ך Business School Rankings. Professor Acito put together the following table showing the sources of PhD degrees in Accounting, Finance, Marketing, and Management at the top 66 business schools, based on year of degree. (I have not included his entire table. I include all the Top 20 schools of 1990-2001 (21 of them due to a tie), plus 4 schools that fell out of the Top Twenty.)

University Old Rank, Before 1970 New Rank, 1990-2001 PhDs 1990-2001
................................................................ ................................ ................................ ................................

Stanford 2 1 79
MIT-Sloan 4 2 63
Chicago 5 3 58
Harvard* 1 4 57
Pennsylvania-Wharton 22 5 54
................................................................ ................................ ................................ ................................
Michigan 6 6 49
Northwestern-Kellogg 14 7 47
Berkeley 8 8 45
Texas 14 9 34
UCLA 19 9 34
................................................................ ................................ ................................ ................................
New York 24 11 33
Cornell 10 12 32
Minnesota 16 13 29
North Carolina 27 14 27
Illinois 7 15 27
................................................................ ................................ ................................ ................................
Columbia 11 15 27
Washington 22 15 27
Rochester 37 18 26
Indiana 9 19 22
Duke 34 19 22
................................................................ ................................................ ................................ ................................
Florida 37 19 22
Carnegie-Mellon 11 22 19
Ohio State 3 24 18
Wisconsin 11 25 15
Purdue 19 26 14
................................................................ ................................ ................................ ................................

Observations from this table:

This ranking fits my subjective perceptions of business school quality pretty well, and far better than the magazine rankings.
Midwestern schools (Indiana, Purdue, Wisconsin, Ohio State) are in decline, and Southern schools (Florida, Duke, Texas, and North Carolina) are in the ascendant.
Penn-Wharton gained 17 levels and and UCLA, North Carolina, and NYU each gained 13 levels. Further down, Rochester gained 19, Florida gained 18, and Duke gained 15.
Ohio State lost an astounding 21 levels in rank. Wisconsin lost 14 and Carnegie lost 11.
There is really a Top Eight Schools, and then the rest. Number eight Berkeley has 45 alums but Number Nines Texas and UCLA only have 34, about the same as Number Eleven NYU's 33.

It is always tough to know what to do with Harvard in business school rankings because it has good students and good teaching, but the case-writing for which it rewards its faculty would not be considered acceptable as research in most business schools. Because of its special preferences, Harvard hires large numbers of its own graduates---thus the asterisk in the table above.

There were apparently some interesting patterns if one looked more closely at the data, e.g. that there is a group of some departments in some East Coast schools that tend to hire from each other.

My own department--Business Economics and Public Policy at Indiana University's Kelley School of Business-- is not included in the calculations. Professor Acito quite properly left out departments such as economics, operations research, and information technology which are smaller than the Big Four and organizationally hard to compare across schools (at Indiana, for example, we have Business Economics and Public Policy in the business school and Economics in the college of arts and sciences, whereas Purdue just has one department for economics, which is housed in the business school).

[ http://php.indiana.edu/~erasmuse/w/04.01.21c.htm . erasmusen@yahoo.com. ]

To return to Eric Rasmusen's weblog, click http://php.indiana.edu/~erasmuse/w/0.rasmusen.htm.

University	Old Rank, Before 1970	New Rank, 1990-2001	PhDs 1990-2001
................................................................	................................	................................	................................
Stanford	2	1	79
MIT-Sloan	4	2	63
Chicago	5	3	58
Harvard*	1	4	57
Pennsylvania-Wharton	22	5	54
................................................................	................................	................................	................................
Michigan	6	6	49
Northwestern-Kellogg	14	7	47
Berkeley	8	8	45
Texas	14	9	34
UCLA	19	9	34
................................................................	................................	................................	................................
New York	24	11	33
Cornell	10	12	32
Minnesota	16	13	29
North Carolina	27	14	27
Illinois	7	15	27
................................................................	................................	................................	................................
Columbia	11	15	27
Washington	22	15	27
Rochester	37	18	26
Indiana	9	19	22
Duke	34	19	22
................................................................	................................................	................................	................................
Florida	37	19	22
Carnegie-Mellon	11	22	19
Ohio State	3	24	18
Wisconsin	11	25	15
Purdue	19	26	14
................................................................	................................	................................	................................