The Economics Twitosphere Top 100 Influential Users: An Algorithmic Approach

[Title edited after comments on the use of the word "Economists". We switch to "Economics Twitosphere" which is closer to what the algorithm really identify] How is it possible to measure online influence on Twitter? And how to identify the top 100 most influential Twitter accounts related to economics? To address this issue, and following a methodology inspired by the working paper "Measuring User Influence in Twitter: The Million Follower Fallacy", we develop a pretty simple program in Python to extract data about followership relation on Twitter, and we use an algorithm close to the "Google PageRank" to classify and rank account by influence. We cluster data using Force Atlas algorithm and we use Gephi to draw the wonderfuuuuuul graph you'll see at the end of this article. But how does it work more precisely? Let's try to explain this step-by-step, using "nongeek" lexicon (if you just want to see the graph and/or the final list, you can directly go to the end of this article).

 

Step 1 - Identify a list of five influential economists on Twitter : We first need to define manually (subjectively) a closed list of 5 influential economists. We try to be as objective as possible, and we finally choose the five following accounts (3 Nobel Prize winners, and two economists with respectively 70K+ and 300K+ followers). This list can be criticized, but we find that our results are robust to the initial list used.

• Paul Krugman (@NYTimeskrugman)
• Joseph Stiglitz (@JosephEStiglitz)
• Robert Shiller (@RobertJShiller)
• Justin Wolfers (@JustinWolfers)
• Nouriel Roubini (@Roubini)
  
  

Step 2 - Extract all the account followed by those five accounts: We use Twitter API to extract and insert into a database the Twitter ID of all the accounts followed by users from the list defined above... For example, Justin Wolfers follows 587 other users, so we add all those users to our database. And we've done the same thing for Krugman (who follows only 2 users), Stiglitz (78), Shiller (23) and Roubini (381).

 

 

Step 3 - Identify the nineteen "most commonly followed users": We make the hypothesis that when influential users commonly follow another user, then this user should also be influential. We identify the nineteen "most commonly followed Twitter Account" and add those accounts to our user database. Why 19 ? Simply because we will use 5 iterations (adding 5 times the 19 most commonly followed accounts), and 19*5 + 5 = 100. For example, Branko Milanovic (@BrankoMilan) is followed by Stiglitz, Roubini and Wolfers, so we add him to the list. Other influential accounts identified this way during the first iteration include Bradford DeLong (@delong), Austan Goolsbee (@Austan_Goolsbee), Richard Thaler (@R_Thaler), Jason Furman (@CEAChair), Project-Syndicate (@Prosyn) and the National Bureau of Economic Research (@nberpubs). The graph below shows the links between the 24 users after the first iteration. Links are directed (showing when an account follows another one) and the size of the node depends on entrant links. 

 

 

Step 4 - Go back to Step 2 and extract information about the nineteen new accounts 

Step 5 - Go back to Step 3 and add the "nineteen most commonly followed users": Using the list from the previous graph of 24 accounts, instead of the initial list of 5 accounts. And again and again, until reaching 100 accounts

 

Step 6 - Open Gephi to use a "PageRank-like" classification, to clusterize data and to create a graph: And it's over! So here is the final graph, and below the list of the 100 most influential accounts identified with our methodology. The size of the node represents influence and the distance between two nodes depends on the similarity between accounts. It's far from perfect of course (our initial goal was to identify "economists", and we end up with quite a lot of journalists talking about economics and finance... but journalists are very active and influent on Twitter so it's not a big surprise), but actually we are pretty happy with the final list, as it is consistent with our (limited and biased) views of the "Twitter economic network". And the winners are ....

