The Link Between Standardization and Economic Growth: A Bibliometric Analysis

TL;DR

This paper systematically reviews literature and finds that the role of standardization in economic growth has been largely overlooked in top economics journals, researcher work, and textbooks.

Contribution

It provides the first bibliometric analysis highlighting the neglect of standardization's impact on economic growth in major economic literature.

Findings

No articles in top5 journals on this topic (1996-2018)

Leading researchers have paid little attention to standardization

Economics textbooks rarely mention standards or standardization

Abstract

We analyze the link between standardization and economic growth by systematically reviewing leading economics journals, leading economic growth researchers' articles, and economic growth-related books. We make the following observations: 1) No article has analyzed the link between standardization and economic growth in top5 economics journals between 1996 and 2018. 2) A representative sample of the leading researchers of economic growth has allocated little attention to the link between standardization and economic growth. 3) Typically, economic growth textbooks do not contain "standards" or "standardization" in their word indexes. These findings suggest that the economic growth theory has neglected the role of standardization.