Age and productivity of university faculties: a case study

Abstract

This article is a case study of the relationship between the age of persons who are members of the two academic finance associations and the number of articles that they wrote during the period 1975 through 1978. Many of these persons are also known as economists. Attention was focused on articles written in four leading finance journals. Some articles appearing in these journals were written by persons who were not members of finance departments. Their articles in refereed journals other than the leading finance journals were counted also. Productivity of those publishing reached a peak of 0.92 articles per person per year for those able to publish in the four leading finance journals. This peak, which was for the 36- to 40-yr-old group, declined to about half that rate for the 56- to 60-yr-old group. The proportion of the membership who did not publish rose irregularly as a function of age and was above 0.90 for the 61 yr and older group. The reasons for the declining productivity are summarized from a survey of business school deans. Suggestions that have been made for maintaining productivity are reviewed.