Monday, September 8, 2014

Cost Effectiveness of Most Widely Cited Think Tanks

The progressive Center for Economic and Policy Research (CEPR) has released an updated version of a study about the cost effectiveness of the most widely cited think tanks.  CEPR, which rates itself as #1 again, describes it as "an analysis that calculates the number of media hits per budget dollar."

Here are the top ten:
  1. Center for Economic and Policy Research (CEPR): .86 citations per $10,000
  2. Economic Policy Institute (EPI): 0.76
  3. Washington Institute for Near East Policy (WINEP): 0.53
  4. American Enterprise Institute (AEI): 0.37
  5. Cato Institute: 0.35
  6. Brookings Institution: 0.29
  7. Manhattan Institute: 0.25
  8. Center for American Progress (CAP): 0.22
  9. Peterson Institute for International Economics (PIIE): 0.22
  10. Atlantic Council: 0.22
If you click on the link here, you can also view the top think tanks rated by website traffic per budget dollar.  Topping that list:
  1. CEPR
  2. Cato Institute
  3. Heritage Foundation
  4. EPI
  5. WINEP

CEPR was co-founded in 1999 by economists Dean Baker and Mark Weisbrot, and approximately 80 percent of CEPR's funding comes from grants made by foundations.

Foundation support in 2011 included:
  • Annie E. Casey Foundation
  • Arca Foundation
  • Atlantic Philanthropies
  • Ford Foundation
  • Moriah Foundation
  • National Academy of Social Insurance (NASI)
  • Open Society Foundations
  • Public Welfare Foundation
  • Rockefeller Brothers Fund
  • Rockefeller Family Fund
  • Russell Sage Foundation
  • Sloan Foundation
  • Streisand Foundation
The Washington, DC-based CEPR has no connection or relationship whatsoever with the London-based Centre for Economic Policy Research.

And in case you missed it, here is the 2013 "Think Tank Spectrum" study by Fairness & Accuracy in Reporting (FAIR) which ranks think tanks by media citations.