Topical disconnect between research and needs: the importance of author location

We measure the disconnect between the topics people care about and the topics covered in journal publications in 60 countries. We combine nationally representative opinion surveys and publication records from 14 economics journals during the last two decades. Our key finding is that the topical disconnect significantly varies according to the place of residence of the authors. Researchers located in the Global South are 25% more likely, than those from the Global North, to focus on topics deemed very important by local populations, which highlights that their publications are more strongly aligned with local priorities.