user11866: I was wondering if some economists started to create a research group around BitCoin, or published academic paper on it. In general, I was wondering how BitCoin was analyzed and studied in academic research. 

user2343: Currently, it seems, most of Bitcoin-related published research are of technical and legal nature (according to Google Scholar, Mendeley, Bitcoin Wiki). 
While there is some economical analysis performed by community (wiki, this question), I haven't managed to find any papers in peer-reviewed journals. 
This discission on Quora explains some of possible reasons for this. Excerpt from top answer by Erik Madsen:

Overall, Bitcoin is a fine example of a currency market, but it hasn’t
  (so far) told economists anything new about how the world works. It’s
  not surprising that most research on Bitcoin is from a cryptography
  standpoint, because that’s really the interesting part of the whole
  endeavor.

and his comment on another answer:

Private currencies are no longer common, but they have existed.  And
  the intentional opaqueness of the market, and it IS quite opaque,
  means that its utility as a data source is severely limited.


11866: <p>I was wondering if some economists started to create a research group around BitCoin, or published academic paper on it. In general, I was wondering how BitCoin was analyzed and studied in academic research. </p>
 2343: <p>Currently, it seems, most of Bitcoin-related published research are of technical and legal nature (according to <a href="http://scholar.google.ru/scholar?q=bitcoin&amp;btnG=&amp;hl=en&amp;as_sdt=0%2C5" rel="nofollow noreferrer">Google Scholar</a>, <a href="http://www.mendeley.com/research-papers/search/?query=bitcoin" rel="nofollow noreferrer">Mendeley</a>, <a href="https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Research" rel="nofollow noreferrer">Bitcoin Wiki</a>). 
While there is some economical analysis performed by community (<a href="https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Category:Economics" rel="nofollow noreferrer">wiki</a>, <a href="https://bitcoin.stackexchange.com/q/588/2343">this question</a>), I haven't managed to find any papers in peer-reviewed journals. </p>

<p><a href="http://www.quora.com/Bitcoin/Why-isnt-Bitcoin-interesting-to-leading-economists?share=1" rel="nofollow noreferrer">This discission</a> on Quora explains some of possible reasons for this. Excerpt from top answer by Erik Madsen:</p>

<blockquote>
  <p>Overall, Bitcoin is a fine example of a currency market, but it hasn’t
  (so far) told economists anything new about how the world works. It’s
  not surprising that most research on Bitcoin is from a cryptography
  standpoint, because that’s really the interesting part of the whole
  endeavor.</p>
</blockquote>

<p>and his comment on another answer:</p>

<blockquote>
  <p>Private currencies are no longer common, but they have existed.  And
  the intentional opaqueness of the market, and it IS quite opaque,
  means that its utility as a data source is severely limited.</p>
</blockquote>
