THE 1992 RESEARCH ASSESSMENT EXERCISE: OUTCOME, OUTPUTS AND INPUTS IN ECONOMICS AND ECONOMETRICS

This paper presents the results of a statistical analysis of the University Funding Council's 1992 Research Assessment Exercise (RAE92), focusing here on the Economics and Econometrics Unit of Assessment. The data collected to support the RAE92 provide information about the inputs and outputs of the research process across all institutions of higher education in the UK. The paper has two primary aims: firstly, to provide information to the economics profession in order to aid self-appraisal at the departmental level by providing quantitative data on research inputs and outputs relating to all 60 departments of economics assessed in the RAE92; and secondly, to investigate the extent to which variations between departments in their research ratings can be ‘explained’(in a statistical sense) by various quantitative research indicators constructed from the RAE92 database. The information suggests that research indicators constructed from the RAE92 database provide potentially valuable information about research activity in economics and econometrics in the UK.