What Has Mattered to Economics Since 1970

Citations are one way that past research echoes through time. In this paper, we compile a list of articles published in major refereed economics journals in the last 35 years that have received more than 500 citations as of June 2006. We then use this list to examine various trends: what fields of economics are most in vogue; what types of articles generate the most interest; and which institutions host the production of these articles and train their authors.