Overall Group and Elite Core Contributions to Scientific Worth: Ranking Economics Departments in the U.S. South

ABSTRACT Dating back to at least 1975, several academic studies have produced a ranking of economics departments (faculties) in the U.S. South. In revisiting this genre of the literature, this study builds upon prior work by (1) including all of the U.S. News & World Report ‐classified national universities and colleges located in the U.S. South, which is a list that has grown considerably in recent years, and (2) examining citations to economists' prior work rather than publications and page counts, which have been used by most prior studies. Following rational choice research on reputation and group identity, this study employs a quality metric that accounts for the efforts of all a department's faculty. Based on research from organizational behavior emphasizing the importance of top performers in an organization, this study also employs a separate quality metric that accounts for the efforts of an elite core of a department's faculty. Using the former metric, the University of Maryland prevails. When relying on the latter metric, Duke University earns the top‐ranked position.