Research on Development Issues from the Southern World

Using a detailed database of articles published in top development journals, we analyze the publications of researchers based in Africa, Asia and Latin America during the period from 1990-2019, as well as the relevance of the articles that dealt with these southern regions in the development economic literature. Our results indicate that almost 75% of publications in top development journals are written by researchers not based in southern regions. The marginalization of southern-based researchers is also shown by the composition of editorial teams of development journals. The northern-based researchers’ prevalence is amplified by the fact that they publish in better qualified journals and are more often cited than are their counterparts from developing countries. Despite the lower share of southern-based researchers, in the past thirty years, collaborations between northern- and southern-based researchers have grown significantly, suggesting a potential decline in the relative academic isolation of southern scholars that may work to boost quality research and access to academic development.