"The SSRN download count has fast become a valued measure of an author’s readership and the potential impact he or she might be having in their particular field," says F. Tim Knight.
Full Article: http://www.slaw.ca/2014/03/10/dont-bring-me-down-ssrn-and-the-institutional-repository/
In this article, Knight discusses authors' concerns over whether posting their work in institutional repositories will negatively effect their SSRN status. Recent studies on the topic suggest that putting work in repositories and SSRN is more beneficial than not, because repositories open up articles to a wider readership and lead to increased downloads overall. What are your thoughts on the topic?