research frontier and persistently lag behind their foreign peers.
Subjects: 
information accessibility
academic publications
knowledge production
Google
China
JEL: 
D83
L86
Document Type: 
Working Paper

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