Embedding GroupThink: Assessing the Spread of Neoliberal Ideas and Influence

This memo outlines key concepts and the methodological approach involved in a recently funded Institute for New Economic Thinking project. Our aim is to pinpoint the relationship between the reception of academic ideas, traced by citation networks with qualitative coding, and positions of institutional and political power. This is our first cut at citation analysis for the project. This memo details a test assessment, taking discussions over fiscal policy from the American Economic Review during the years 1969-1974 and 2009-2014. Our broader project examines a longer period (1964-2014) on fiscal and monetary policy, as well as broader trends. As such, this memo simply tests our application of the citation network to real content and seeks to identify pitfalls that will assist us once the larger project is up and running.