How Much Influence Do Economics Professors Have on Rankings? The Case of Australia and New Zealand

Sinha, Dipendra and Macri, Joseph (2007): How Much Influence Do Economics Professors Have on Rankings? The Case of Australia and New Zealand.

Abstract

This study ranks Australian and New Zealand economics teaching departments on the basis of the research productivity of its economics professors in economics teaching departments using quality adjusted journal articles listed on the ECONLIT database for the periods 1988-2002 and for 1996-2002. The per capita research productivity of professors is highest for University of Melbourne, University of Western Australia and University of Canterbury. For a number of economics departments, the per capita research productivity is lower than the research productivity of all faculty members, using a number of criteria for 1988-2002 and 1996-2002. These universities are University of Auckland, Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology University, Griffith University and Macquarie University.

• Item Type: MPRA Paper
• Institution: Ritsumeikan Asia Pacific University, Japan and Macquarie University, Australia
• Language: English
• Keywords: research productivity; economics professors; rankings of economics departments
• Subjects: A - General Economics and Teaching > A1 - General Economics > A14 - Sociology of Economics

References

Anderson, M and Blandy, R. (1992) What Australian economics professors think, Australian Economic Review, 100, 17-40.

American Association of University Professors, 2001, http://www.aaup.org/Wbellas.htm

Brooks, R. (2005) Ranking economics research output by Econbase downloads: a comparison to publication based measures, Applied Financial Economics Letters, 1, 75-78.

Conroy, M.E. and Dusansky, R. (1995) The productivity of economics departments in the U.S.: Publications in the core journals, Journal of Economic Literature, 33, 1966-71.

Coupe, T. (2003) Revealed performances: Worldwide rankings of economists and economics departments 1969-2000, Journal of the European Economic Association, 1, 1309-45.

Davis, P. and Papanek, G.F. (1984) Faculty ratings of major economics departments by citations, American Economic Review, 74, 225-30.

Fusfeld, D.R. (1956) The program of the American Economic Association, American Economic Review, 46, 642-644.

Garcia-Castrillo, P., Montanes, A. and Sanz-Gracia, F. (2002) A worldwide assessment of scientific production in economics (1992-1997), Applied Economics, 34, 1453-75.

Gibson, J. (2000) Research productivity in New Zealand university economics departments: Comment and update, New Zealand Economic Papers, 34, 73-88.

Graves, P.E., Marchand, J.R. and Thompson, R. (1982) Economics department rankings: Research incentives, constraints, and efficiency American Economic Review, 72, 1131-41.

Harris, G.T. (1990b) Research performance indicators in Australian university economics departments 1986-87, Economic Analysis and Policy, 20, 73-82.

Kalaitzidakis, P., Mamuneas, T.P. and Stengos, T. (2003) Rankings of academic journals and institutions in economics, Journal of the European Economic Association, 1, 1346-66.

King, I. (2001) Quality versus quantity: Ranking research records of economics departments in New Zealand, New Zealand Economic Papers, 35, 97-112. Laband, D. and Piette, M.J. (1994) The relative impacts of economics journals: 1970-90, Journal of Economic Literature, 32, 640-66.

Liebowitz, S.J. and Palmer, J.P. (1984) Assessing the relative impacts of economics journals, Journal of Economic Literature, 22, 77-88

Macri, J and Sinha, D. (2002) Research productivity of Australian economics professors, 1988-2000, Journal of Economic and Social Policy, 7, 99-115.

Macri, J. and Sinha, D. (2006) Rankings methodology for international comparisons of institutions and individuals: An application to economics in Australia and New Zealand, Journal of Economic Surveys, 20, 111-46.

Mason, P.M, Steagall, J.W. and Fabritius, M.M. (1997) Economics journal rankings by types of school: Perceptions versus citations, Quarterly Journal of Business and Economics, 36, 69-79.

Scott, L.C. and Mitias, P.M. (1996) Trends in rankings of economics departments in the U.S.: An update. Economic Inquiry, 34, 378–400.

Sinha, D. and Macri, J. (2002) Rankings of Australian economics departments, 1988-2000, Economic Record, 78, 1-19.

Sinha, D. and Macri, J. (2004) Ranking of economists in teaching economics departments in Australia, 1988-2000, Economics Bulletin 1, 1-19.

Thursby, J.G. (2000) What do we say about ourselves and what does it mean? Yet another look at economics department research, Journal of Economic Literature, 38, 383-404.

Towe, J.B. and Wright, D.J. (1995) Research published by Australian economics and econometrics departments: 1988-1993, Economic Record, 71, 8-17.