What is Wrong with Study Fairs? Effective Student Recruitment
Advantages of Online Advertising as a Student Recruitment Channel - Geo Targeting - Discipline Niche Targeting - Cost-Per-Lead Estimation - Data & Tracking Tools - Follow-Up Automation - Overall Costs - Overall Reach - Reputation Management - Segmentation of Target Audience - Alumni Engagement - Emperical Channel Evaluation Without a doubt, online advertisement is a broad term and a concrete marketing channel choice as well as its proper use is crucial. But if you understand how to make the best use of these channels, study fair attendance might just move down the priorities when setting next year’s budget.
In the light of global demographic changes, universities increasingly have to look for lead sources from abroad. Traditionally, exhibiting at study fairs has been the most common way to attract students internationally. However, technology is moving fast and in recent years a number of effective marketing channels for universities have developed online. Some course marketers still argue that study fairs are the only way to establish personal contact with the students, but a comparison of the benefits of both channels gives the best illustration of their effectiveness.
In economics, as in any other discipline, the impact of a professor on students and their future choices is enormous: in many cases it is the professor who inspires you to dig dipper into the subject, to question existing models, to do your own research, and later on to push yourself to gain recognition in the field, or to make a career as a successful economic policy-maker in government. As a teacher, to achieve this type of inspiration can be challenging, especially among students who grew up in a digital age: simple lecturing with a series of slides may no longer be enough to involve students and keep them attentive throughout the class. This post aims to provide you, as a teacher of economics, interesting resources to consider when planning your course. 1) The short article Teaching Methods in Economics gives an introduction to new formats of teaching: debates, learning games and writing assignments. 2) The resource Games Economists Play: Non-Computerized Classroom-Games for College Economics provides a collection of 180 games on Micro- and Macroeconomics to include in lectures. 3) Teaching with the Case Method gives a brief introduction on how to teach with cases and provides some useful examples. 4) Integrating music videos and clips from movies into lectures can be a good idea too, as it gives students a comprehensive explanation of difficult economic concepts. This database from Econ Stories with its amusing Keynes vs Hayek videos is a good starting point. 5) In today’s world it is difficult to avoid social media, even in teaching. Hence the Must-Have Facebook Guidelines For Educators is a helpful resource to browse through. 6) Education 2.0: Teaching Economics Using Digital Tools shares some insights about general use of digital tools available and how professors and lecturers can make the most out of them. 7) An exploration of Robert Frank’s ‘The Economic Naturalist’ in the classroom describes a pedagogical method in which students pose an interesting question based on an event they have personally observed, then use economic principles to solve the question in no more than 500 words—free of algebra, graphs and complex jargon. 8) The paper The Art of Teaching Economics by David Colander considers the ‘new paradigm of teaching’ for those doing their research on economics education. Image Credit: cybrarian77
Teaching, whether at school or university level, is generally and rightly considered a worthy occupation. As supported by some Professor Ratings, however, unfortunately not every high school, college or university can boast perfect ratings for their academic staff, and many individual lecturers and professors have room for improvement, at least in the views of the students.
1) Broaden your reach outside your own institution to bring diversity and different perspectives to your department or team 2) If possible, do not narrow down your pool of candidates to local applicants only, and make it clear in your advertisement that you welcome international applications – there is a lot of talent worldwide you will otherwise miss out on 3) Start advertising the position in a timely manner – at least 30 days in advance 4) Broaden your job description: even though academic and research jobs usually have very specific requirements, at least in the first stage leave the door open for candidates who, while meeting the basic needs of the position, offer slightly different professional backgrounds 5) Do not limit your recruitment advertising only to the webpage of your institution – consult with colleagues in your network for recommendations about their current and former co-workers or students, and explore online services and social media channels 6) Market your department as well as the individual position: the working environment is an increasingly important consideration for candidates 7) Use online job posting services and mailing lists to extend your pool. If you are a public university you can do this with special sponsored rates on INOMICS and through our email alert services 8) Advertise your vacant position in places that address your target audience, avoiding more generic job platforms 9) Make sure you can measure the effectiveness of the channels you employ to advertise your position and use what you learn to help make informed decisions for your future recruitment needs 10) Take care when using automatic screening processes – they may screen out candidates who, while less conventional, are no less qualified for your position 11) Even for academic positions, consider applications from candidates with less academic backgrounds, especially those with extensive industry experience 12) If possible, have at least two members of the search committee to review applications at the initial stage
In September the recruiting season gathers pace, a fact that candidates today know well. Last year, the number of people visiting the INOMICS job listing pages increased by 28% in the eight weeks from the start of July to late September. The rush increased even more in October, with a rise of 20% in just one month. Every institution has their own policies and guidelines for faculty hiring, but still there is a set of best practices which in many cases is applicable regardless. We explored examples of best practice for academic recruiting (before the interview stage) and put together a list of them to help INOMICS customers find the best match for their positions.
