Economics Nobel laureates used to publish a lot in sociology journals

It turns out that a surprising number of economics Nobel laureates have dabbled in sociology. Collectively, 18 laureates (that is, almost one fifth of all laureates) published 25 papers in sociology journals.

(I’m taking a pretty restrictive approach to counting the papers. Only indisputably sociological journals are included. All demography journals, where many laureates have published many papers, are excluded. Book reviews, interviews, reprints, replies, rejoinders, and the like are all excluded.)

Here are some observations I found interesting:

• Elinor Ostrom and James Heckman are the biggest fans of sociology, each publishing four papers.
• Perhaps unsurprisingly, Rationality and Society is the journal most liked by the laureates, claiming 44% of the papers.
• Only 16% of the papers were published post-prize, which perhaps makes sense from a life-cycle perspective.
• Did the sociology publications contribute to their winning the prize? Maybe yes in the case of Thomas Schelling and Oliver Williamson, as their most and third most cited articles, respectively, were published in sociology journals.
• Most strikingly, the laureates seem to have lost interest in mingling with sociologists:
  • The number of sociology publications peaked in the 1990s, then there have been only three in the 21st century so far. Since Robert Solow published a note in 2017, these giants have stopped setting foot in sociology altogether.
  • The reason why I got curious about these data in the first place is that I’ve had a mixed impression of economics, which seems both imperialist and secluded. Maybe the change over time reconciles this: maybe economists used to be much more imperialist but have become less interested in reaching across the disciplinary aisle.

Articles published by economics Nobel laureates in sociology journals