The Quality of Regional Economics Conferences

Evaluating faculty research is an important task. There have been a number of studies attempting to rank economics journals. This study considers another outlet for faculty research, regional economics conferences. Five regional conferences are evaluated on the basis of two criteria: the proportion of papers presented that are ultimately published, adjusted for quality; and the number of attendees from top-ranked economics departments. The empirical results are mixed, with the Western and Eastern Economics Association Conferences tending to outperform the Southern, Midwest, and Atlantic Economics Conferences.