The market for economic research in peru

This report characterizes the market for economic research in Peru today, in terms of its size, significant components, workding conditions, research production, and nature of demand. It does so in order to seek answers to the following questions

How big is the market for economic research? Who does this research and unde what working conditions?
Within this market, what is the nature of the product (i.e., the research), in terms of quality, timeliness, and empirical relevance?
Viewing economic research as a public good, what are the sources of demand? That is, what groups benefit fromt he production of economic research?
Finally, the question that is both the most basic and the most difficult, is the market working well? Are demanders getting what they want? And are suppliers also getting what they want, that is, are they staying in the market for the foreseeable future?

These questions are posed out of a concern that the market may not in fact be working well, at least in some significant dimensions, and out of a conviction that improvement in its functioning can be assisted by a better understanding for its present shortcomings.

The paper is organized into the following sections: In section 2, an estimate is made of the size of the market, and also of its most basic structural characteristics, in terms of type of employer and of research activity. Section 3 discusses and estimates income requirements. These are the reservation wages required to keep economists active in research activities. Section 4 describes the research process, how research is most often organized and undertaken, and what shortcomings seem to exist in the process. Section 5 discusses publication options and their effect on research quality. Section 6 briefly discusses the sources of demand and the characteristics of the product demanded. This section emphasizes the distinction between private demand and demand for a public good. Section 7 gives a brief survey of the areas of economics most attended to by recent research efforts. Sections 8 and 9 analyze in greater depth two types of potential demand that lack funding, adn which can be justified only as public goods: Demand for economic information in public discussion through the media, and demand for teaching materials in university economics courses. Finally, sections 10 and 11 present conclusions and recommendations.