The Rise of Health Economics: Transforming the Landscape of Economic Research

Abstract: This paper explores the evolving role of health economics within economic research and publishing over the past 30 years. Historically largely a niche field, health economics has become increasingly prominent, with the share of health economics papers in top journals growing significantly. We aim to identify the factors behind this rise, examining how health economics contributes to the broader economic knowledge base and the roles distinct subfields play. Using a combination of bibliometric methods and natural language processing, we classify abstracts to define health economics. Our findings suggest that the mainstreaming of health economics is driven by innovative, high-quality research, with notable cyclicality in quality ratings that highlights the emergence and impact of distinct subfields within the discipline.