  In this work we examine the relationship between research performance, age,
and seniority in academic rank of full professors in the Italian academic
system. Differently from a large part of the previous literature, our results
generally show a negative monotonic relationship between age and research
performance, in all the disciplines under analysis. We also highlight a
positive relationship between seniority in rank and performance, occurring
particularly in certain disciplines. While in Medicine, Biology and Chemistry
this result could be explained by the "accumulative advantage" effect, in other
disciplines, like Civil engineering and Pedagogy and Psychology, it could be
due to the existence of a large performance differential between young and
mature researchers, at the moment of the promotion to full professors. These
results, witnessed both generally and at the level of the individual
disciplines, offer useful insights for policy makers and academia
administrators on the role of older professors.
