Abstract. This study investigates the importance of the quality of human capital investment and collegiality (i.e., good colleagues) in achieving the type of acclaim in economics captured by receipt of the Yrjö Jahnsson Award, arguably the second-most prestigious award that a European economist can receive as recognition of the importance of his or her research endeavors. We provide an economic model as a foundation for both qualitative and quantitative analyses. Our results indicate that four institutions, namely the Toulouse School of Economics, University College London, University of Oxford and the London School of Economics generally rank highest in supporting a position of acclaim among academic economics faculties in Europe.

Keywords: economics research; human capital formation; collegiality; scientometrics; Yrjö Jahnsson Award.