Global pattern of science funding in economics

Based on the original data of 100,275 SSCI indexed papers in the field of economics in 2009–2014, this work applied scientometrics and network analysis methods to study the funding pattern of funding ratio, impacts, indices’ relationship and collaboration structure in major countries/territories. Results show that, unlike the notable standing of economics, the global funding ratio of economics in 2009–2014 is just 8.3 %, much lower than the average level of social sciences. Although USA seems to be far ahead in the innovation of economics, the coverage of its science funding has been not widespread. By contrast, the funding ratio of China ranks highest, but the effect of funding needs to be strengthened. We observe an approximate power–law relationship among three basic measures of funded economics papers, including citations, total numbers and h-indexes. The cooperation researches in economics present a key structure of three main components: USA as the central part, a core group of Asia Pacific and another core group of Europe. The collaboration pattern of continents is largely based on the connection between Europe and USA.