Exploring the Role of Social Media in the Diffusion of Economic Research

For more than a decade, social media has become a key channel for knowledge dissemination used by scientists as a whole, and economists in particular. However, its role in the diffusion of knowledge is understudied. This article investigates the role of social media visibility of working papers on diffusion outcomes. While previous studies focused on the diffusion of STEM research, this article explores the diffusion of economic research. To do so, a data set of all NBER working papers published between 2015-2018, covering their social media mentions, as well as bibliometric and altmetric indicators, is used. To estimate the causal effect of social media visibility, an instrumental variable approach, leveraging quasi-random variation in social media posting policy of the NBER's communication office, is employed. The results indicate heterogeneity in the role social media play in the diffusion of economic research. Increased social media visibility of working papers positively affects the likelihood and the extent to which research is diffused to public discourse (measured by blog and news mentions), within the first year from publication, as well as within the scientific community (measured by academic citations), four years post-publication. No effect on citations in policy documents was found. Lastly, the likelihood to publish a working paper in a peer reviewed journal is found to be unrelated to social media visibility of the working paper. The results of this paper provide evidence for the role social media play in the diffusion of economic knowledge.