Participation profile of the Southern Economic Association annual meetings.

• Author: Smyth, David J.
• Position: Communications

1. Introduction

   This paper presents a new ranking for southern universities and colleges based on institutional participation at the annual Southern Economic Association meetings. It provides information that is both meaningful and different from that given by other ranking procedures, and so can complement them.

2. The Data

   The seven annual Southern Economic Association conferences from 1984 to 1990 provide the data base for the study. Individuals listed on the program are allocated to institutions using the affiliations given in the final conference programs.

   Southern universities and colleges are distinguished from other institutions in the rankings. The South is defined as the West South Central, East South Central and South Atlantic divisions of the U.S. Bureau of the Census. Thus universities and colleges in the following states are classified as southern: West South Central--Arkansas, Louisiana, Oklahoma, Texas; East South Central--Kentucky, Tennessee, Alabama, Mississippi; South Atlantic--Delaware, Maryland, District of Columbia, Virginia, West Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Florida.

   Weights are assigned to individuals based on the form of their participation. The following weighting scheme is used: chair of session = 1; single authored paper = 1; author of two-person paper = 0.5; author of a paper with three or more authors = 0.333; discussant = 0.25. An individual's contribution at any conference can count for more than one; for example, someone who presented a single authored paper and acted as a discussant earns 1.25 points for his institution.(1) The resulting weighted participation rates over the seven annual conferences are converted to annual averages.

   I experimented with several alternative weighting schemes. For instance, one alternative procedure assigned a weight of one to each author, irrespective of the number of authors; another counted only paper presentations, not other forms of participation; another weighted every appearance on the program equally. Weight changes resulted in little change in the rankings. For southern schools, the typical correlation coefficient between alternative series is 0.98. Accordingly, I report only the one set of participation rates and ranks.

   The conference programs show that the participants come from 734 institutions made up as follows: southern schools, 202; non-southern U.S. schools, 278; foreign schools, 37 from 18 countries; non-academic institutions, 217.

3. The Rankings

   Table I gives the rankings and weighted participation averages for all southern schools.(2) Large southern state universities dominate the top of the rankings. Auburn, George Mason, Louisiana State, Alabama, Oklahoma State, Florida State, Memphis State, Texas A&M, Georgia and South Carolina, in that order, fill the first ten positions. The only private universities in the top twenty five are Southern Methodist (fourteenth) and Vanderbilt (fifteenth).

   Table II gives information on participation by the 54 non-southern schools with a weighted average of 1.0 or greater. Penn State, Southern Illinois, Indiana and Illinois State all had participation rates equivalent to the twenty five most active southern schools. The three highest ranking foreign schools were Canadian, in order Toronto (participation average O. 429) and Concordia and British Columbia (average for both 0.286).

   Table III gives details of the 17 non-academic...