The Inside Story on the 2010 ERA Economics Journals Rankings

Two Monash economists have written a working paper on bias in the selection of the economics journal ranks used in the ERA research assessment exercise in Australia. The selectors were all the full professors in economics in Australia identified by the Economic Society of Australia (ESA). They tended to vote for journals they had published in etc... In fact the rankings of economics journals (since abolished) were not that bad. There were a few glaring anomalies but these weren't the responsibility of the ESA. We are still using these rankings in practice. It's a meme that has stuck at least in economics.