Alesina's Public Reception in Media (1988–2020): Gale Files (Magazines and News)

To examine Alberto Alesina (1957-2020)’s contributions to public debate and the reception of his ideas, I compiled two excel files based on data extracted from Gale’s database. These files systematically track the presence of Alesina’s work in international magazines and newspapers from 1988 to May 2020.

1. Gale Magazines File
This dataset aggregates 309 entries, only one of which is authored by Alesina. The data were collected non-selectively from the Magazines section of the Gale Academic OneFile database. It includes articles from prominent international magazines such as The Economist, Reason, Spectator, National Review, Foreign Policy, The Weekly Standard, and institutional reports from organizations like the IMF, OECD, ECB, FED, and national central banks.

2. Gale Newspapers File
This dataset contains 218 entries, eight of which are authored by Alesina. The data were collected non-selectively from the News section of the Gale Academic OneFile database. It features articles from major international newspapers, including The Times, The New York Times, Financial Times, The Guardian, The Observer, The Washington Post, The Globe & Mail, The Australian, El Tiempo, and others.

Dataset Curation and Enrichment
Both datasets were carefully curated to remove duplicates and selection errors. They provide metadata on:

- Author (if applicable)
- Publication (name of the newspaper/magazine)
- Date (publication date)
- Title (article headline)
- Citations of Alesina’s academic works

To facilitate deeper analysis, the datasets were enriched with:

- An indication of whether the article supports Alesina’s theories
- The placement of citations (in footnotes or the main text)
- Up to five keywords per entry, selected from a predefined set of 50 terms, to enable statistical analysis and minimize subjective bias.

This is the legend for the keywords:

1. Banks/Financial Markets/Credit
2. Bubbles/Speculation/Leverages
3. Budget Cuts/Austerity
4. Central Bank/Interest Rates
5. Competition/Free Trade/Market Size
6. Consumption/Demand/Spending
7. Corruption/Personal Interest/Tax Evasion
8. Culture/Work Ethic/Values/Family
9. Debt/Deficit
10. Democracy/Civil Rights/Western Rule of Law
11. Diversity/Fragmentation/Segregation
12. Education/Formation/Human capital
13. Fiscal Policy
14. Gender/Women
15. Government/Parliament/Institutions
16. Growth/Business Cycles/Productivity
17. Ideology (Liberalism, Communism, Keynesism, Fascism)
18. Immigration/Ethnicity/Race/Discrimination
19. Inequality/Poverty/Distribution/Social Mobility
20. Inflation/Deflation
21. Innovation/Technology/R&D
22. Instability/Distress/Crisis
23. Investments/Risk/Entrepreneurship
24. Labour Policies/Labour Market Participation
25. Rest/Leisure/Social Protection
26. Form, Size and Constitution of States
27. Monetary Policy
28. Monetary/Fiscal/Political Unions
29. Pensions/Aging/Old generations
30. Planning/Coordination/Centralisation
31. Politics (Elections, alternation, instability)
32. Power Relations (Classes, States)
33. Precarity/Flexibility/Mobility
34. Private Savings/Private Debt
35. Privatization/Deregulation/Liberalisation
36. Public Sector/Public Economics/ Public Investments
37. Braveness/Individualism/Merit
38. Welfare/Social Spending
39. Solidarity/Community/Integration/Inclusivity
40. Globalization/Western hegemony
41. Supranational Institutions
42. Technocracy/Structural Reforms
43. Trade Unions/Social and Political Conflict
44. Trust/Credibility/Transaction costs/Transparency
45. Underdevelopment//FDI/Geopolitical Strategies
46. Unemployment/Social Distress
47. Wages//Exploitation
48. War/Defence/Protectionism
49. Young/Future Generations
50. Tax breaks/Subsidies/Stimuli

These datasets provide a unique resource for understanding the evolution of Alesina’s public reception and the dissemination of neoliberal economic ideas across media over three decades.