The Capital Spectator has been labeled as one of several “top economics bloggers by scholarly impact” in a paper–“Blogometrics”–published in the Winter 2010 issue of the Eastern Economic Journal. See Table 1 (p. 4) and Table 2 (p. 6) of the PDF in the link. Actually, we’re tied with some other sites in the rankings. But, hey, now it’s only a matter of time until we’re offered a reality show, right? Meantime, here’s the paper’s abstract:
This study gathers information on a wide array of economics bloggers and blogs in order to develop a ranking of economics bloggers that is based on citations to their academic research. This ranking is used in an iterative process that next presents a ranking of economics blogs that is based on the ranking of economics bloggers, and finally a ranking of economics departments that is based on the ranking of economics blogs. The ranking of blogs included in this study is positively correlated with an external ranking based on their productivity (popularity), whereas the department ranking presented here comports quite well with department rankings in Coupe´ (2003) and Roessler (2004) that are developed with more traditional measures, such as the impact of the scholarship of an economics department’s faculty.
And in case you’re wondering, the top-ranked economics blog is Gary Becker and Richard Posner’s site, a.k.a. The Becker-Posner Blog, according to the paper. We’re nowhere near the ranking of this influential site, of course. In fact, we’re at or near the bottom, depending on the details of the particular ranking. But simply showing up on the same list as a few of the big boys is something. Or as they say in Hollywood, just being nominated is an honor.