Just to add some context, the term "Top 5" is not subjective, it's a reference to those five journals. Tenure and promotion decisions in top departments based their decisions on publications in those journals.[1]
This is the correct answer and would get the agreement of probably better than 95% of the profession.
The suggestion above that JEL is a top five is bizarre. The CS equivalent is saying that the book “learn python in 21 days” is a top outlet for CS research.
The authors of this paper should be deeply embarrassed about the way they handled that data, but I’m slightly relieved to see that this garbage was published in a tenth-rate journal no one has ever heard of. (Though to be clear there are definitely problems with what gets through in top journals too!)
- Econometrica
- American Economic Review
- Quarterly Journal of Economics
- Journal of Political Economy
- Review of Economic Studies