Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/324440 
Year of Publication: 
2025
Series/Report no.: 
Cardiff Economics Working Papers No. E2025/14
Publisher: 
Cardiff University, Cardiff Business School, Cardiff
Abstract: 
We present evidence for taste-based discrimination against Chinese first authors in economic citations. We utilize a gravity model of citations and interpret the bias as a negative effect of "cultural distance". After controlling for quality as well as author-, paper-, and journal-specific attributes, publications with a Chinese first author receive 14% less citations. Coauthoring with non-Chinese does not mitigate the discrimination at all. While being affiliated with a US-based institute slightly reduces the bias by dampening the perceived "Chineseness", it is not big enough to offset the discriminatory effect. Moreover, the COVID pandemic exacerbated the discriminatory effect. The forensic analysis narrowed down the source of discrimination to non-Chinese top economists from non-US affiliations.
Subjects: 
Ethnic Discrimination
Citation
Publication
Knowledge Diffusion
JEL: 
J15
J16
J44
J71
Document Type: 
Working Paper

Files in This Item:
File
Size





Items in EconStor are protected by copyright, with all rights reserved, unless otherwise indicated.