Top 100

Adam Davidson	Co-founder of NPR's Planet Money. On Money columnist, NY Times Magazine.
Adam Posen	President, Peterson Institute for International Economics; advises central banks & governments, and fixed income investors; proclaiming on policy daily
Alan B. Krueger	Professor of Economics at Princeton University, Former Chairman of the President's Council of Economic Advisers
Amir Sufi	Chicago Board of Trade Professor of Finance at Chicago Booth, co-director IGM at Chicago Booth, book House of Debt now available!!
Andrew Ross Sorkin	New York Times Columnist & CNBC Squawk Box (@SquawkCNBC) Co-Anchor. Author, Too Big To Fail. Founder, @DealBook. Proud father. RTs ≠ endorsements
Annie Lowrey	I write about the economy for @nymag.
Atul Gawande	Surgeon, Writer, Researcher, Dilettante.
Austan Goolsbee	Econ prof at U.Chicago's Booth School of Business and former Chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers. Strategic partner, @32Advisors
Barry Eichengreen	George C. Pardee and Helen N. Pardee Professor of Economics and Political Science, University of California, Berkeley, NBER Research Associate, CEPR Res Fellow
Barry Ritholtz	Director of Cognitive Dissonance
Ben Casselman	Chief economics writer for @fivethirtyeight. Formerly with the Wall Street Journal. Links/RTs are not endorsements.
Ben Smith	BuzzFeed Editor-in-Chief. Beats working for a living. Email or gchat me at ben@buzzfeed.com. AIM benobserver.
Ben White	POLITICO Chief Economic Correspondent and Morning Money columnist, CNBC contributor, dad. ex NYT, FT, WP. RTs mean I love you.
Betsey Stevenson	Former Chief Economist at Labor. Current academic economist at Michigan. Always an economist at home.
Betsey Stevenson	Member of President Obama's Council of Economic Advisers. Tweets may be archived. More at http://t.co/QjVMIjASt0.
Binyamin Appelbaum	Washington correspondent for The New York Times. bappelbaum@nytimes.com
Blake Hounshell	Editorial director, digital, at POLITICO, formerly at Foreign Policy. Mostly international, some politics. RT means it's interesting. bhounshell[at]politico
brad plumer	Senior editor at http://t.co/NQERH88gK8. On the apocalypse beat, more or less.
Branko Milanovic	1) Income inequality; 2) Politics; 3) History; 4) Soccer. Author of The Haves and the Have-nots: A brief and idiosyncratic history of global inequality.
Brookings Econ	Aims to increase understanding of how the economy works and what can be done to help it work better.
Cardiff Garcia	Cold shower, always running. Opinions are mine, obviously, but why aren't they yours?
Cass Sunstein	Professor of Law, interested in behavioral economics.
Catherine Rampell	Opinion columnist at @washingtonpost. Previously econ reporter/moonlighting theater critic at @nytimes.
Christopher Hayes	Host of All In with Chris Hayes on MSNBC, Weeknights at 8pm. Editor at Large at The Nation. Cubs fan.
Chrystia Freeland	Liberal MP for Toronto Centre. Author. Proud wife and mother of three. Runner when I can squeeze it in.
Dani Rodrik
Daniel Drezner	Professor @FletcherSchool. Writer of Spoiler Alerts @washingtonpost. Author of The System Worked http://t.co/25PEMgHcK8. Shaker of hands with Mel Brooks.
Daniel Gross	Executive Editor, Strategy + Business. Author of books. Writer of columns at Slate, DailyBeast, Newsweek, Yahoo!. Purveyor of one-liners.
daveweigel	Roving reporter for @bpolitics. Finishing a book about progressive rock (W.W. Norton, 2015). daveweigel@gmail.com, 302-507-6806.
David Frum	Senior Editor, The Atlantic. Chairman, Policy Exchange. David.Frum(at)theAtlantic(dot)com
David Leonhardt	Now: editor, The Upshot, for NYT. Then: DC bureau chief, Here's the Deal e-book, Pulitzer for commentary, math major. Still: Jim Rice, ma la, Art Blakey
David Wessel	Director, Hutchins Center on Fiscal & Monetary Policy, Brookings institution. Contributing correspondent, The Wall Street Journal
Dean Baker	I am an economist and co-director of the Center for Economic and Policy Research. I also run the blog Beat the Press (@beat_the_press)
