Your right arm for a publication in AER?

Abstract

The time tradeoff (TTO) method is popular in medical decision making for valuing health states. We use it to elicit economists’ preferences for publishing in top economic journals and living without limbs. The economists value the journals highly, and have a clear preference between them, with American Economic Review (AER) the most preferred. Their responses imply they would sacrifice more than half a thumb for publishing in AER. The TTO results are consistent with ranking and willingness to pay results, and indicate that preferences for journals are neither guided by influence factors, nor by expectations of a resulting salary rise