American Economic Association

Economics Departmental Rankings: Comment Author(s): Barry T. Hirsch, Randall Austin, John Brooks, J. Bradley Moore Reviewed work(s): Source: The American Economic Review, Vol. 74, No. 4 (Sep., 1984), pp. 822-826 Published by: American Economic Association Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/1805159 . Accessed: 19/04/2012 18:31 Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at . http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected].

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Economics Departmental Rankings: Comment By BARRY T. HIRSCH, RANDALL AUSTIN, JOHN BROOKS, AND J. BRADLEY MOORE* In a recent issue of the Review (1982), PhilipGraves,JamesMarchand,and Randall Thompson (G-M-T) provide a ranking of economicsdepartmentsin the United States based on page counts of articles published during1974-78 in twenty-fourleadingjournals. The purpose of this comment is to update the G-M-T rankings,based on publications from 1978 throughspring 1983. We also provide rankingsfor the top forty economics departments outside the United States. Finally, we compare concentration ratios measuringthe dispersionin published pages among U.S. departmentsbetween the 1974-78 and 1978-83 periods. In order to ensurecomparability,we rank departmentsusing the same method as did G-M-T. Of course, no simple methodology can captureaccuratelythe many dimensions which comprise research quality. Rankings are based on AER-standardizedpage counts in the twenty-fourleadingjournals used by G-M-T.1School assignmentis based on the author's designation in the journal at the time of publication.Wherearticleshave multiple authors,each is accordeda weightequal to l/n, where n is the numberof authors. The rankingsmeasurestandardizedpages in economicsjournals by all persons affiliated with each school, ratherthan by membersof economicsdepartmentsalone. Thus, univer* Hirsch is Professor of Economics and Austin, Brooks,and Moore are graduateassistants,University of North Carolina,Greensboro,NC 27412-5001. The study was conductedas part of a universityreviewof graduatenrograms. 'The twenty-fourjournalsare givenin G-M-T,fn. 3, p. 1132.The timeperiodincludes1978-82, plus all 1983 issuespriorto June.The AER-standardized pageweights wereprovidedby Graves.Most wereclose to but below one; thus, for most schools the sum of standardized pagesis less thanthe total of unstandardized pages.The largestweightis for JASA (this affectsmeasurablythe rankingsfor a few schools, most notably Iowa State), while the smallestweightis for Oxford Economic Papers.

822

sities with active researchfaculties in business and finance, statistics,agriculturaleconomics, and law will tend to be more highly ranked. For this reason, we do not present rankingswhich weightby economicsdepartment size.2 Special issues of journals are included only when article quality is judged to be similarto those in a regularissue.3 Table 1 presentsU.S. departmentalrankings based on the total number of AERstandardized pages from 1978 to 1983 (spring)for the top 240 collegesand universities. In addition, we include for each school its ranking based on unstandardizedtotal pages, the G-M-T 1974-78 ranking,and the existenceof a Ph.D. programin economics.4 We leave interpretationof these results to the reader. Table 2 presentsrankingsof the top forty non-U.S. economics departments,including their worldwiderankingbased on data from Tables 1 and 2. Rankings for non-U.S. schools, of course, are particularlysensitive to the choice of journals.The LondonSchool of Economics easily ranks first (and fourth worldwide), while the next six universities have only smalldifferencesin total pages. In Table 3, we presentconcentrationratios for the leading 1, 5, 10, 25, 50, and 100 U.S.

2In addition, faculty sizes are not readily available for many schools.Wyn Owen and LarryCrossprovide faculty sizes for universitieswith graduateprogramsin economics. These figures, combined with those presented in Table 1, allow the interestedreaderto rank departmentsby pagesper facultymember. 3For example, JPE supplementsare includedsince articlestheretypicallyare originalcontributionssimilar in length and quality to those in regularissues. By contrast,the AER Proceedingsissues are excludedsince papers there are generallyshorternontechnicalpapers summarizingresearchpublishedelsewhereor in progress. It is not clearhow G-M-T treatedspecialissues. 4Informationon Ph.D.programsis providedby Owen and Cross. AuburnUniversityhas begun a Ph.D programsince the Guidewas published.