Derek Thompson	Senior editor @TheAtlantic. Economics of work and play. Mondays @hereandnow. EMAIL: derek[at]theatlantic[dot]com
Donald Marron	Economist and nature lover. Director of Economic Policy Initiatives & Institute Fellow @UrbanInstitute. Writer about economics, finance, and life.
Douglas Holtz-Eakin	President of the American Action Forum (@AAF), Fmr. CBO Director, and @twizzlers fanatic.
Dylan Matthews	I know, I know, I don't like me either. Retweets are proposals of marriage.
Eduardo Porter	Journalist and author. Write Economic Scene column for NYT. Author of The Price of Everything.
Erik Brynjolfsson	Economics of information and information technology, digitization, strategy, business intelligence. Co-author of The Second Machine Age #2MA
Evan Soltas	Bloomberg View. Vox. Princeton.
Ezra Klein	Editor-in-chief, http://t.co/hH5hVMv0KR. Policy analyst at MSNBC. Eater of food. Hater of filibuster. Lover of charts.
Farhad Manjoo	I write about technology for the New York Times. Anyone can DM me. I prefer DM PR pitches. farhad.manjoo@nytimes.com Snapchat: fmanjoo
Felix Salmon	To test the resolution of the young with tales of the small failings of the great, and shame the eager with ironic praise.
FiveThirtyEight	The home of Nate Silver's FiveThirtyEight on Twitter. Politics, Economics, Science, Life, Sports.
Garance Franke-Ruta	Editor in Chief, @YahooPolitics, a @YahooNews production. Politics, media, breaking.
Greg Ip	Chief economics commentator for The Wall Street Journal, and author of The Little Book of Economics, a citizen's economic primer.
Henry Blodget	Hello! I'm the founder, editor, and CEO of Business Insider. Thanks for following me!
J. Bradford DeLong	Primate, economist, utopian, shrill: macroblog: http://t.co/uVDLXYdxZg
Jack Shafer	Politico. Formerly Reuters, Slate, SFWeekly, Washington City Paper, Inquiry. Email list: http://t.co/qS6GJKmn8c RSS: http://t.co/gIrIllsnpY
James Fallows	National correspondent, the Atlantic
James Pethokoukis	Peth-uh-KOO-kiss | American Enterprise Institute. CNBC Contributor. Jeopardy! champ. @TheWeek, @NRO, @Commentary, @NationalAffairs. Ex-Reuters columnist
Jared Bernstein	Senior Fellow at @CenterOnBudget, former Chief Economist and Economic Adviser to Vice President Joe Biden, and author of the forthcoming book “The Reconnection
Jason Furman	Chairman of President Obama's Council of Economic Advisers. Tweets may be archived. More at http://t.co/eaLyyFdh32.
Jesse Eisinger	Senior Reporter @ ProPublica. New York Times Dealbook columnist. Wall St & Finance. Green Bay Packers. @sarahlellison's husband.
Jim Tankersley	Economic Policy Correspondent, The Washington Post. Dad. Backpacker. Cardinal. Oregonian eternal.
John Cassidy	http://t.co/gpdFMVCdBz
Jonathan Chait	Writer for New York magazine. jbchait@gmail.com; a no-talent illiterate hack -- Donald Trump
Jonathan Cohn	Writer at the Huffington Post, covering health care, social welfare, and other policy issues. Come for the journalism, stay for the Billy Joel interludes.
Joseph E. Stiglitz	The official account of Joseph E. Stiglitz, Nobel laureate economist based at Columbia University.
Joseph Weisenthal	Doing something new at Bloomberg.
Josh Barro	Correspondent for The Upshot at The New York Times. Host of MSNBC's Three Cents web show. Like Oprah, but judgmental and negative. josh.barro@nytimes.com
Justin Fox	Columnist @BV. Eater of free snacks.
Justin Wolfers	Senior Fellow—Peterson Institute for International Economics | Professor @UMichEcon & @FordSchool | Contributing Columnist @NYTimes | Visiting Prof @USydneyEcon
Kelly Evans	CNBC by way of WSJ.
Kevin Drum	Political blogger and writer for Mother Jones magazine.
Lawrence H. Summers	Charles W. Eliot Professor and President Emeritus at Harvard. Secretary of the Treasury for President Clinton and the Director of the NEC for President Obama.
Lizzie O'Leary	aspiring hildy johnson.
Marc Andreessen	Where's the kaboom? There was supposed to be an earth-shattering kaboom!
Mark Thoma
Martin Wolf	An automated feed of FT content by Martin Wolf, chief economics commentator at the Financial Times. Account maintained by FT's social media team.