Master and PhD Programs: Search Season Kick Off
Many strong students start their applications in early autumn to ensure their eligibility for financial support, and many are likely to go for the first offer they receive. Competition for the best students is always high so the optimal time for universities and colleges to start marketing their programs is just as the number of people searching for courses reaches its peak. For institutions looking for students on the INOMICS platform, we recommend starting your recruiting process, where possible, in September. This will help you get ahead of the main scramble for candidates later in the autumn, and to pick out the best talent before they get snapped up by someone else! To optimize your marketing strategy for your courses, check out our previous articles How Students Look For and Choose Masters Courses, and How to Advertise your Doctoral Programs in Economics If you would like a free consultation about online course marketing, send us a short email to info@inomics.com
With the summer vacation period drawing to a close, many graduates are now exploring their options for further education. Users on the INOMICS platform at this time of year are actively seeking graduate opportunities, whether Master's Programs, PhD positions or supplementary courses for the coming academic year.
Top Conferences in Business Economics 2013
Here is the list of some of the most interesting conferences related to business economics taking place in the second half of 2013 around the world (ordered by date). 1. 11th EBES Conference Ekaterinburg, Russian Federation, Sept 12-14 Organized by Eurasia Business and Economics Society, the conference will bring together many distinguished researchers to exchange information and discuss current issues. Qualified papers will be published in the EBES journals (Eurasian Business Review and Eurasian Economic Review) and EBES 2013 Anthology. 2. 2013 International Conference on Applied Business and Economics New York, United States, Oct 2-4 The main goal of the ICABE 2013 is to provide an opportunity for academics and professionals from a variety of fields to meet and exchange ideas and expertise, as well as to provide a place for academics and professionals with inter-disciplinary interests related to business economics to interact with members both in and outside of their particular disciplines. 3. Advances in Business-Related Scientific Research Conference Rome, Italy, Oct 2-4 ABSRC is an important international gathering of business and business-related scientists, scholars and educators. In addition to scientific papers, the focus is on various best practices and solutions, which are important for business-related policies and activities at the individual, organizational, group, network, local, regional, national, international and global level. 4. The 2nd Conference on Sustainable Business and Sustainable Business in Asia Bangkok, Thailand, Nov 4-6 Organized by PRESDA Foundation, this conference offers a platform for scholarly and applied conversations in the fields of sustainable business, production and consumption, corporate social responsibility and global governance of sustainable development. 5. Taxing Multinational Firms Mannheim, Germany, Nov 18-19 This conference aims to foster discussion on the issue of tax avoidance by Multinational Firms. It will bring together various research approaches applicable to the taxation of this group in light of recent events showing that national governments are finding it increasingly difficult to tax profits of these firms appropriately. 6. Innovation, Patents and Standards: Complementarity and Conflicts Tours, France, Nov 19 This workshop – organized by France Business School – will provide the opportunity for specialists – both practitioners and academics – to meet and exchange ideas on original contributions (articles or case studies) and thus help to identify the principle interactions between innovation, research, intellectual protection and standardization process. 7. International Conference on Business Innovation, Entrepreneurship and Engineering 2013 Kangar, Malaysia, Dec 6-8 A fundamental understanding of business, entrepreneurship, technology, and how they fit together, will be a prerequisite for success in the future global economy. ICOBIEE 2013 is designed to provide participants with this essential perspective and to discuss the role of business innovation in enhancing the value added in entrepreneurship. 8. 1st Paris Financial Management Conference Paris, France, Dec 16-17 This conference, hosted by the IPAG Business School, aims to bring together academics, practitioners and policymakers sharing interests in financial management, financial markets, corporate governance, etc. It also provides a forum for presenting new research results as well as discussing current and challenging issues in financial management and related topics. 9. Risk Management Rueschlikon, Switzerland, Jan 13-14, 2014 The Conference is jointly organized by Swiss Re and the European Association for Banking and Financial History and is designed to investigate how today’s corporate risk management approaches came about. Papers cover aspects of the emergence of modern risk management in insurance and banking from the 1950s until today. This is of course not a comprehensive list, but we hope you will find something for your specific area of interest. Image credit: sha3teely.com
Business Economics is a rather broad area of economics covering everything from business organization, management and marketing to the role of entrepreneurs and impact of the government on corporations. It is also assumed to be one of the most applicable research branches within economics: where today’s academic research might result in tomorrow’s industry implementations.
