Developments and Changes in Economics of Education in Recent Three Decades: a Visualized Analysis Using Citespace

Abstract

From 1990 to 2018, the research in economics of education exploded because of many reasons. Through the CiteSpace, this paper firstly analyzes the quantity, country, research institution and journal of the comprehensive literature records retrieved by the General Search Strategy, and shows the characteristics of the developments in economics of education. The results show that the fourth development in economics of education research exploded dramatically in recent 10-15 years; the United States is the main force and the research universities are at the forefront in the research field; and the literature about economics of education published in economic journals is the most influential. Then, this paper conducts the co-citation analysis and cluster analysis of the high-quality literature records in recent three decades retrieved by the Cream-skimming Search Strategy. It forms 8 clustering themes, which are private return, social return, does money matter, class size, teacher quality, does school quality matter, non-school inputs, and accountability. The developments in economics of education research can be further facilitated by constructing educational databases, improving internationalization exchange, and strengthening interdisciplinary integration.