Recovering history: Using the Nobel lectures to identify hidden women in economic thought

Abstract

Women's historical contributions to the development of economic thought are often hidden or overlooked, demonstrating an example of the Matilda Effect. One way to identify more of these women is by identifying their work through the Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences prize lectures. In this study, I identify citations in the prize lectures from 1969 to 2009, the year when Elinor Ostrom won the prize. These lectures represent a novel data source to identify a substantial sample of women in the history of economic thought. I identified 125 women as authors in 165 citations and 29 women as editors in 34 citations. In total, 163 unique women are acknowledged in 198 unique citations. I provide a descriptive analysis of scholars and citations, including publication type, longevity, and field. I also classify types of contributions within the discipline, from authorship, editorship, and manuscript support. I find that the Nobel lectures provide an important resource for identifying more women who made significant contributions to the development of economic thought, and I provide a public database that supports research on a credit attribution gap in the literature.