Graduate Economics Faculty Ranked Among Best in the Country Based on Research Productivity
The study, A Guide to Graduate Study in Economics: Ranking Economics Departments by Fields of Expertise, ranked the research productivity of economics faculty teaching in 129 graduate economics departments offering Ph.D. programs as of 2004. It was conducted by Therese C. Grijalva and Clifford Nowell at Weber State University.
In their report, the authors state that they conducted the research to provide undergraduate students exploring graduate studies in economics and their advisors information on the research strengths of 129 economics departments that offer Ph.D. degrees in the United States. The doctoral and masters'programs in economics at NC State are offered jointly by the Department of Agricultural Economics in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences and the Department of Economics in the College of Management's Jenkins
Graduate School of Management.
Faculty teaching in NC State's economics Ph.D. program were ranked 30th overall, and placed in the top 30 for research productivity in four of the 17 fields of economics included in the study:
- 2nd – agricultural and natural resource economics
- 25th – industrial organization
- 27th – economic history
- 29th – labor and demographic economics.
“We are very pleased to see the faculty teaching in our Ph.D. in economics – the only doctoral program in the College of Management – recognized for their research," said Steve Allen, associate dean for graduate programs in the college's Jenkins Graduate School of Management. Many of these faculty also teach in the jointly-offered masters of economics programs and the College of Management's undergraduate economics programs.
In 2007-08, NC State's Ph.D. in economics program had 96 students enrolled. Six graduated this year and accepted teaching positions with Elon University, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill's School of Government, Texas Tech University, the University of Georgia and the University of Tilburg in the Netherlands. The sixth graduate has postponed the start of her career.
The faculty productivity rankings are based on data that included all research published by the economists in the study over a 20-year period, from 1985-2004.
Following are the NC State rankings by fields in which the faculty members were ranked:
- General Economics/teaching: 39
- Mathematics/quantitative methods: 32
- Microeconomics: 52
- Macroeconomics and monetary policy: 36
- International economics: 63
- Financial economics: 40
- Public economics: 51
- Health, education and welfare: 44
- Labor and demographic economics: 29
- Law and economics: 56
- Industrial organization: 25
- Economic history: 27
- Economic development, technological change and growth: 80
- Economic systems: 39
- Agriculture and natural resource economics: 2
- Urban, rural and regional economics: 44