A New Chair for the US Federal Reserve System
Before looking at the top candidates, here is a quick overview of how the Chairperson is appointed and what s/he is responsible for. The whole system is overseen by a 7 Member Board of Governors appointed by the President, each of whom serves for a total of 14 years (non-renewable – unless the member was selected to serve a partial term, in which case they can be reappointed for a full 14 year term). The Chairperson and Vice Chairperson are chosen (once again by the President) from the sitting board members to sit terms of 4 years, which can be renewed – as in the case of Bernanke’s predecessor Alan Greenspan who served as Fed Chair for 18 years. In order to sit on the Board of Governors, the incumbent must relinquish any officership or directorship of, or stock in, any bank, banking institution, trust company, or Federal Reserve Bank. In return, a member of the Board cannot be removed as a result of their policy decisions for the entirety of their term. The Chairperson is tasked with representing the board in all public capacities and is supposed to be ‘apolitical’ in nature. A few months back it was made fairly clear that current Chairman, Ben Bernanke, was not going to be appointed for a third term. The speculation surrounding who would be following him began almost immediately. Although several contenders are in the running for the position, two stand out in media coverage as the most likely to succeed Bernanke: Lawrence (Larry) Summers and Janet Yellen, the latter of whom, if appointed, would be the first woman ever to head the Fed, and among the first women to lead a major central bank, with exceptions in Russia, South Africa and Argentina. An interesting angle to the discussion comes from the very different professional backgrounds of the two top candidates. Summers is considered more the academic type, notably having held the Presidency of Harvard University from 2001-6. He is, however, no stranger to the interaction between his discipline and politics, having held a number of political appointments including the Secretary of the Treasury under Bill Clinton. Yellen, on the other hand, has been a central banker for 20 years and currently holds the position of Vice Chairperson of the Fed. In addition to this, she has served as a professor at the University of California Berkley since 1980. Both candidates have remarkable resumes, but there are other issues that are also in play. For starters, the elephant in the room: can a woman lead the Fed? For most, this is a no-brainer “yes” and shouldn’t be an issue. Unfortunately, an undertone of sexism is hovering just below surface. See some examples in this article. The issue is exasperated further by accusations against Mr. Summers following comments he made while President of Harvard about the lack of women at the top of the science and engineering departments. The comments and fallout are said to have eventually led to his resignation. The other major field is the political arena. The Chairperson of the Fed will be chosen by the President of the US, Mr. Obama, who will be educated on all the contenders by his own council of economic advisors, many of whom have close ties to one candidate or an other. Mr. Summers, for example, sat as Director of the National Economic Council for most of 2010 and still has many ‘friends in high places,’ while a group of Democratic Senators have come forward urging the President to steer toward Yellen, who was Bernanke’s right hand during the latest financial crisis. Meanwhile, some high profile bloggers have already started waving their flags in favour of one candidate or another. In the Summers camp we have big names including Brad DeLong, Ezra Klein, Tyler Cowen. Rooting for Yellen are big thinkers including Paul Krugman, the NYT Editorial Board, James Hamilton and Alan Blinder. Alternatively, Lars Christenson thinks that the seat should be given to Chuck Norris, he explains his reasoning here! Photo Credit: KJGarbutt (licensed under: CC BY 2.0)
With the upcoming appointment of a new Chair(wo)man for the US Federal Reserve System (the Fed) the blogosphere is abuzz with rumours, recommendations, and revelations about who could be in line for the coveted position ahead of the decision, which will not be made until fall.
