PROFESSORIAL BANDING

DISCIPLINARY NORMS AND EXPECTATIONS

Department/School:Economics

Discipline (only if different to the above):Discipline

Faculty: Management and Economics

I confirm that the discipline norms detailed below were completed following consultation with Professors in the department, and have been verified by an external advisor.

Completed by: Michael SpagatDate: 12/05/2016

RESEARCH

  1. What are the top-rated forms of research work in your discipline? E.g. journal articles, monographs, editions

Journal publications are primary form of research output within the economics profession. In general, the profession attaches greater importance to refereed journal publications than to any other professional output.

Traditionally, there has been a strong emphasis on publications in “top-five” economics journals (A+ journals) – The American Economic Review, The Journal of Political Economy, The Quarterly Journal of Economics, The Review of Economic Studies and Econometrica. It should be noted, however, that there is intense competition to publish in these journals from an increasing number of economists and even very highly ranked economics departments are considering relaxing expectations about publishing in them.

Very few people will publish more than two to three articles in these A+ (top 5) journals during their careers. In fact, a number of successful economists never make it into these journals. In all of them the acceptance rates are well below 10 percent. Therefore, and quite rightly, substantial prestige in the profession is accorded to articles in the next tier of general journals and to the very top journals in each of a number of sub-fields (A journals). Without listing the A journals journals, perhaps 20 to 25 in number, we can note that all of them are included in the second group of journals in the attached rankings.

There are a number of other highly regarded journals with less unanimity about rankings. We attach two of these rankings: 1) The list compiled by Prof. Heinrich Ursprung of Konstanz University which is widely used in Germany and viewed as being both inclusive and weighting articles in a sensible way. It is however, subjective. 2) A list compiled by Kalaitzidakiset al, 2010, based on counts of citations in the Social Science Citation Index to a journal by articles in other journals. This has the virtue of being completely objective, and is perhaps the best single ranking to use, although both rankings are now about five years old and miss some recent developments that can be covered in HoD statements.

In the profession, it is common to distinguish between economics and econometrics, especially if theoretical. Theoretical econometrics may not find any of the A+ Economics journals as natural outlet. Hence papers in theoretical econometrics may be published in field journals (A journals) and journals outside economics. There are other journals outside the field of economics that are highly regarded by economists but not covered in the attached lists that only cover economics journals. Some of these are in cognate fields such as finance, statistics, psychology and political science. Some are general science journals. We do not try to cover these in the present document but, rather, will treat them on a case by case basis in HoD statements.

  1. What lesser publications such as encyclopaedia entries, programme notes, reviews etc. command respect in your discipline?

There are some types of publications beyond refereed journal articles that can be important. For example, review articles in the Journal of Economic Literature, the Journal of Economic Perspectives and the Palgrave Dictionary of Economics garner substantial professional attention and generate respect for the authors and for their institutions. There are also handbooks of fields within economics and it is prestigious to be asked to write a review article for one of these.

  1. What are the top-rated outlets for dissemination of research in your discipline? E.g. major publishers, top journals?

See the answer to (1).

  1. What are the guiding assumptions about sole authorship, PI status, percentage contribution, joint editorship, etc.?

There is no agreement in the profession on the divisor for joint-authored work, an issue that is especially important as the fraction of sole-authored articles in the top journals has decreased from 80 percent in the 1960s to 20 percent today. It seems quite clear, however, that the divisor is not N (number of authors) nor is it 1. Thus, when there are two authors each one gets more than half credit but less than full credit for the joint article. At the same time, there is a lot of respect for sole authorship of an article in a top journal, especially if this occurs early in a career.

PI status is a good thing. Joint editorship, or indeed any editorship of a book or compilation is mostly viewed as unimportant in the profession but can be an important means of reaching policy-makers outside academia.

  1. What is the volume of productivity over what sort of timeline that might signify a.) a reasonable performance; b) a positive step-change for a professor in your discipline?

Academic economists tend to pay much more attention to the quality of journals people publish in than to the frequency of publication. One can become a big name in economics publishing only once every three or four years but doing so in an A+ (top 5) journal.

The crucial point here is that “a positive step-change” will often take the form of slowing down the rate of publication but increasing the quality.

There is no one metric that can be used here and, in any event, this depends on the stage of the scholar’s career: generally more is expected of more senior people although, again, “more” here might mean higher quality rather than higher quantity.

At the most senior level one expects a stock of publications that have generated substantial citations in the scholarly literature, with publications in the A+ (Top 5) journals, or a compensatory high number of publications in A journals. Taking full professors of economics at 4 different publicly-funded American universities whose economics departments were recently ranked between 41 and 50 worldwide, the average lifetime citations (SSCI) to these 56 professors, who on average were 27 years past receipt of their doctorate, was 412 (median 297, maximum 1921, minimum 2).[1] Google Scholar citations are another measure that is taken seriously. The potential for citations does vary by field.

Fifteen people were recently appointed/promoted to the rank of associate professor at these 4 universities. The average number of A+ (Top Five) publications in this group was 0.9, with 7 of the 15 having no publications in the A+outlets. The average number of publications in A journals was 2.8, so that the average promotee had nearly 4 publications in these very good journals. (We have made no adjustment for co-authorship.) Their records at the time of appointment/promotion are a good indication of these schools’ standards for granting lifetime tenure and perhaps thus an indication of the standards to which RHUL should aspire. Note, however, that at present economics department at Royal Holloway would not normally be ranked in the top 50 worldwide and we would gladly hire many people who have been turned down for tenure at these institutions. Salaries at these institutions are far higher than ours.

