In a blog post, Douglas Campbell offers a ranking of economics journals by response times (based on non-representative data). The ranking (with # indicating the rank according to citations):
# Journal Name Accept % Desk Reject % Avg. Time Median Time 25th Percent. (Months) 75th Percent. (Months) N =
1 Quarterly Journal of Economics 1% 62% 0.6 0 0 1 71
12 Journal of the European Economic Association 4% 56% 1.2 0.5 0 2 25
14 Journal of Human Resources 18% 58% 1.3 1 0 2 38
6 American Economic Journal: Applied Economics 3% 33% 1.6 2 0 2.5 36
31 European Economic Review 29% 50% 1.6 1 0 3 34
15 Review of Financial Studies 15% 20% 1.8 2 1 2 20
13 American Economic Journal: Economic Policy 7% 40% 1.8 2 0 3 30
42 IZA Journal of Labor Economics 100% 0% 2.0 2 2 2 1
39 Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis 33% 7% 2.1 2 1 3 15
44 Journal of Law and Economics 0% 42% 2.1 2 0.5 3 12
17 Journal of Economic Growth 0% 0% 2.1 2 2 3 7
27 Journal of Financial Intermediation 14% 29% 2.1 3 1 3 7
7 Journal of Finance 0% 32% 2.2 2 0 4 19
16 Economic Journal 20% 46% 2.2 2.5 0 4 41
19 Journal of Financial Economics 29% 21% 2.2 2 1 3 14
34 Journal of Health Economics 14% 57% 2.3 2 0.5 4 28
38 Journal of Population Economics 29% 43% 2.3 3 0 4 7
5 American Economic Journal: Macroeconomics 11% 26% 2.3 2 0 4 19
32 Theoretical Economics 8% 0% 2.3 2 2 2.5 12
49 Econometrics Journal 0% 60% 2.4 0 0 5 5
9 American Economic Review 7% 45% 2.4 2 0 4 71
45 Review of Finance 0% 9% 2.5 3 2 3 11
26 Journal of Urban Economics 19% 19% 2.5 3 1 4 16
35 Labour Economics 12% 35% 2.5 2 1 3 17
24 Journal of Applied Econometrics 0% 42% 2.6 2 0 5 19
4 Econometrica 4% 25% 2.9 3 1 4 24
30 American Economic Journal: Microeconomics 23% 15% 2.9 3 2 4 13
3 Review of Economic Studies 3% 37% 3.1 3 0 5 63
21 Journal of Public Economics 8% 25% 3.2 3 1 4 51
36 World Bank Economic Review 0% 50% 3.4 3 1.5 6 8
11 Journal of Labor Economics 0% 20% 3.5 4 2 6 15
43 Journal of Risk and Uncertainty 0% 75% 3.8 3.5 3 4.5 4
10 Review of Economics and Statistics 2% 50% 3.8 2 0 6 50
23 Journal of Development Economics 14% 33% 3.8 3 1 5 36
25 Journal of Business and Economic Statistics 22% 11% 3.9 3 2 5 9
41 Journal of Environmental Economics and Management 24% 10% 4.0 3.5 2 5 21
22 RAND Journal of Economics 7% 15% 4.1 4 4 5 27
47 Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control 50% 17% 4.2 3 1 4 18
33 Journal of Economic Theory 17% 13% 4.2 4 3 5.5 23
46 Journal of International Money and Finance 41% 6% 4.4 3 2 6 17
50 Oxford Bulletin of Economics and Statistics 23% 38% 4.6 4 2 6 13
2 Journal of Political Economy 0% 60% 4.8 3 1.5 7 25
18 Journal of International Economics 19% 6% 4.8 3.5 2.5 6.5 16
20 Journal of Money, Credit, and Banking 20% 15% 5.1 4 2 8 20
40 Journal of Economic Surveys 0% 40% 5.2 5 0 7 5
28 Experimental Economics 29% 14% 5.9 6 3 9 7
29 Journal of Econometrics 11% 11% 7.0 7 5 10 9
48 Econometric Theory 0% 0% 7.0 5 4 12 3
8 Journal of Monetary Economics 21% 0% 7.7 4 3 9 14