Mapping the Milestones of Modern Times: Intellectual Landscape of Political Economy Through Bibliometric Analysis

ABSTRACT We present the development and current state of the field of political economy. We implemented three bibliometric approaches (i.e., co‐citation, co‐word, and bibliographic coupling) and interpreted the results using the “invisible colleges” framework through six time frames (up until 1989, 1990–2001, 2002–2008, 2009–2016, 2017–2020, 2021–2023). This produced an integrative and holistic framework of the field of political economy, portraying its historic development and theoretical background, conceptual space, and nomological net, guiding future research on this and connected research fields. By exploring the field's conceptual and semantic spaces, the analysis offers practical recommendations, identifies emerging research areas, and organizes future themes into actionable research questions informed by theoretical frameworks.