Public Economics & Economic Policy (JEL H)
In our previous post Job Market Scramble for PhD Economists & Useful resources for Academic Job Search we already shared some general information about the academic job market as it applies to economists. This post offers several links that can give an introduction into the academic world of finance and hopefully help you to understand if it is right for you. Should you be actively seeking an academic job in finance, some currently open positions from around the world are also listed for you to take a look at. 1) “Academic Finance as a Career: The Good, The Bad, and the Not-So-Pretty” will tell you everything you need to know about this career path: required training, research and teaching balance, development opportunities and so on. 2) “The Academic Job Market in Finance: A Rookie’s Guide” is intended for current PhD students and offers a comprehensive timeline of what to do in the two years before you enter the market as well as advice on academic conferences, conference interviews and fly-outs. 3) Blog post “Career advice for young economists” will tell you about tradeoffs in different positions PhD graduates can apply for: post-doc or tenure-track; academia or policy land; researcher or administrator; a school of economics or a research institute, etc. 4) The article “What You Need to Know If You’re an Academic” might be interesting as it discusses how having kids might affect your academic career. Once you’ve decided that finance is for you, but an 80-hours per week job in a fancy office doesn’t sound ideal, you will probably turn to an academic job search. Here are some open positions in finance; maybe one of them is just the right thing for you: 1) Postdoctoral Fellow “Financial Markets”, in Frankfurt, Germany Application deadline: Aug 15, 2013 2) Full-time Faculty in Accounting, Banking and Finance in Sussex, UK Application deadline: Aug 29, 2013 3) Post-doc in Empirical Finance in Luxembourg Application deadline: Sep 15, 2013 4) Full Professorship “Finance and Accounting” in Frankfurt, Germany. Application deadline: Aug 29, 2013 5) Head of Department of Economics and Finance, Academic Research and Teaching in Vienna, Austria Application deadline: Oct 15, 2013 Image Credit: Tax Credits
Finance has become a very attractive field for many people in the last decades as it “smells” of money and promises a successful career after obtaining a degree, even though the financial crisis has slowed down this popularity trend. While many fresh Bachelor and Master graduates massively apply for positions in investment banks and consultancies, some decide to pursue a PhD, which is the way to life-long involvement in the academic world.
When the Beeronomics Conference went online on our website, it sparked an enormous interest among the community. Apart from conferences and events on the topic, an increasingly academic approach towards the brewing industry can also be seen elsewhere, with the University of Regina in Canada offering a course on “The Economics of Beer” for the first time in Spring 2013. The reasoning for the course was simple: the product is significant for the economy, it is familiar for the students and, according to the co-instructor Jason Childs “virtually every major economic question can be explored by examining the brewing industry”. Even though I doubt that economists’ interest in beer is purely academic, the important role that the brewing industry plays for the economy is unquestionable, with the significance of the industry stretching far beyond providing thirsty college students with refreshment. Indeed, brewers serve as a major source of taxes and jobs in many countries, not to mention their relevance for the agricultural sector. For instance, according to the British Beer and Pub Association, more than 900,000 jobs in the UK alone are generated as a result of the beer and pub sector, where a high proportion of employees are young workers below the age of 25. In the Czech Republic, a world leading beer producing and consuming economy, the government revenue from beer production and sales accounted for about 1.7% of the national budget in 2010 (see the paper by Gabriela Chmelikova and Mojmir Sabolovic “The Economics of Beer Processing”). Today, beer remains the most consumed alcoholic beverage globally. Interestingly, even the recent recession in many parts of the world has had a positive effect on beer consumption, with wine and spirit drinkers turning to beer in an attempt to switch to cheaper products. In the US, the brewing industry has increasingly become a source of entrepreneurship: between 1980 and 2012, the number of breweries in the country grew from 50 to 2715. Low market-entry barriers and low capital requirements led to a rapid growth of craft breweries. And the level of beer production on a smaller scale seems to be on the up too: this summer Mississippi and Alabama both legalized home brewing, making it now legal to brew beer at home in all 50 states in the US. While Western countries are considered to be the main beer producers and consumers, the effect of the brewing industry on other economies, and especially in local communities, might be overlooked. According to official data presented by Nomura, a financial services company, annual (commercially produced) beer consumption in Africa was estimated at less than 10 liters per person in 2010, compared to over 80 liters per person in North America and 70 liters in Western Europe. However, these numbers typically do not include small-scale producers in local markets, and a recent survey showed that consumption of home-brewed beer in Africa is four times larger than that of commercially produced brews. Although Beeronomics is a fairly new field of specialized research (compared to the economics of wine, for example, which has been an area of academic interest for at least 200 years), there are a good number of interesting resources, including blogs and papers, which are available online for those interested in the topic: Here you can find several presentations from the 2011 symposium “Beeronomics: The Economics of Beer and Brewing”, hosted by the University of California. This presentation explores the types of demand and supply triggers for the craft beer industry in the US. The Beeronomics Blog is written by economics Professor Patrick Emerson from Oregon State University. It has plenty of information not only on the economics side of brewing, but also on any beer-related topic you can imagine. Mostly focused on the US. His Twitter account is also worth checking out if you are interested to learn more on the topic. This Is Why I’m Drunk is another blog, which takes an academic (and sometimes not so academic) approach to beer. Daniel Toro Gonzalez also occasionally writes about Beeronomics and publishes related research and data in his blog. There are an uncountable number of blogs by both professional sommeliers and beer fans alike, but as this blog is, in fact, about economics, I will leave it for our beer-loving readers to take it from here, and further explore the world of beeronomics for themselves.
