Economics in Latin America: a bibliometric analysis

Abstract

Bibliometrics is a research field that studies quantitatively the bibliographic material. This study analyzes the academic research developed in Latin America in economics between 1994 and 2013. The article uses the Web of Science database in order to collect the information and provides several bibliometric indicators including the total number of publications and citations, and the h-index. The results indicate that Brazil, Mexico, Chile, Argentina and Colombia are the only countries with a significant amount of publications in economics in Web of Science although Costa Rica and Uruguay have considerable results in per capita terms. The annual evolution shows a significant increase during the last 5 years that seems to continue in the future, probably with the objective of reaching similar standards than the most competitive countries around the World. The results also show that development, agricultural and health economics are the most significant topics in the region.