On Importance of Main Economic Categories: Jel Codes Analysis

This article contributes to an increasing number of papers on economic profession and deals with analysis both the most popular categories for the period 1998–2007 and their dynamics over time. We use data on topics covered by papers published in years 1998–2008 given by codes of Journal of Economics Literature (JEL) classification system. The data are analyzed not only by using descriptive statistics but also by applying tools of frequentist trend. We show that an increase in the number of papers published is connected with an increase in the number of different JEL codes used. Moreover we study the importance of different sub-fields of economics, how it is changing over time. Aggregation of JEL codes may influence observed trends. Using most detailed JEL codes allows to observe some phenomena not visible in case of aggregation.