At this time of year, with the summer heat visibly rising from the Berlin pavement, for many there is nothing more appealing than a cold beer in one of the city’s numerous beer gardens. And perhaps among these Berlin beer lovers, more than a couple of economists might be found as well.
Local University Rankings: Latin America
Rankings are subject to controversy and debate among universities and students regarding usefulness and accuracy. In our previous series of posts we covered international rankings, with no specific regional focus. Among numerous comments concerning the flaws of the ranking systems presented, several readers of this blog expressed their concerns about many countries being underrepresented in the international rankings. In an attempt to fill the information gap about the quality of education in economics departments worldwide, we decided to have a closer look into regional rankings systems, starting with Latin America. As we mentioned in an earlier post, Latin America has become a more interesting destination for Spanish-speaking graduates and young professionals; however, the presence of universities of the region in international rankings is limited. To have a better overview of universities and education quality in South America, you can find the list of the popular rankings of institutions developed for the region: América Economía’s ranking: This magazine publishes rankings about enterprises and institutions in America. Its methodology considers factors like quality of students, quality of teachers, rating of professors by students, research productivity, internationalization, integration with the community, student life quality and the inclusion of students from lower social levels. Ranking Web of Universities – Webometrics: This service is hosted by the Cybermetrics Lab from the Spanish National Research Council, CSIC. Its main purpose is to provide reliable, multidimensional, updated and useful information about the performance of universities based on their impact as demonstrated by their web presence. (The methodology uses a compose indicator conformed by visibility comprising impact of the university, and activity including the presence, openness and excellence of the institutions. *I really don’t understand this sentence… ) QS Latin American Rankings: This ranking uses 7 indicators to measure universities: Academic reputation and employers reputation from global survey, papers written per faculty member and citations per paper from sciverse scopus, faculty to student ratio, proportion of staff with PhD, and the web impact from Webometrics. It gives the possibility to check rankings of specific disciplines like economics and econometrics. Apart from the rankings mentioned above, each country has its own commission or institution in charge of the evaluation of universities. Examples of these include: Ranking Universitário Folha (RUF): A ranking for Brazilian universities based on 4 indicators: quality of research, quality of education, market assessment and indicators of innovation. The indicator of the market assessment and quality of education are developed using interviews with executives and human resources directives from important companies in Brazil. National Commission of Accreditation of the Universities: The ranking for Chilean universities. It is an institution that manages the evaluation and accreditation of universities in the country. In order to get the accreditation, the commission presents obligatory areas and elective ones, for example bachelor´s education, institutional management, research, postgraduate education and impact in the society. Colombian Institution for the Evaluation of the Education ICFES: Carries out the ECAES Tests annually to evaluate the degree of development of the skills of students in undergraduate academic programs offered by institutions of higher education. ECAES constitutes a source of information for the construction of evaluation indicators of public education services in order to facilitate the decisions at all levels of education systems. The results can be seen per region or disciplines. Feel free to share information about other rankings in the comments below! Photo Credit: V.H. Hammer
University rankings are considered to be an important tool, if not the most relevant one, in determining the quality of education at higher education institutions, schools, departments and programs according to a specific set of factors. Rankings are often consulted by both applicants in the university admission process deciding on their next place of study or work, as well as directors of the institutions measured in the rankings as a benchmark against other relevant institutions.
