Sustaining research excellence requires more than outstanding individual achievements. It demands an academic culture that consistently produces impactful scholarship, fosters collaboration, and advances knowledge over time.

The latest Research Papers in Economics (RePEc) rankings reaffirm that commitment at LAU’s Adnan Kassar School of Business (AKSOB), which has once again ranked the school as the leading institution in economics among Lebanon’s top 25 percent in economics, finance, and related disciplines, a position it held in 2020. It also recorded the largest number of research faculty nationally. 

RePEc is one of the world’s largest bibliographic databases dedicated to economics and related disciplines. Updated monthly, it evaluates research performance using a range of indicators, including publications, citations, downloads, and other measures of scholarly impact, offering insight into both long-term and recent research performance.

For Dean Dima Jamali, the school’s achievement attests to the exceptional strength and sustained excellence of research at AKSOB. 

“Our continued national leadership, together with the strong representation of our faculty among Lebanon’s leading researchers in economics and across business disciplines, demonstrates the depth of expertise and the collective scholarly strength that we have organically nurtured over many years,” she said.

“It also speaks to the broader research culture we continue to invest in: one grounded in intellectual rigor, meaningful collaboration, and a commitment to producing knowledge that matters,” she added. “Ultimately, this recognition reinforces our commitment to supporting our researchers in translating rigorous scholarship into meaningful value for students, policymakers, organizations, and society.”

Beyond individual rankings, the concentration of highly ranked researchers at one institution is significant in itself, underscoring a research environment that sustains scholarly output over time, said Professor and Associate Dean of Graduate Studies and Research Walid Marrouch.

“While individual research achievements are certainly valuable, they can sometimes be isolated outliers,” said Dr. Marrouch. “A collective critical mass of accomplished researchers, however, signals a robust, sustainable intellectual ecosystem and acts as a multiplier, fostering rigorous internal discourse and driving impactful research across critical areas spanning development, employment, poverty, finance, energy, and the environment.”

Professor of Economics and Associate Dean Ali Fakih attributes this performance in part to continued investment in faculty, collaboration, and institutional support, which are central to maintaining the quality and relevance of AKSOB’s research while extending its benefits into the classroom.

“The high standard of AKSOB’s research is based on a continuous effort to attract and support outstanding faculty, to promote international and interdisciplinary collaboration, and to encourage research that is both academically sound and relevant to the challenges facing business, economics, and society,” he said.

“This atmosphere is further strengthened by mentoring, research partnerships, scholarly networks, institutional support, and the acknowledgment of high-quality work,” added Dr. Fakih. “It also has a direct positive effect on postgraduate education and the student experience by incorporating up-to-date research, new ideas, and real-world problems into the classroom.”

The latest RePEc results underscore the continued strength of the Department of Economics, whose faculty, said Assistant Professor and Department Chair Jamal Haidar, “have consistently contributed internationally recognized work and helped maintain AKSOB’s national leadership over the years.” 

The faculty’s scholarship, added Dr. Haidar, spans areas of direct economic and societal relevance, helping to advance academic knowledge while informing evidence-based policymaking.