Excellence in research for Australia: An audit of the applied economics rankings

Abstract

The Excellence in Research for Australia (ERA) Report attempts to quantify the quality of research undertaken in Australian universities in the field of 'Applied Economics'. The paper shows it is difficult to reconcile the ERA rankings with the underlying data drawn from the Scopus database. Since the ERA rankings cannot be replicated, and since the ERA process is non-transparent, its rankings should be treated with some caution.