[eatonphil]

Two US research university professors (presumably funded by a US federal agency, NBER) agreeing that the US has the best research universities doesn't seem very independent.

[xxpor]

NBER is not a federal agency. It's a non-profit, whose funding is partially from the US gov via grants.

[eatonphil]

Gotcha, thanks for clarifying.

[adamsmith143]

Well you can find rankings from across the world: THE, ARWU, QS, Leiden, etc that all show the same thing. US Universities dominate them.