823

L RATINGS HIRSCHETAL.: ECONOMICSDEPARTMENTA

VOL.74 NO. 4

TABLE 1-U.S. EcONOMIcsDEPARTMENTALRANKINGs BASED ON AER-STANDARDIZED PAGES

2976.1 1. *Chicago 2427.4 2. Havr 1996.1 3. *Stanfor~d 1660.0 4. Penylai 1502.9 5 Yal 1461.6 6. Notwse 1442.2 7. MITV 1386.0 8. *Wis-Madison 1281.2 9. UCBree 1246.3 10. *UCLA 1236.6 11. *Cml 1229.1 12. *Columbia 1186.6 13. Princeton 1123.5 14. *Minnesota 1062.4 15. *Michigan 983.5 16. *Rochester 941.0 17. ILll-Urbana 901.3 18. *New York 900.8 19. *Camnegie-Mellon 877.6 20. * Washington 850.6 21. *Ohio State 713.5 22. * UNC-ChapelHill 659.0 23. *UC-San Diego 644.1 24. *Purdue 620.0 25. * Virginia 565.8 26. *Texas A&M 556.4 27. *Rutgers 549.2 28. *VPI 526.6 29. * UC-SantaBarbara 526.3 30. * Penn State 524.5 31. * MichiganState 521.1 32. * Florida 518.9 33. * USC 517.7 34. *UC-Davis 481.9 35. * Maryland 458.8 36. *LIndiana 445.7 37. * Iowa 404.7 38. *Cal Tech

1974-78

1978-83

1974-78

1978-83 Total Pages'

Rankb

G-M-T Rank

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 10 11 12 9 13 14 15 16 19 18 21 17 20 23 24 25 22 30 26 32 29 33 31 35 27 28 34 37 39 36

1 2 3 5 7 11 6 4 9 8 21 17 10 20 12 14 15 18 28 13 19 16 33 23 22 30 35 26 61 25 27 29 37 58 24 42 39 71

74. *Oklahoma 75. *SUNY-Binghamton 76. *Oregon 77. Pitbug 78. BrighamYoung 79. Ketuk 80. *GeorgeWashington 81. *Tulane 82. *SUNY-Albany 83. Wesleyan 84. *Wyoming 85. *Washington-St. Louis 86. *Colorado 87. *New Mexico 88. *S. III.-Carbondale 89. * Connecticut 90. *Georgetown 91. GeorgeMason 92. Clemson 93. * N. Illinois 94. *Hawaii 95. CUNY-Baruch 96. *Rce 97. *Massachusetts 98. *ColoradoState 99. Illinois State 100. *LSUJ 101. * Williams 102. *OklahomaState 103. Brandeis 104. *Cincinnati 105. *Lehigh 106. *Tufts 107. San Diego State 108. Emory 109. *WestVirginia 110. Va. Commonwealth 111. Bowdoin

Total Pagesa

Rankb

G-M-T Rank

188.4 186.6 185.6 173.8 173.2 168.5 168.5 166.3 164.0 157.7 146.8 144.0 142.5 139.3 138.9 138.5 131.4 130.9 126.0 124.5 120.1 119.6 116.8 116.0 115.5 111.2 107.0 104.5 103.6 103.2 98.9 91.6 88.2 87.0 82.2 78.1 76.4 76.1

75 69 74 80 72 78 86 79 85 76 87 83 90 82 84 92 89 88 99 93 96 98 105 95 100 97 101 94 104 91 102 106 108 103 107 110 113 111

86 51 65 67 182 78 75 73 91 92 84 81 89 80 100 97 85 113 125 112 70

72.1 71.9

114 117

139

120 115 127

209 102 120

-

49 50 108 110 82 138 101 -

93 115 103 -

153 109 160 132

39. *Johns Hopkins 40. * Duke

388.5 372.4

38 40

41 40

112. 113.

