Volume 21, Number 2 (Spring) 1986
Diamond, Arthur M., Jr. 1986. "What is a Citation Worth?" Journal of Human Resources 21(2):200-215.
A robust finding in all studies is that citations are a positive and significant determinant of earnings over almost all of the observed range of citation levels. The marginal value of a citation (when the level of citations is zero) varies between $50 and $1,300. Some differences in marginal values may be due to differences in citation practices among disciplines while others may be due to differences among the studies in the control variables included in the salary regressions. Finally, no gain in explanatory power results from the inclusion in the salary regression of the costly nonfirst-author citation measure.
The author is an assistant professor of economics at the Ohio State University. The research was in part conducted while the author was a postdoctoral fellow supported by the Sloan Foundation. The Walgreen Foundation provided funds for the collection and processing of the data. Able research assistance was provided by Gregory Armotrading, Dae-hyun Baek, Patricia Campana, Blair Gifford, Bolivar Ramos, James Rasulo, Myriam Rasulo, John Robb, Kwang-Shik Shin, James Thomas. and Kathryn L. Williams. He is grateful for suggestions from Aloysius Siow, Daniel Hammermesh, W. Lee Hansen. and an anonymous referee.
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