Abstract

Citation indexes have attracted substantial interest from both scholars and policy-makers in recent years. This paper illustrates the potential and limitations of the use of bibliometric indicators to assess the scientific productivity of research units (e.g., a single researcher or department). The main citation indexes are computed for a representative sample of 1327 Italian academic economists (secs p/01, p/02, p/03). Our analysis highlights the limited sensitivity of bibliometric rankings with respect to the citation indexes (h, g, g*, f, t, Fmax) and, vice versa, a greater sensitivity with respect to the database (Scopus, WoS, EconLit, Google Scholar). Finally, our estimates reveal that faculty position, Scientific Disciplinary Sector (SSD), geographic location, and, in some regressions, the size of the university, explain approximately 20% of the variance in scholars' bibliometric performance.