The American Economist

This paper presents the results of a sample survey of economics journals and investigates the implications of unanswered questions raised in the literature especially those involving the supply side that is the production or input characteristics of journals. First, we explored the data using standard multivariate techniques. Based on the input characteristics, we were able to discern two rankings of 41 and 72 journals, respectively, depending on whether or not compensation data was included. Second, we specified a simultaneous econometric model using the Generalized Method of Moment estimator to extract significant coefficients for a priori specified parameters in the literature. The results offer newer insights on the ongoing question of the place of journals in the discipline of economics.