Who Are the More Dismal Economists? Gender and Language in Academic Economics Research

Research in disciplines outside of economics has found that male-authored articles often exhibit a positivity bias in writing style and are more likely to portray their results as "novel" and "progressive" than female-authored articles. Such positively marketed research has also been found to garner more citations over time. The primary question this research asks is whether writing style in academic economics research differs by gender and, in particular, whether the positivity bias differs by gender. It appears that it does and that this does affect citation rates, to the detriment of articles with any level of female authorship.