nep-sog 2012-04-17 papers

on Sociology of Economics

Issue of 2012‒04‒17
two papers chosen by
Jonas Holmström
Swedish School of Economics and Business Administration

Robust Ranking of Journal Quality:An Application to Economics By Michael McAleer; Chia-Lin Chang; Esfandiar Maasoumi
Measuring Italian university efficiency: a non-parametric approach By Monaco, Luisa

Robust Ranking of Journal Quality:An Application to Economics

By:	Michael McAleer (Erasmus University Rotterdam,Tinbergen Institute,Kyoto University,Complutense University of Madrid); Chia-Lin Chang (Department of Applied Economics Department of Finance National Chung Hsing University); Esfandiar Maasoumi (Department of Economics Emory University)
Abstract:	The paper focuses on the robustness of rankings of academic journal quality and research impact in general, and in Economics, in particular, based on the widely-used Thomson Reuters ISI Web of Science citations database (ISI). The paper analyses 299 leading international journals in Economics using quantifiable Research Assessment Measures (RAMs), and highlights the similarities and differences in various RAMs, which are based on alternative transformations of citations. All existing RAMs to date have been static, so two new dynamic RAMs are developed to capture changes in impact factor over time and escalating journal self citations. Alternative RAMs may be calculated annually or updated daily to determine When, Where and How (frequently) published papers are cited (see Chang et al. (2011a, b, c)). The RAMs are grouped in four distinct classes that include impact factor, mean citations and non-citations, journal policy, number of high quality papers, and journal influence and article influence. These classes include the most widely used RAMs, namely the classic 2-year impact factor including journal self citations (2YIF), 2-year impact factor excluding journal self citations (2YIF*), 5-year impact factor including journal self citations (5YIF), Eigenfactor (or Journal Influence), Article Influence, h-index, and PI-BETA (Papers Ignored - By Even The Authors). As all existing RAMs to date have been static, two new dynamic RAMs are developed to capture changes in impact factor over time (5YD2 = 5YIF/2YIF) and Escalating Self Citations. We highlight robust rankings based on the harmonic mean of the ranks of RAMs across the 4 classes. It is shown that emphasizing the 2-year impact factor of a journal, which partly answers the question as to When published papers are cited, to the exclusion of other informative RAMs, which answer Where and How (frequently) published papers are cited, can lead to a distorted evaluation of journal quality, impact and influence relative to the harmonic mean of the ranks.
Keywords:	Research assessment measures, Impact factor, IFI, C3PO, PI-BETA, STAR, Eigenfactor, Article Influence, h-index, 5YD2, ESC, harmonic mean of the ranks, economics, journal rankings.
JEL:	C18 C81 Y10
Date:	2012–04
URL:	http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:kyo:wpaper:813&r=sog

Measuring Italian university efficiency: a non-parametric approach

By:	Monaco, Luisa
Abstract:	This work analyses the performance of Italian universities taking into account technical efficiency. The study provides an assessment of levels of technical efficiency taking into account also environmental factors. We focus on the relationship between levels of technical efficiency and university students dropouts. The efficiency analysis, using Data Envelopment Analysis, w.r.t. the 2009/10 academic year, shows that universities belonging to the private sector have higher efficiency scores than public owned universities. Moreover, a difference arises on a geographical basis where centre-northern universities are generally more efficient than southern ones.
Keywords:	Technical efficiency – DEA – Second stage analysis; Technical efficiency – DEA – Second stage analysis JEL Classification:
JEL:	C14 I23 I21
Date:	2011–12–10
URL:	http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:37949&r=sog

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