Reputation and Relevance of Economics Journals

We analyse the interrelationship between economics journals' relevance and reputation. While reputation and relevance positively affect each other, relevance has a much stronger impact on reputation than reputation on relevance. Citation frequency is a key determinant for both journal reputation and relevance, but effects on journal reputation are nearly twice as strong. Specialised journals are, ceteris paribus, considered less relevant and, therefore, also less reputed, even though specialisation has a positive direct effect on reputation. German‐speaking economists find German journals more relevant, but at the same time also less reputed than foreign journals. Age and volume effects are also analysed.