The Journal of Population Economics, an independent and international quarterly journal that publishes original theoretical and applied research in all areas of population economics, has been hosted by the ‘POP Centre‘ at UNU-MERIT since April 2016. Issue 1/2017, published on 29 October 2016, marks an important landmark for the journal, as it enters its 30th year of successful academic service. We celebrate three decades of dedication in publishing outstanding theoretical and insightful applied research in all areas of population economics.
When the first issue was published in 1988, population economics was a rather peripheral field in economics without a dedicated platform for studying, discussing, and publishing such research. However, there was a rising interest in the area inspired by the path-breaking contributions of Jakob Mincer, Gary Becker, Richard Easterlin, Marc Nerlove and Robert Fogel, among others. Hence, the aim has been to provide a high-quality outlet to publish excellent theoretical and applied research in all areas of population economics.
"The core of every economy is its population and a dedicated journal was long overdue when the Journal of Population Economics was launched. With our stagnant populations, ageing and immigration the topics on which it focuses will become more important than ever. As it turns 30 it promises to occupy an ever-important place in the profession and we should all be thankful for its existence."
Sir Christopher Pissarides, Regius Professor of Economics at the London School of Economics, Nobel Prize Winner in Economics
Today, topical issues related to population economics such as the demographic composition of the labour force, including ageing populations, migration and refugees, declining fertility rates and many more policy-relevant topics have been at the fore.
Throughout the decades, the Journal of Population Economics has been at the forefront of population economics research and has strongly established itself as the leading outlet in the field of population economics. Many views on the Journal by Nobel Laureates and leading academics from economics, history, sociology, political science and demography included in the editorial of issue 01/2017 bear testament to this.
The article “Three decades of publishing research in population economics” highlights and reviews selected developments in the very successful 30 years of publishing high-quality research in population economics. First, the editorial developments of the Journal are comparable to those of top economics journals. Second, the Journal is indeed a global journal in reach and authorship. Third, its impact factor and rankings illustrate the success of the Journal and place and qualify it as the leading journal in population economics. In 2015 the Simple Impact Factor was 1.139 and the five-year impact factor was 1.509. IDEAS/RePEc ranks the Journal of Population Economics based on its Simple Impact Factor for Journals as number 70 of 1,661 studied journals.
Furthermore, the article discusses the benefits of working papers in economics and investigate the impacts of the present working paper culture on journal citations. Finally, we try to identify the citation impacts in the Journal itself. Clearly, working papers are working in economics: playing an important role in terms of information, dissemination and informal review, while also generating early citations for the author. Potential citation losses are of course to be expected for the published journal article, in favour of the working paper version, but in some cases the latter may actually generate additional citations for the journal. And ultimately, peer-reviewed journal publication remains essential to provide the necessary quality certification.
The issue also contains fascinating articles reflecting the breadth and originality of research in population economics. The issue also contains fascinating articles reflecting the breadth and originality of research in population economics. It will be freely accessible until 15 December 2016.
Kuznets Prize
Issue 1/2017 also awards the Kuznets Prize for the best paper published in 2016 in the Journal of Population Economics. The Journal awards the Kuznets Prize named after Simon Kuznets, a pioneer in population economics, the late Professor Emeritus at Harvard University and the 1971 Nobel Prize laureate in economics, to strengthen excellence in population economics.
The 2017 Kuznets Prize goes to Binnur Balkan and Semih Tumen from the Central Bank of the Republic of Turkey for their article “Immigration and prices: quasi-experimental evidence from Syrian refugees in Turkey,” Journal of Population Economics (2016), 29(3), pp. 657-686.
The authors exploit the regional variation in the unexpected (or forced) inflow of Syrian refugees as a natural experiment to estimate the impact of immigration on consumer prices in Turkey. Using a difference-in-differences strategy and a comprehensive data set on the regional prices of CPI items, they find that the general level of consumer prices has declined by approximately 2.5% due to immigration. Prices of goods and services have declined in similar magnitudes. The authors highlight that the channel through which the price declines take place is the informal labour market. Syrian refugees supply inexpensive informal labour and, thus, substitute the informal native workers especially in informal-labour intensive sectors. They document that prices in these sectors have fallen by around 4%, while the prices in the formal labour-intensive sectors have almost remained unchanged. Increase in the supply of informal immigrant workers generates labour cost advantages and keeps prices lower in the informal labour-intensive sectors.
Since the beginning the Journal of Population Economics has been published in cooperation with the European Society for Population Economics and with Springer – Verlag as the publisher. The Journal of Population Economics owes its success to its excellent authors, editorial boards, referees, Springer-Verlag and its many host institutions and partners over the years. We look forward to many more years with many more success stories!
Journal of Population Economics Issue 01/2017
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UN Photo / Logan Abassi
