Since we've already remarked on the limitations of SSRN downloads as an academic measure, we can now turn to the fun stuff: rankings based on SSRN downloads! The default ranking when you log on to the SSRN rankings are for total downloads in the last 12 months. That measure does not take into account, of course, how many papers the author posted in the last 12 months. More interesting, one might think, are downloads per paper, and not just for the last 12 months, but for the last couple of years in which SSRN has been posting papers. This tells you, one might think, how much attention an author's work commands in the scholarly community.
But this measure has the problem that "one-hit wonders"--folks who post one or two papers that get downloaded a lot--drive out scholars whose work consistently gets downloaded, which surely says more about both impact and importance.
Here, then, are the ten faculty with the most downloads per paper who have posted at least 30 papers on SSRN:
1. Bernard Black (Texas) (43 papers, 1030 downloads per paper)
2. Mark Lemley (Stanford) (44 papers, 675 downloads per paper)
3. Eric Posner (Chicago) (31 papers, 516 downloads per paper)
4. Stephen Bainbridge (UCLA) (47 papers, 498 downloads per paper)
5. Cass Sunstein (Chicago) (68 papers, 388 downloads per paper)
6. Lucian Bebchuck (Harvard) (112 papers, 371 downloads per paper)
7. J. Gregory Sidak (American Enterprise Institute) (60 papers, 370 downloads per paper)
8. Francesco Parisi (George Mason University) (54 papers, 290 downloads per paper)
9. Larry Ribstein (Illinois) (31 papers, 266 downloads per paper)
10. Ian Ayres (Yale) (30 papers, 214 downloads per paper)
Here are the ten faculty with the most downloads per paper who have posted at least 20 papers on SSRN:
1. Bernard Black (Texas) (43 papers, 1030 downloads per paper)
2. Mark Lemley (Stanford) (44 papers, 675 downloads per paper)
3. Richard Posner (Chicago) (23 papers, 601 downloads per paper)
4. Lynn Stout (UCLA) (22 papers, 527 downloads per paper)
5. Eric Posner (Chicago) (31 papers, 516 downloads per paper)
6. Stephen Bainbridge (UCLA) (47 papers, 498 downloads per paper)
7. Dan Burk (Minnesota) (22 papers, 498 downloads per paper)
8. Jesse Fried (Berkeley) (24 papers, 421 downloads per paper)
9. Brian Cheffins (Cambridge) (22 papers, 405 downloads per paper)
10. Cass Sunstein (Chicago) (68 papers, 388 downloads per paper)
Here are the ten faculty with the most downloads per paper who have posted at least 10 papers on SSRN:
1. William Landes (Chicago) (15 papers, 3769 downloads per paper)
2. John Coffee, Jr. (Columbia) (17 papers, 1268 downloads per paper)
3. Orin Kerr (George Washington) (13 papers, 1109 downloads per paper)
4. Bernard Black (Texas) (43 papers, 1030 downloads per paper)
5. Roberta Romano (Yale) (10 papers, 913 downloads per paper)
6. John Donohue III (Yale) (19 papers, 890 downloads per paper)
7. Ronald Gilson (Stanford/Columbia) (19 papers, 862 downloads per paper)
8. Reinier Kraakman (Harvard) (18 papers, 855 downloads per paper)
9. Mark Roe (Harvard) (12 papers, 835 downloads per paper)
10. Lawrence Solum (Illinois) (14 papers, 789 downloads per paper)
Finally, here are the ten faculty with the most downloads per paper who have posted at least 5 papers on SSRN:
1. William Landes (Chicago) (15 papers, 3769 downloads per paper)
2. John Coffee, Jr. (Columbia) (17 papers, 1268 downloads per paper)
3. Orin Kerr (George Washington) (13 papers, 1109 downloads per paper)
4. Bernard Black (Texas) (43 papers, 1030 downloads per paper)
5. Roberta Romano (Yale) (10 papers, 913 downloads per paper)
6. John Donohue III (Yale) (19 papers, 890 downloads per paper)
7. Brian Leiter (Texas) (8 papers, 874 downloads per paper)
8. Ronald Gilson (Stanford/Columbia) (19 papers, 862 downloads per paper)
9. Reinier Kraakman (Harvard) (18 papers, 855 downloads per paper)
10. Theodor Baums (J.W. Goethe Univ/Germany) (6 papers, 853 downloads per paper)
(Whew! I made it at last...)
Finally, here are the top 20 law schools that have posted at least 100 papers, ranked according to downloads per paper:
1. University of Chicago (296 papers, 497 downloads per paper)
2. University of Texas, Austin (147 papers, 467 downloads per paper)
3. Stanford University (260 papers, 401 downloads per paper)
4. Columbia University (233 papers, 401 downloads per paper)
5. University of Southern California (175 papers, 357 downloads per paper)
6. George Washington University (151 papers, 322 downloads per paper)
7. Georgetown University (207 papers, 308 downloads per paper)
8. Harvard University (460 papers, 258 downloads per paper)
9. University of California, Los Angeles (267 papers, 255 downloads per paper)
10. Yale University (188 papers, 244 downloads per paper)
11. Boston University (131 papers, 225 downloads per paper)
12. Vanderbilt University (218 papers, 169 downloads per paper)
13. University of California, Berkeley (200 papers, 218 downloads per paper)
14. University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign (181 papers, 212 downloads per paper)
15. George Mason University (208 papers, 201 downloads per paper)
16. Duke University (116 papers, 186 downloads per paper)
16. New York University (207 papers, 186 downloads per paper)
18. University of San Diego (137 papers, 183 downloads per paper)
19. University of Michigan, Ann Arbor (154 papers, 181 downloads per paper)
20. University of Virginia (180 papers, 178 downloads per paper)
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