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Categorizing and Ranking Graphs in Economics Research: The American Economic Review over the Last Century

Categorizing and Ranking Graphs in Economics Research: The American Economic Review over the Last... Abstract How do economists use graphs, and do they use them well? Using Amazon’s Mechanical Turk, I provide evidence to these questions by exploring more than 2600 graphs published in the first issue of the American Economic Review from 1911 to 2017. I find that economists use a lot of line charts – more than 80% of the total sample are line charts. I also find that the share of graphs that use data (as opposed to diagrams) fell over the first half of the century and then increased from about the early 1980s to today, correlated with perceived graph quality. http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png Journal of Benefit-Cost Analysis Cambridge University Press

Categorizing and Ranking Graphs in Economics Research: The American Economic Review over the Last Century

Journal of Benefit-Cost Analysis , Volume 13 (1): 14 – Mar 1, 2022

Categorizing and Ranking Graphs in Economics Research: The American Economic Review over the Last Century

s1.sIntroductionsFirst published in 1911, The American Economic Review (AER) stands as one of the most prestigious journals in the field of economics. Thousands of articles published over the last 117 years raises a question of design: How have economists used graphs to help visualize their arguments? What kinds of graphs do they use and are those graphs of high quality? Here, I collect, catalog, and rate every graph – more than 2600 in total – in the first volume of the AER in each year from 1911 to 2017.sData visualization – the act of effectively visualizing data to help communicate data, analysis, or an argument – has always been part of the economists’ toolbox. Whether as part of the data exploration phase to better understand the underlying data or the structural model, the graph or chart inserted in the working paper or journal article, or as part of a conference presentation, graphs provide evidence or reinforce a point or argument. In his book Brain Rules, developmental molecular biologist John Medina writes that “The more visual an input becomes, the more likely it is to be recognized and recalled.” In other words, visuals help make a hypothesis, argument, or result stick in the readers’, users’, or audience members’ minds.sThere is a balance between the benefits and costs of creating better, more visual ways to present information. On the one hand, creating more effective visualizations takes time, effort, and an understanding of other fields such as design. On the other hand, better data visualizations can improve engagement and interest in every research topic. We are inherently visual creatures and effective visual content helps engage readers and absorb information (Medina, 2011; Mason, 2019). Ibrahim et al. (2017), for example, found that journal articles in the Annals of Surgery that included a “visual abstract” (“a visual representation of the key findings typically...
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Publisher
Cambridge University Press
Copyright
© The Author(s), 2022. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of the Society for Benefit-Cost Analysis
ISSN
2152-2812
eISSN
2194-5888
DOI
10.1017/bca.2021.17
Publisher site
See Article on Publisher Site

Abstract

Abstract How do economists use graphs, and do they use them well? Using Amazon’s Mechanical Turk, I provide evidence to these questions by exploring more than 2600 graphs published in the first issue of the American Economic Review from 1911 to 2017. I find that economists use a lot of line charts – more than 80% of the total sample are line charts. I also find that the share of graphs that use data (as opposed to diagrams) fell over the first half of the century and then increased from about the early 1980s to today, correlated with perceived graph quality.

Journal

Journal of Benefit-Cost AnalysisCambridge University Press

Published: Mar 1, 2022

Keywords: American Economic Review; data visualization; Mechanical Turk; A12; Y1

References