Trends in undergraduate economics degrees, 1991–2016

Undergraduate degrees awarded in economics by U.S. colleges and universities were stagnant from 2009–10 through 2012–13, increased rapidly (almost 15 percent) over the two years from 2012–13 through 2014–15, but have again leveled off in 2015–16.     

Trends in undergraduate economics degrees, 1991–2017

Undergraduate degrees awarded in economics by U.S. colleges and universities were stagnant from 2009–10 through 2012–13, increased rapidly (almost 15 percent) over the two years from 2012–13 through 2014–15, but have again leveled off in 2015–16 and 2016–17.     

Trends in undergraduate economics degrees, 2001–2018

Undergraduate degrees awarded in economics by U.S. colleges and universities were stagnant from 2010 (2009–10) through 2013, increased rapidly (almost 15%) over the two years from 2013 through 2015, but have subsequently leveled off in 2016 through 2018.     

Trends in Undergraduate Economics Degrees, 1991–2012

The 2007–10 growth spurt (18 percent over three years) in U.S. undergraduate economics degrees came to an abrupt end in 2011 and 2012. Degrees awarded grew less than one percent over the past two years.     

Trends in Undergraduate Economics Degrees, 1991–2010

The trend in U.S. undergraduate economics degrees continued its upward trajectory in 2009–10.     

Trends in Undergraduate Economics Degrees, 1991–2009

The trend in U.S. undergraduate economics degrees continued its upward trajectory in 2008–9.     

Trends in Undergraduate Economics Degrees, 1991–2013

The 2007–10 growth spurt (18 percent over three years) in U.S. undergraduate economics degrees stalled out in 2011. Degrees awarded have been relatively constant over the past three years.     

Two Decades of Trends in Undergraduate Economics Degrees, 1991–2011

The trend in U.S. undergraduate economics degrees continued its upward trajectory in 2010 to 2011, growing by an average of 4 percent.     

Trends in compensation for production workers: 1948–1995

Between 1977 and 1995, real after-tax hourly compensation for production workers fell by almost 14 percent. Both real pre-tax wages and the real value of benefits fell over this period. These estimates were generated using a cost-of-living index that was adjusted for a wide range of upward and downward biases     

Trends in Undergraduate Economics Degrees: A 1993–94 Update

An examination of George Stigler's teaching career clarifies the requirements for an effective teacher of graduate economics and especially sheds light on the nature of the supervision of doctoral candidates. The heterogeneous composition of graduate students in aggregate means that quite distinct approaches can prove to be equally successful.     

Why culture in economics?

This article responds to the points raised by Deirdre McCloskey, Emily Chamlee-Wright, Rob Garnett and Solomon Stein in the symposium on my book Understanding the Culture of Markets (Routledge 2013).     

Applying evolutionary methods in economics: progress or pitfall?

The Darwinian theory of evolution has arguably become an important building block for experimental and theoretical economists. According to Burnham (J Econ Behav Org 90:S113–S127, 2013), it is possible to formulate novel hypotheses and predictions about human preferences, on the basis of what patterns of behavior would have been adaptive in the ancestral environment. After clarifying two theoretical concepts, the Adaptively Relevant Environment and fitness maximization, I argue that multiple scientifically plausible hypotheses about human preferences are compatible with evolutionary models that target behavior. Moreover, I propose a refinement of Burnham’s method based on theoretical resources provided by the indirect evolutionary approach. Economists apply or build evolutionary models of their own that target particular features of human psychology and cognition. Such models may reduce the number of plausible hypotheses to allow for rigorous scientific testing in laboratory or field experiments.

