This report investigates global and regional developments of economics in terms of concentration, convergence, plurality and themes; with a special focus on Germany. The cognitive bibliometric analysis of 450,000 articles, 3.5 million citations and 200,000 keywords highlights (1) globally and regionally high and increasing levels of concentration, (2) a global convergence in terms of increasing similarities of the most cited articles between the regions, (3) declining levels of diversity in the cited journals as well as declining interdisciplinarity in the cited sources, (4) little increase in interest in heterodox research, (5) strong differences between Mainstream and heterodox economics, and (6) a renewed focus on financial crisis related research. Economics in Germany mirrors these developments with exception of (1) an increase of within-country citations and (2) a comparatively strong increase in the concentration of
citations. We conclude that the global developments that we also find in Germany, altogether potentially reduce the innovativeness and regional relevance of economics.