41. *SUNY-Buffalo 42. *Auburn

369.5 368.9

43 41

45 88

43. *NC State 44. *Aizn

350.0 336.3

46 49

83 87

114. * MontanaState 115. Mass-Boston 116. *Texas Tech

65.8 63.3 62.9

109

323.3 321.2 318.4 314.5 312.5 309.0 303.4 302.7 294.3

45 44 42 47 63 53 50 48 52

52 48 66 38 43 53 34 47 128

117. *American 118. *CUNY-Grad.Sch.&U.Ctr

62.6

45. 46. 47. 48. 49. 50. 51. 52. 53.

119. 120. 121. 122. 123. 124. 125. 126.

62.4 62.0 59.1 58.2 57.4 56.6 56.0 54.5 53.7

112 121 125 118 123 116 122 138 126

157 198 95

54 *Texas

283.6

60

31

127.

51.7

147

176

55. ~Brown 56. *South Carolina

279.8 275.9

51 59

32 72

128. Marquette 129. Missouri-Rolla

50.5 50.5

128 157

134 155

57. *SMUj

270.6

57

44

130.

50.4

135

269.6

56

63

131. ClevelandState

50.2

132

121

49.5

129

225

49.4 48.9 48.1 47.9 47.5 45.9

119 139 170 140 156 131

96 90

Delaware *Vanderbilt Boto *Houston * Iowa State * Wis-Nilwaukee *Georgia *SUNY-Stonybrook UNC-Greensboro

58. Dartmouth 59. *Boston~ College

259.1

55

46

132.

60. 61. 62. 63. 64. 65.

256.0 253.6 252.6 251.6 244.1 218.6

64 61 54 62 58 70

56 54 55 68 59 173

133. 134. 135. 136. 137. 138.

*MjEssouri *ArizonaState Circle 111l.Chicago *Kansas *Wayne State Texas-Dallas

66. *Utah 67. *Tennessee

68. 69. 70. 71. 72. 73.

Miami(Ohio) *Temple *Syracuse * FloridaState * WashingtonState *GeorgiaState

NMiami (Florida) San Jose State

OregonState CUNY-QueensColl. *Notre-.Dame Cal State-LongBeach Amherst Denver SUNY-Brockport *Fordham Memphis State Maine Loyola

GeorgiaTech *Case Western Paul NMinn-St. Missouri-St.Louis *Kansas State SantaClara

-

79 -

135 -

-

180 183

175

-

137 167 122

217.2

66

69

139.

UC-Santa Cruz

45.6

133

123

216.4 211.5 211.1 203.4 203.2 200.1 199.2

67 65 71 73 81 68 77

107

140. 141. 142. 143. 144. 145. 146.

Williamand Mary Bradley Indiana(PA) Wis-Parkside 5. III-Edwardsville Holy Cross Swarthmore

44.8 44.7 44.4 42.2 41.4 40.8 40.7

134 150 136 137 141 146 148

168

-

74 62 57 60 64

-

124 174 -

165 77 (Continued)

THEAMERICANECONOMICREVIEW

824

SEPTEMBER1984

TABLE 1-CONTINUED 1974-78

1978-83

147. 148. 149. 150. 151. 152. 153. 154. 155. 156. 157. 158. 159. 160. 161. 162. 163. 164. 165. 166. 167. 168. 169. 170. 171. 172. 173. 174. 175. 176. 177. 178. 179. 180. 181. 182. 183. 184. 185. 186. 187. 188. 189. 190. 191. 192. 193. 194. 195.

