Turner College Economist Ranks Top Women Economists in U.S. South

The practice of ranking academic economists has a long-standing tradition, dating back at least 35 years. One might conclude from this long-standing tradition that there would be multiple studies focusing on the research productivity and impact of women economists in academia. That is surprisingly not the case. Instead, much of the research on women in the economics profession has focused on underrepresentation in the economics major and, subsequently, on faculties across the academy. A new study by Turner College economist Frank Mixon and Kamal Upadhyaya of the University of New Haven addresses the paucity of rankings of women in the economics profession by presenting citations-based rankings of women economists in the U.S. South. The study ranks women economists across three separate metrics: total citations garnered by a scholar's research, each scholar's h-index, and each scholar's g-index. A scholar’s h-index is the largest number, h, of a scholar’s publications that have each garnered at least h citations. A scholar’s g-index is the largest number, g, of a scholar’s publications that have collectively garnered at least g² citations.

     According to the results of the study, which is set to appear in a future issue of Applied Economics, Maureen Cropper of the University of Maryland (pictured at right) is the top-ranked woman in the U.S. South. Cropper's research has been cited more than 23,500 times over the course of her academic career. Rounding out the top five women are Rachel Kranton of Duke University with more than 19,850 citations, Catherine Eckel of Texas A&M University with more than 19,650 citations, Sebnem Kalemli-Ozcan of the University of Maryland with more than 18,000 citations, and Nora Lustig of Tulane University with more than 15,825 citations. Using the h-index, Lustig tops the ranking with an h-index of 61, meaning that her top 61 publications have each garnered at least 61 total citations to date. Following Lustig are Cropper, Eckel, Kalemli-Ozcan and Katharine Abraham of the University of Maryland. These scholars have h-indexes of 60, 58, 52 and 45, respectively. Lastly, Cropper tops the ranking that is based on the g-index. Her g-index is 153, meaning that her top 153 papers have collectively garnered at least 23,409 citations. Rounding out the top five according to the g-index are Eckel, Kalemli-Ozcan, Lustig and Melissa Kearney of the University of Maryland. These scholars have g-indexes ranging from 113 to 139.