     

Authorship,Collaboration, Topics,and Research Gaps in Environmental and Resource Economics 1991–2015

Environmental and Resource Economics is one of the premier journals in the field of environmental economics. It was established with an aspiration to focus more on applied and policy relevant research compared to other established journals, and to establish better channels of communication and collaboration between researchers from Europe and other parts of the world. We present a text based exploratory analysis of 1630 articles published in the Journal from 1991 to 2015 that suggests the Journal has been somewhat successful in meeting both these aims. Perhaps more importantly, it shows the Journal continues to progress toward these goals. The European authors are the largest contributors to the Journal, which is in contrast to other prominent journals (such as Journal of Environmental Economics and Management and Ecological Economics). And while most of the collaboration has occurred within this geographic region (e.g., European authors collaborated with other European authors more frequently), this trend appears to be changing as the proportion of articles written by international collaborators is gradually increasing. Topic analysis reveals that almost all of the articles could be grouped under applied and/or policy relevant topics, and almost two-thirds of the articles are empirical in nature, which suggest that the journal has been able to fulfil both of its commitments. We also investigate trends in research foci over the last 25 years and what kind of research gaps can be discerned.     

The changing economic status of U.S. disabled men: Trends and their determinants, 1982–1991

We track the level of economic well-being of the population of men who began receiving Social Security Disability Insurance benefits in 1980–81 from the time just after they became beneficiaries (in 1982) to 1991. We present measures of the economic well-being of disabled individuals and their nondisabled peers as indicators of the relative economic position of these two groups. These measures also provide an intertemporal comparison of well-being and hardship as disabled persons and their nondisabled peers age and retire. We first show several economic well-being indicators for new male recipients of disability benefits in 1982 and 1991. We then compare their economic position to that of a matched group of nondisabled males with sufficient work histories to have been disability-insured. Because labor market changes over this decade have led to a relative deterioration in the position of younger and less-educated workers, we compare men with disabilities to those without disabilities and distinguish different age and educational levels within the groups. We conclude by assessing the antipoverty effectiveness of Social Security income support for both younger and older male SSDI recipients. First version received: May 1998/final version received: July 1999     

Explaining changes in tax burdens in Latin America: Do politics trump economics?

This paper examines whether elections, which are generally held on fixed dates, and banking crises explain the timing of tax reforms and the allocation of the additional tax burden. Using an original fine-grained data set of tax reforms, the paper finds support for the role of these two sources of variation. In particular, the probability of reform is higher during banking crises. During electoral periods, increasing taxes becomes highly unlikely, even if the government is facing financing problems. Interestingly, politics seem to trump economics: banking crises do not affect the probability of having a reform during electoral times. Moreover, the presence of an IMF program affects the tax instruments chosen: countries with a program increase the value-added tax, while those without raise the personal income tax. Finally, the ideology of the president does not explain who bears the additional tax burden.     

Public happiness in today’s economics

This paper illustrates the significance of revisiting the idea of public happiness today, by briefly discussing recent contributions, some of which appeared in the IREC review.     

Regional income convergence in Indochina 1970–2015?

Real incomes have been increasing relatively fast in the Indochina region but there are still large differences in income levels between the six member countries. Based on the various sources of national accounts data, it seems that the low-income countries have experienced the highest growth rates. Time series tests of convergence, in this case catching-up to the relatively high-income level in Malaysia, confirm that Cambodia, Myanmar, Thailand and Vietnam have narrowed the income gap during the last two decades.     

The problem of order in Austrian economics: Kirzner vs. Lachmann ∗

The current controversy among Austrian economists concerns the precise way in which time and ignorance is to be incorporated into market analysis. While both sides think the market process is fundamentally orderly and coherent, they disagree about how to conceptualize that order. One side, associated mostly with Israel Kirzner, conceives of economic order in the conventional sense of a system converging towards a neoclassical notion of equilibrium. The Austrian contribution to this analysis is to emphasize the important role of entrepreneurial alertness in bringing about convergence towards equilibrium. Kirzner's theory of alertness is able to incorporate partial ignorance into economic analysis, but it does not give a satisfactory account of the consequences of real time.

The other side, following Ludwig Lachmann, argues that a full appreciation of the implications of time and ignorance in economics forces us to abandon conventional notions of equilibrium and instead formulate a theory of the ‘kaleidic society’. Lachmann makes a convincing case for the inappropriateness of conventional notions of equilibrium, but fails to weave his critiques into a theory of social order.