Economists are obsessed with rankings of institutions, journals, or scholars according to the value of some feature of interest. These rankings are invariably computed using estimates rather than the true values of such features. As a result, there may be considerable uncertainty concerning the ranks. In this paper, we consider the problem of accounting for such uncertainty by constructing confidence sets for the ranks. We consider both the problem of constructing marginal confidence sets for the rank of, say, a particular journal as well as simultaneous confidence sets for the ranks of all journals.
The purpose of this paper is to review the approach to the construction of such confidence sets by Mogstad et al. (2020) and then apply their methods to rankings of economics journals and universities by impact factors.
Authors
![Person graphic](/sites/default/files/styles/square_desktop/public/2022-06/IFS-person-graphic.png?itok=hWCtTSrz)
University of Chicago
![Magne Mogstad](/sites/default/files/styles/square_desktop/public/2022-07/Magne%20Mogstad.jpg?itok=bjVScKiW)
Research Fellow University of Chicago
Magne is a Research Fellow, a Professor in Economics at the University of Chicago and a co-editor of the Journal of Political Economy.
![Daniel Wilhelm](/sites/default/files/styles/square_desktop/public/2022-07/Daniel%20Wilhelm.jpg?itok=CuHK3qVe)
Research Associate LMU Munich
Daniel is a Research Associate of the IFS in Cemmap and Professor of Statistics and Econometrics at LMU Munich.
![Person graphic](/sites/default/files/styles/square_desktop/public/2022-06/IFS-person-graphic.png?itok=hWCtTSrz)
Joseph P. Romano
Working Paper details
- DOI
- 10.47004/wp.cem.2022.0722
- Publisher
- cemmap
Suggested citation
Mogstad, M et al. (2022). Statistical uncertainty in the ranking of journals and universities. London: cemmap. Available at: https://ifs.org.uk/publications/statistical-uncertainty-ranking-journals-and-universities (accessed: 30 June 2024).
Grant
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