Changes in U.S. and Southern Economics Department Rankings over Time

Rankings of economics departments nationwide and in the South are calculated using numbers of pages published in three of the most highly ranked journals for the periods 1978–83, 1983–88, and 1978–88. Changes in the rankings between the 1978–83 and 1983–88 time periods are examined, and the results are compared to those obtained in previous studies. While the Spearman rank correlation coefficient between our nationwide 1978–83 and 1983–88 rankings is .80, there are a number of cases of substantial movements by individual schools either up or down in the rankings.