Reputation and Earnings: The Roles of Quality and Quantity in Academe

We examine the determinants of professional reputation. Does quantity of exposures raise reputation independent of quality? Does quality of the most important exposure have extra effects on reputation? In a very large sample of academic economists, there is little evidence that a scholar's most influential work provides any extra enhancement of reputation. Quality rankings matter more than absolute quality. Quantity has a zero or even negative effect on proxies for reputation. Data on salaries, however, show positive effects of quantity independent of quality. We test explanations for the differences between the determinants of reputation and salary. ( JEL L14, J31)