The Economics of Nobel Laureates

From Wikipedia

Previous studies on Nobel Laureates include Jones (2010) and Jones and Weinberg (2012). They find that innovations that resulted in Nobel Prizes are made increasingly later in life, a trend which can be observed across all disciplines. Weinberg and Galenson (2005) distinguish between two types of innovators and show that experimental scholars do their most important work later in life than conceptual laureates. Rablen and Oswald (2008) estimate that receiving a Nobel Prize raises life expectancy by between one and two years. 

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In a related paper, Ellison (2011) confirms that the productivity of all cohorts of economists at Harvard University’s economics department has remained high. But he also observes that these top economists have become less likely to publish in refereed journals. This tendency suggests that peer reviewed journals are losing importance relative to e.g. working papers as means of dissemination of research results for economists affiliated with top institutions.

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