Smith College Cal State-Northridge S. Florida *UC-Riverside Missouri-KC Union College *UC-Irvine *Claremont *Nebraska *Clark Cal State-Chico New Orleans Texas-San Antonio Rhode Island Cal State-Fullerton Old Dominion *Arkansas Tulsa Naval Post Grad Ball State Wellesley Cal Poly. State DePaul Hamilton East Carolina *Alabama Appalachian State *Mid. Tennessee State *Alabama State Vermont Shippensburg State Texas-Arlington New Mexico State Sangamon State Nevada-Reno Cal State-LA Cal State-Hayward Conn-Southeastern *Northeastern Weber State Cal State-Sacramento John Carroll Virginia State Oakland (MI) James Madison *Catholic Central Michigan *Utah State Radcliffe

Total pagesa

Rankb

G-M-T Rank

39.8 39.8 39.1 39.0 38.5 37.4 37.4 37.2 36.7 36.5 36.2 34.9 34.8 34.6 33.6 33.2 32.9 31.7 31.1 29.6 29.4 29.2 29.1 29.1 28.8 28.8 28.6 28.4 28.1 27.8 27.8 27.7 26.1 26.0 25.5 24.9 24.6 24.6 23.4 22.7 22.2 21.9 21.8 21.8 21.5 20.9 19.4 19.3 19.0

124 143 152 182 130 149 145 142 144 158 154 153 174 167 163 168 166 164 187 159 161 180 165 162 176 169 178 171 151 189 177 194 181 172 175 155 160 173 190 188 191 193 185 201 186 184 179 220 192

104 145 94 140 141 151 154 105 127 202 152 117 161 186 133 188 231 126 169 106 -

116 221 99 119 190 98 207 191 195 196

1978-83 Total pagesa 196. Clarkson 197. St. Joseph's (PA) 198. *New Hampshire 199. Tampa 200. Maryland-Baltimore 201. Kent State 202. Ill.-Wesleyan 203. Carleton College 204. Southern Conn State 205. *Bryn Mawr 206. Pomana College 207. SUNY-Geneseo 208. Hampden-Sydney 209. San Francisco 210. E. Michigan 211. Bowling Green 212. Montana 213. Western Michigan 214. Gordon College 215. Trinity-San Antonio 216. Monmouth College 217. US Naval Academy 218. Lewis & Clark 219. Tenn-Chattanooga 220. Barnard 221. Clarion State 222. Middlebury 223. Bentley 224. W. Ill 225. Baylor 226. Mississippi State 227. St. Cloud State 228. Wis-Lacrosse 229. Chapman 230. SU-New Orleans 231. W. Kentucky 232. Wabash 233. Lowell 234. Fairfield 235. Colby College 236. Lawrence 237. Oberlin 238. $Mississippi 239. *Ohio University 240a. C.W. Post College 240b. South Alabama 240c. CUNY-City College 240d. Louisiana Tech

18.4 18.4 17.7 17.5 17.1 17.0 16.9 16.8 16.7 16.6 16.5 16.5 16.3 16.1 15.8 15.7 15.6 15.5 15.3 15.3 15.1 14.9 14.9 14.6 14.4 14.4 14.2 14.1 14.1 13.8 13.7 13.7 13.3 13.1 12.8 12.4 12.3 12.2 12.2 12.1 12.0 12.0 12.0 11.8 11.3 11.3 11.3 11.3

1974-78 Rankb 197 195 203 211 214 213 198 221 202 181 210 199 259 217 204 212 205 260 224 206 215 207 219 229 200 196 230 231 208 227 270 233 225 222 226 218 236 228 237 223 238 239 244 216 247 248 245 249

G-M-T Rank 111 -

150 -

159 -

144 -

193 -

114 -

217 143 149 178 -

235 223 -

136 236 -

228 -

185 -

197 203 131 162 158 -

-

Note: Asterisk indicates Ph.D. program; a dash denotes unranked by G-M-T for 1974-78; a double dash denotes ranking by G-M-T not clear. aTotal AER-standardized pages. bRank by unstandardized total pages.

