Theofanis P. Mamuneas

Rankings of Academic Journals and Institutions in Economics

We conducted a worldwide ranking of academic institutions that produce research in a list of thirty top research journals in economics. We also computed journal rankings for the same period and hence we do not rely on weights that were computed for research carried out in earlier periods. The United States is clearly the dominant force in the top-fifty group, but European academic institutions are well represented in the group of the top 200 universities worldwide as are universities from Asia and the Far East in particular. (JEL: A14, A10)

The Effects of Public Infrastructure and R&D Capital on the Cost Structure and Performance of U.S. Manufacturing Industries

Disclosed herein is an automatically controlled weigh feeding system including a container prefilled with a substance, a device for discharging the substance from the container at a controllable rate, apparatus for weighing the container and its contents and for producing an electrical signal proportional to that weight, thereby indicating the volume of the substance remaining within the container, a differentiator circuit for converting the electrical signal into a rate signal, a comparator circuit for comparing the rate signal with a reference signal, and a device actuated by the output of the comparator circuit for controlling the discharge of the substance from the container. Also, a sensing circuit is provided for maintaining the fill level of the container between predetermined maximum and minimum levels, and for locking the discharge control device against deviation during the filling of the container.

Intertemporal Output and Employment Effects of Public Infrastructure Capital: Evidence from 12 OECD Economies

This paper utilises an intertemporal optimisation framework to study the effects of public infrastructure capital on output supply and input demands in 12 OECD countries. We find that in all 12 countries: (i) public capital has positive long-run effects on both output supply and input demands (ii) its mean short-run rates of return are fairly low, while the corresponding long-run rates are much higher but declining over time. These findings underscore important under-investment gaps in infrastructure during the 1970s and 1980s; these gaps however narrowed down significantly (in a few cases completely) by the early 1990s.

European economics: An analysis based on publications in the core journals

Abstract In this paper we provide a ranking of European economics institutions and countries based on publications in a core set of 10 economic journals from 1991 to 1996. We find that the three leading universities in Europe are the London School of Economics, Tel-Aviv University and Oxford University while the three top-ranked countries are the U.K., France and Israel.

Measures of Human Capital and Nonlinearities in Economic Growth

In this paper we study the relationship between human capital accumulation and economic growth using various measures of human capital frequently employed by researchers. We use semiparametric estimation techniques to uncover any nonlinearities that may exist. Using mean years of schooling measures of human capital we find a nonlinear effect on economic growth. There seem to be important differences in the growth effect of educational attainment by gender and level of education. Enrollment rates do not yield a nonlinear effect.

Infrastructure, Specialization, And Economic Growth

We introduce infrastructure as a cost-reducing technology in Romers (1987) model of endogenous growth. We show that infrastructure can promote specialization and long-run growth, even though its effect on the latter is non-monotonic, reflecting its resource costs. We provide evidence using data from the U.S. Census of Manufactures that suggests that the degree of specialization is positively correlated with core infrastructure, as predicted by the model. We also provide evidence from cross-country regressions, using physical measures of infrastructure provision, that shows a robust non-monotonic relationship between infrastructure and growth.

Spillovers from publicly financed R&D capital in high-tech industries

Abstract This paper employs a dynamic production model to examine the short-run effects of publicly financed R&D capital on the cost structure of six high-tech US manufacturing industries. The results show that, given an industrys output, publicly financed R&D capital reduces the variable production cost in all industries. In addition an increase in publicly financed R&D causes output to increase implying that producers as well consumers are better off, despite the presence of strong monopoly power in some industries. A low bound for the `social rate of return to publicly financed R&D is also calculated.

An updated ranking of academic journals in economics

We conduct an update of the ranking of economic journals by Kalaitzidakis, Mamuneas, and Stengos (2003). However, our present study differs methodologically from that earlier study in an important dimension. We use a rolling window of years between 2003 and 2008, for each year counting the number of citations of articles published in the previous 10 years. This allows us to obtain a smoother longer view of the evolution of rankings in the period under consideration and avoid the inherent randomness that may exist at any particular year, because of new entrants. (Les auteurs font une mise a jour de lordonnancement des revues deconomie rapporte dans Kalaitzidakis, Mamuneas, et Stengos (2003). Cependant, letude presentee ici differe methodologiquement de letude anterieure dune maniere importante. On utilise une fenetre mobile (couvrant le nombre de citations darticles publies dans les derniers dix ans) pour chacune des annees entre 2003 et 2008. Voila qui permet dobtenir une perspective plus longue et lisse de levolution des rangs dans la periode etudiee, et deviter les aleas qui peuvent exister dans toute annee particuliere a cause de lentree de nouveaux arrivants.)

A non-linear sensitivity analysis of cross-country growth regressions

We extend the sensitivity analysis of cross-country growth regressions of Levine and Renelt (1992) by introducing a semi-parametric formulation of their regression function. Our results differ from theirs in how certain policy variables affect growth rates. We find that distortion variables, such as the standard deviation of gross domestic credit and inflation and real exchange rate distortions, have a robust negative effect on growth.

An Updated Ranking of Academic Journals in Economics (Une Mise À Jour De L'Ordonnancement Des Revues Scientifiques En Économie)

We conduct an update of the ranking of economic journals by Kalaitzidakis, Mamuneas, and Stengos (2003). However, our present study differs methodologically from that earlier study in an important dimension. We use a rolling window of years between 2003 and 2008, for each year counting the number of citations of articles published in the previous 10 years. This allows us to obtain a smoother longer view of the evolution of rankings in the period under consideration and avoid the inherent randomness that may exist at any particular year, because of new entrants. (Les auteurs font une mise a jour de lordonnancement des revues deconomie rapporte dans Kalaitzidakis, Mamuneas, et Stengos (2003). Cependant, letude presentee ici differe methodologiquement de letude anterieure dune maniere importante. On utilise une fenetre mobile (couvrant le nombre de citations darticles publies dans les derniers dix ans) pour chacune des annees entre 2003 et 2008. Voila qui permet dobtenir une perspective plus longue et lisse de levolution des rangs dans la periode etudiee, et deviter les aleas qui peuvent exister dans toute annee particuliere a cause de lentree de nouveaux arrivants.)