Matt O'Brien	I write about economics for Wonkblog. Formerly the Atlantic & TNR.
Matt Yglesias	Executive Editor at Vox.
Matthew C. Klein	FT Alphavillain. I took the background picture (of Everest).
Matthew Zeitlin	Finance reporter @BuzzFeedNews matt.zeitlin@buzzfeed.com
Megan McArdle	Columnist @BloombergView. Ex-Economist, Newsweek, The Atlantic. Opinions my own. Buy my new book, The Up Side of Down! http://t.co/IWQZBRQ0uO
Mike Allen	Chief White House correspondent, POLITICO
Mike Konczal	Economics, finance. @RooseveltInst Fellow. @thenation contributor. Always dressed and buttoned up.
Modeled Behavior	Adam Ozimek. More serious econ blog: http://t.co/g0x3TXsuVx More fun econ blog: http://t.co/ZBSpoqUM0P
Motoko Rich	New York Times national preK-12 education reporter. Back in the day: economics, book publishing, real estate. Still interested in all of it. WSJ, FT alum.
Nate Silver	Editor-in-Chief, FiveThirtyEight. Author, The Signal and the Noise (http://t.co/9mLliQYI8N). Sports/politics/food geek.
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Neil Irwin	Senior economic correspondent at The New York Times's The Upshot and author of The Alchemists: Three Central Bankers and a World on Fire.
Noah Smith	Multi-class Half-Elven Finance Prof/Blogger (lvl 2/12)
Noam Scheiber	Labor and workplace reporter for NY Times. Ex-TNR. Author of The Escape Artists, book on Obama admin & economy. noamscheiber@gmail.com
Nouriel Roubini	Professor at Stern School, NYU, Chairman of Roubini Global Economics (http://t.co/wbkoj5TAgj), blog at http://t.co/Z42QiBDfB2 Author of Crisis Economics
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Paul Krugman	Nobel laureate. Op-Ed columnist, @nytopinion. Author, “The Return of Depression Economics,” “The Great Unraveling,” “The Age of Diminished Expectations” + more.
Paul Romer	Professor, NYU Stern; Director http://t.co/rQelsMGpc9
Pedro da Costa	Reporter covering Federal Reserve and economics at The Wall Street Journal. Previously at Reuters. Reasonably confident interest rates will one day rise again.
Peter Coy	Bloomberg Businessweek Economics Editor. Also reachable at pcoy3@bloomberg.net.
Peter Orszag	Peter Orszag is an economist, runner, vice chair at Citi and columnist at @BloombergView
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Reihan Salam	@NRO, @NR_Institute, @CNN, @Slate, @NationalAffairs, @VICE
Richard Florida	Director, @MartinProsperiT University of Toronto, Global Research Professor NYU, Co-founder & Editor at Large @CityLab
Richard H Thaler	Professor of Behavioral Science and Economics, Booth School of Business, University of Chicago, co-author of Nudge (2008) and Misbehaving (2015).
Robert Costa	National political reporter, @washingtonpost
Robert J Shiller	Economist at Yale University. Irrationally Exuberant.
Robert Reich	Husband, father, grandfather, Berkeley professor, former US Secretary of Labor. Movie INEQUALITY FOR ALL now available on Netflix, iTunes, DVD.
Robin Harding	Tokyo bureau chief for the Financial Times. Recovering Fed-watcher. Blathering here about Japan and the global economy.
Ross Douthat	New York Times columnist, National Review film critic, author of Bad Religion: How We Became a Nation of Heretics (Free Press, 2012).
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Ryan Lizza	write for @newyorker, talk on @cnn, teach at @georgetown
Sarah Kliff	I write for Vox. Formerly: Washington Post, Politico, Newsweek and, back in the day, Student Life. Health-care nerd. sarah@vox.com
Simon Johnson	Simon Johnson. Co-author of White House Burning (http://t.co/aET2U5hlDP) and 13 Bankers (http://t.co/jv6uH8Tzjp).
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Suzy Khimm	Soon: Writing features at The New Republic. Formerly: MSNBC, The Washington Post. Always: Not @seungminkim.
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About me: I'm a Ph.D. student in finance from Paris Panthéon-Sorbonne University in France, working on the role of the Internet and social media on the price discovery process in financial markets. You can follow me on Twitter: @captaineco_fr