I was somewhat sloppy in my post I missed to put in “contender” GMU is one of the universities that has a very, very good chance of becoming a top school.
We’re also now seeing US schools falling on international rankings, Harvard just was deposed by Cambridge. I think the issue is that Harvard and most US Ivy League schools is losing their edge because they focusing on “soft” issues, behavioral economics, multicultural issues, feminism, et al. as well as old school Keynesianism. Another study is also showing that recruiters have switch recruiting from Ivy League schools to public universities. Personally I think that the Ivy League hype is over. It’s not worth the money and the education you get is multicultural and keynsian carp, useless in real life and business.
That the economics profession has come into disrepute is because of the failure of the Chicago School and Neoclassic school to explain or prevent the current crisis. Neokeynesians and keynsians thought they had the answer and keynsian policies has been tried for 18 months, with no or very little result.
In fact the Austrian School is if I remember correctly the only school of thought that can explain what happened and what not to do.
That particular ranking is, quite frankly, bullshit. Seriously, it was done by a group within the UK and inevitably ends up heavily favouring UK institutions (Imperial within the top 10? Not a chance). Don’t get me wrong, economics department aside, Cambridge is an excellent university but it’s not Harvard and there’s no two ways about that.
If you think US universities are focusing on “soft issues” (and I’ve no idea how behavioural economics which combines decision theory, biology, psychology and economics fits that descriptions) then wait until you see universities in the UK, they have some of the most ridiculously soft courses you’ll see, combined that with shorter, less flexible and less rigorous degrees (which they’re thinking of making even shorter) and your left with a higher education system that in no ways rivals America’s.
The mainstream isn’t going anywhere, even if GMU manages to get a few places over the years to come. Economics has been in disrepute for a long time, the average person is pretty much clueless about it and educated folk can do nothing better than mischaracterise is and lambast its practioners as being shills for corporates interests. And I’m not even sure why you’re talking about top economics schools having anything to do with Neokeynesianism.