  1. What are the top-rated funding sources for Research in your discipline? E.g. ESRC, AHRC, Leverhulme Trust, Wellcome etc.

Grants from the ERC and UK government funding bodies (ESRC, DFID, etc.) are very prestigious. Leverhulme, Nuffield and a few other bodies are also prestigious.

  1. What levels of funding would you regard as indicating a) a reasonable performance; or b) high performance in your discipline?

In the UK the field of economics is unusual in the degree to which grant income is awarded to a handful of top institutions. Consequently, even a department toward the bottom of the top ten can easily draw less than £200,000 per year in research or grant income. This means that many highly regarded researchers (i.e., people publishing articles in top journals) will not have track records of bringing in substantial grant income. Indeed, the profession gives great respect to researchers who publish in top journals even if they have never brought in outside income.

At the same time the profession respects income generation. Very good performance would be obtaining an ESRC grant (£200,000 or more). Funding a centre (approximately £500,000 or more) would be spectacular performance.

  1. Are invited lectures/ conference plenaries/ conference organization/ visiting professorships/ particularly significant in your discipline, and in what sort of ranked order?

Giving a conference plenary at a major meeting such as those of the American Economics Association is relevant only for economists at the very top level. Indeed most of the most important societies in Economics are based in North America and it would be unusual for any but the very top European-based economists to be given an invited lecture at these conferences. But there are very many conferences below this level and, depending on the specific meeting, giving a plenary could be quite a significant thing. But, for the most part, economists are not particularly focused on accumulating plenaries and one would not expect economists outside the top level to often be invited to give these.

Visiting professorships and seminar invitations at top international universities are valued and a tangible measure of success. It also contributes to the international exposure and reputation of the College and Department.

Conference organization significantly contributes to exposure as well.

  1. What awards, prizes and honours if any, are significant in your discipline?

The Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Science is the very pinnacle of recognition of a lifetime of achievement, with the John Bates Clark and perhaps the YrjöJahnsson awards being recognition at the pinnacle in mid-career. These are out of reach for a department at our level. There are other extremely prestigious lifetime achievement awards, some of which have proven to be within reach – the Mincer Award, theIZA Prize and the Exeter Prize. Election as a Fellow of the Econometric Society is a very highly regarded honorific. However, there are only several hundred living fellows of the Econometric Society and far fewer winners of the other above-mentioned prizes, and this sort of honorific is an indication of truly exceptional accomplishment. There are a variety of other prestigious by-invitation-only memberships (e.g., NBER, CEPR, IZA, IFS, CEP) that are important within the profession.

  1. Membership of which learned societies or other discipline-specific groups or organizations carry weight in your discipline?

See 9 on learned societies to which we could add the British Academy.

Being a journal editor is prestigious with the amount of prestige related to the quality of the journal. Being a journal editor of an A journal is big thing within the profession.

There is some prestige in refereeing for top journals.

TEACHING

  1. How many PhD students (in FTEs) would you expect to be supervised by Professors in your discipline?

One would normally expect a Professor to be supervising around two, maybe three PhD students. However, this depends on field. It is hard to get job placements for PhD students doing pure theory so theorists tend to supervise fewer PhD students than empirical researchers do.

It is prestigious to have former PhD students with good jobs within the profession.

  1. What are the norms for contribution by Professors to Masters coursesand their validation in your discipline?

As a department we would expect professors to be involved in these activities but this is not really something that the profession pays much attention to. No one really affects their external reputation very much through involvement in Masters programmes.

  1. What are the norms for Professors devising and teaching undergraduate courses in your discipline?

Again, these are activities that are important for the department but not really a big source of external respect within the profession. That said, there are people who enhance their reputations by writing highly regarded textbooks.

EXTERNAL ENGAGEMENT AND IMPACT

  1. What are the norms for external involvement in your discipline within University of London, UK universities, international HE activity etc. that indicate a) a reasonable performance; b) a high performance?

Activities such as external examining (of PhD’s, of teaching programmes, etc.) are appreciated but not especially prestigious. Sitting on committees of granting agencies or professional organizations are viewed similarly - as nice but not particularly valued. Being elected as a trustee or to a leadership role for a society is regarded as prestigious, with the prestige in proportion to the quality of the society.

  1. What particular forms of external academic, and where relevant non-academic, impact would indicate an acceptable and high performance in your discipline?

It is prestigious within the economics profession to be an influential policy advisor. For example, some people take leave from their academic job to work temporarily for a government agency and enhance their reputations in the process. Other people sit on policy committees with governments, think tanks, NGO’s, international organizations, etc. and this is viewed as important activity.

In practice it is hard to truly affect policy so having real influence over some important policy would certainly qualify for very high performance.

Zero external engagement is acceptable as far as the economics profession is concerned. In fact, many of the most important economists in the world are not externally engaged.

Yet there is good respect for external engagement. Participating in important policy discussions is good external engagement. Having real influence on policy decisions is exceptionally good.

  1. What kind and volume of Third Stream activity (including patents, spin-outs, outreach, knowledge transfer, consultancies, cultural interventions etc.) of benefit to the College etc. would be important in your discipline?

The economics discipline does not expect people to engage in Third Stream activity. At the same time, one can get some professional credit for doing this sort of work.

LEADERSHIP AND ENHANCEMENT

  1. What forms of leadership, internal and external, command respect in your discipline?

Serving in a prominent role in a major professional organisation or as Editor of a major journal is valuable. Organizing an important conference is very good.

  1. What forms of enhancement, such as support of improved performance by colleagues, command respect in your discipline?

Mentoring and assisting young economists is crucial for the department and does generate professional respect.

[1]The universities are Penn State University, University of Iowa, University of California—Davis and University of Virginia.