The Merit of Economists Goes Beyond Nationality: Example of Mark Carney
Carney’s professional credibility as a central banker stems from his performance at the head of the Bank of Canada and his role as chairman of the financial stability board of the G20. A graduate of both Harvard and Oxford, Carney is widely seen within professional circles as having played an instrumental role in Canada’s navigation of the global financial crisis thus far. The UK is interested in Carney because of his professional qualities, which have outweighed the question of national citizenship for the first time in the BOE’s history. “Britain needs the very best at a time like this and in Mark Carney, we’ve got him. Mr. Carney is unique amongst the potential candidates in combining long experience of central banking, huge international credibility in economics, deep expertise in financial regulation and a firsthand experience of private sector financial institutions. He is acknowledged as the outstanding central banker of his generation” said Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne, the man responsible for nominating Carney in November of last year. Nevertheless, the deal’s detractors have cast some skepticism on Carney’s coming tenure. On December 16th, the Guardian ran an article expressing the idea that Carney’s new ideas might turn up wholly insufficient results and that his proposed policy changes may not be much of a change at all. In his new post, Carney will have more policy influence than his predecessors. The Bank of England will be given expanded financial regulatory powers starting in 2013, such as the ability to set bank capital requirements. This will allow Carney to employ some of his expertise gained at the G20. His primary stated concerns are deflation and price stability, as well as adequate regulation of the financial sector, especially concerning the Too-Big-To-Fail issue. Among OECD countries, Canada is the member nation who has best managed to navigate the crisis, having contained the fallout of 2008 through prudent financial regulation and monetary policy which focused on counteracting deflationary fears. Leverage was kept at a minimum and by 2011, Canadian job losses experienced during the crisis had been completely recovered. Among the results of the Canadian economy’s weathering the economic storm, is an increased worldwide interest in poaching Canada’s most talented economists. Carney in no exception to this trend. Photo credit: World Economic Forum via Wikimedia (licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 Generic license)
Today, on July 1st, Canadian-born Mark Carney is to assume governorship of the Bank of England. In a show of professional meritocracy, the BOE is the first central bank to hire a foreign economist as its director. Carney is the first non-Briton to be appointed to direct the BOE since Bank’s establishment in 1694.
In order to do that, I have pulled together some of the blog rankings from around the Internet to look at how they define the number one spot. The most immediate conclusion is that there is very little crossover in methodology and next to no year-on-year comparison. This is not, however, wholly surprising, as the preferences of blogs and bloggers are, by their nature, subject to personal interest. Diving in a little deeper the most convincing rankings seem to be the following: J.P. Katz & Associates (Consulting Firm, USA) published their top 15 Economics and Finance Blog list in 2010, meaning that in the context of the digital world, it is a bit out of date and possibly missing some newcomers. They based their list on those blogs distinguishable by their “high quality, general interest, and usefulness.” Not quite a scientific study, but interesting none the less. They give their top spot to Economix (NY Times). Also in 2010, Alen Mattich of the WSJ put together a strong list of his favourite blogs, commenting on the apparent merging of the blogosphere and mainstream media – with “amateur bloggers” now being published in the latter category. His number one spot goes to Marginal Revolution. He describes reading MR as “nipping into a world-class local bar, where the drinks are always perfectly mixed, the atmosphere is relaxed and civilized, while intelligent conversation and serendipity are available on tap.” In December 2011, Constantine von Hoffman with Inc. listed his “10 Essential Economics Blogs” based on his (once again not very scientific) method (i.e. his opinion), judging blogs by their relevance to ongoing business trends. The first instance of a, as the author calls it, “pseudo-scientific study” on economics blogs appears on, “Suitpossum” by Brett Scott. Included in his methodology were: position in other reputable rankings and appearances in other bloggers’ blogrolls. Each blog received points through his 3 rounds of data collection and were then ranked on the number of points received in each round. His number one spot went to Bill McBride’s Calculated Risk. This ranking appeared in Jan 2013, so if Brett publishes it again next year, it would be a rare example of a year on year comparison of top blogs. Other sources list their top X number of blogs, but as they do not rank them per se they have not been included in the above survey. What is clear from the above information, however, is that there is no strict methodology to ranking blogs (yet?) and the opinions regarding the absolute, number one blog are varied. How would you determine the top economics blog?
Following my last post listing our favourite economics blogs, I have looked a little closer at the blogging community and who the potential contenders are for THE coveted position of top economics blog.
Professor Rating: Is It Students' Business?