ratio since the denominator measures the numberof pages by the top 240 U.S. schools and not the total pages in the journals for m 240 each period(a numberwhichis not available CR(m) = E PA GES,/ E PA GES1, from the G-M-T study). i=1 i=1 Publication in economics is highly concentrated among the leading universities. where PAGES are total AER-standardized While a numberof departmentshave moved pages, i indexes school by rank, and m significantlyup or down in the rankingsberepresents the number of leading schools. tween 1974-78 and 1978-83, the aggregate Note that CR is not a true concentration concentrationratios of publishedpages have

departmentsfor each of the two time periods. Theseratiosare calculatedby

RATINGS HIRSCHETAL.: ECONOMICSDEPARTMENTAL

VOL.74 NO. 4

825

RANKINGS BASEDON DEPARTMENTAL TABLE2-NON-U.S. ECONOMICS AER-STANDARDIZED PAGES,1978-83

Total Pagesa 1. London Sch. of Econ. 2. British Columbia 3. Western Ontario 4. Hebrew (Jerusalem) 5. Oxford 6. Tel-Aviv 7. Toronto 8. Australian National 9. Cambridge

1878.0 961.8 833.4 830.1 817.4 816.7 814.5 653.9 527.5

NonU.S. Rankb

Worldwide Rank (1) (2)

1 3 4 5 2 7 6 8 9

4 18 24 25 26 27 28 31 37

4 19 20 26 16 28 27 29 35

10. Queen's(Ontario) 11. Warwick 12. Bristol 13. Carleton 14. York(U.K.) 15. Essex

514.8 306.4 280.3 264.0 249.6 246.7

10 11 12 13 15 17

44 61 66 71 77 78

40 58 61 66 74 79

16. Birmingham

237.0

14

80

70

17. McMaster

236.7

18

81

82

18. Southampton

222.5

20

82

89

19. Bonn

213.3

16

86

77

20. New South Wales 21. Birkbeck (London)

195.9 187.8

19 22

93 95

87 94

22. Monash 23. Alberta

185.3 180.6

21 24

98 99

90 98

24. Simon Fraser

174.8

23

100

95

25. Manchester 26. L'EcolePolytechnique 27. Newcastle-upon-Tyne 28. Kyoto 29. U. Collegeof London

166.2 159.6 157.1 154.8 149.9

27 25 28 31 26

106 108 110 111 112

104 101 109 116 102

30. McGill

148.6

29

113

110

31. Tokyo 32. NorwegianSch.Econ.& Bus.Ad.

138.7 134.1

30 35

119 121

112 122

33. Catholique de Louvain 34. Canterbury (N.Z.) 35. Stockholm

129.6 121.8 115.8

33 37 32

124 127 132

120 126 118

36. Bar-Ilan 37. Paris 38. Ben Gurion 39. Montreal

113.5 111.3 111.1 109.6

38 36 42 43

134 135 137 138

130 123 142 144

40. Leeds

102.5

47

143

152

Note: Worldwide Rank: Col. (1) by A ER-standardized pages; Col. (2) by unstandardized total pages. a bSee Table 1.

THE AMERICAN ECONOMIC REVIEW

826

TABLE 3-CONCENTRATION OF PUBLISHEDPAGES AMONGLEADING SCHOOLSa

CR (1) CR (5) CR (10) CR (25) CR (50) CR (100)

1974-78

1978-83

.053 .205 .321 .550 .735 .910

.053 .187 .308 .554 .743 .912

aCR(m) is defined in text.

SEPTEMBER 1984

While this may be correct,the constancyof CR over the two periods suggests that relatively little of the researchby facultyat such schools has been published in the leading economicsjournals. REFERENCES Graves, Philip E., Marchand, James R. and Thompson, Randall, "Economics Depart-

mental Rankings: Research Incentives, Constraints, and Efficiency," American Economic Review, December 1982, 72,

1131-41. remained virtually unchanged between the periods. It is widely believed that research activity over time has increased relatively more at middle- and lower-rankedschools.

Owen, Wyn F. and Cross, Larry R., Guide to Graduate Study in Economics and Agricultural Economics, 6th ed., Boulder: Eco-

nomics Institute,1982.