  The COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted traditional academic collaboration
patterns, offering a unique opportunity to analyze the influence of peer
effects and collaboration dynamics on research productivity. Using a novel
network dataset, this paper investigates the role of peer effects on the
productivity of economists, as measured by their publication count, during both
pre-pandemic and pandemic periods. The results indicate that peer effects were
significant in the pre-pandemic period but not during the pandemic.
Additionally, the study sheds light on gender and race differences. These
findings enhance our understanding of how research collaboration impacts
knowledge production and provide insights that may inform policies aimed at
promoting collaboration and boosting research productivity within the academic
community.
