Asking because I'm currently contemplating a Yale offer, and people (IRL profs as well as anonymous posters on forums) say that their PhD program places better than the department's rank and has high value added. I'm wondering what's special about Yale that allows it to outplace higher ranked schools. To be clear, I would be very happy going to Yale, and I don't mean to belittle it at all, I'm just interested in knowing how they manage to punch above their weight, so to speak.
It seems obvious that the quality of students coming in and the department's overall reputation would play a big role in placement. Given that Yale's faculty doesn't have quite the reputation in economics as the rest of the top 7, and that prospective students presumably value the faculty a lot when choosing where to do their PhD, how do they consistently place so well? What are the ingredients of their "value added"?