Perhaps in some ways ahead of the game in this regard are the so-called “professor-rating” websites. These rely almost completely on input from (former) students and, much like hotel or holiday comparison sites, in many cases combine written comments and feedback with a fixed numerical rating system. These platforms are not without their fair share of controversy, however, with criticism focusing on the anonymous nature of the feedback and the difficulty for lecturers to respond on some platforms. Some professors have also suggested that critical comments, especially when factually incorrect, may leave the person commenting and/or the hosting platform open to legal action. Below are some links to leading professor ratings websites. If you use these or other services, or have an opinion about the merit of online rating platforms in general, unlike some professors, we welcome your comments at the end of the article! Rate My Professor Ratemyprofessor.com is probably the highest profile professor-rating site currently online. Focused on the USA, it also covers colleges and universities in Canada, the UK and some major universities in other countries too. Ratemyprofessor.com allows users to post an anonymous rating according to a range of factors including easiness, friendliness and clarity, as well as write a comment. There is also an option to flag “hot” professors. An interesting feature of Ratemyprofessor.com is the ability for professors to respond to the ratings and comments about them. In addition, there is a “Professors Strike Back” video section, where professors are filmed responding to a selection of the critical comments posted about them. For many students in North America, Ratemyprofessor.com is the authoritative source for information about what to expect from the lecturer in a forthcoming course, and may increasingly become so for students in other countries. Other organisations have also used the data on Ratemyprofessor.com to compile lists of the top universities according to professor ratings, implying perhaps that these platforms are starting to be taken more seriously by the wider academic community. Mein Prof Meinprof.de is a German language professor-rating website covering universities in Germany, Austria and Switzerland. To view the feedback and ratings, users are required to register for a user-account. The listings are comprehensive, covering most if not all German higher-education institutions, and the site seems to be well used, with over 400,000 ratings for around 100,000 courses and just under 50,000 professors. My Edu Myedu.com is more of a network and education planning website than a pure professor-rating site. The website requires signup, and is also heavily USA focused, although some information is available for Canadian institutions as well. Students are able to give feedback on a professor or a course, and additionally can “recommend” the professor. It is not, however, a comprehensive rating system like those offered by other rating websites. Rate Your Lecturer Rateyourlecturer.co.uk is a new British focused website, very much inspired by the American Ratemyprofessors.com. It is still growing, with many professor profiles still empty. Interesting features include “league tables” for professors, courses, universities and cities, based on the ratings the professors receive. Recent press coverage makes this site one to watch.
In recent months the INOMICS blog has featured a series of posts about rankings of departments and universities. Traditionally, ranking has practically been an academic discipline in itself, with big names like QS, the Times Newspaper and in Economics the citation listings compiled by REPEC, dominating the field. However a trend towards a kind of “crowd-sourcing” of ranking has started to appear. The Shanghai ARWU was one of the earliest major ranking bodies to introduce this, but others are following.
1) Learn the basics of Econometrics with Mark Thoma, Professor of Economics at the University of Oregon. You can find his recorded lectures on YouTube. 2) A selection of the best articles about a widely spread software R and its application to your research you can read at “R-bloggers”. 3) Econometrics by Simulation is dedicated to simulations in both Stata and R and maintained by a PhD student of the Michigan State University. 4) The blog “Coffee and Econometrics in the Morning” with its basic commands explanations and video tutorials about R might be very helpful for the beginners. 5) Check out “Econometrics Beat” – the blog of Dave Giles, professor in Econometrics. Here you can find recommendations on which current papers in econometrics to read, as well as some useful information on how to cope with EViews and hints regarding Regression Models. 6) A less scientific but very creative approach to econometrics can be found in “Guy’s Econometrics Blog”. 7) If you are looking for ways to understand applied econometrics and quantitative methods better, have a look at the materials in Econometric Sense. 8 ) Timberlake Consultants, has organized two Econometrics Summer Schools, one in Oxford (UK) and another in Cambridge (UK) this July. This is a good opportunity to expand your econometrics skills and learn from the leading professors in the field. 9) If you consider yourself a profound Econometrician already and want to share your knowledge with the world as well as to discuss the present achievements and the future challenges of the discipline, you can participate in the “Spatial Econometrics Association VII World Conference” taking place in Washington DC on July 10-12, 2013. Image Credit: Robert Shaw
Econometrics is something towards which many people have mixed feelings: both fear and respect. If you want to get a degree in economics, however, there is no way you can get away without studying econometrics on some level; and if you want to become a great economist you will have to master it: to build models, run regressions and (hopefully) predict the future. The economics profession has been blamed for failing to predict the global financial crisis, but as econometrics is considered to be one of the core disciplines to help prevent a recurrence in the future, we have collected a number of useful links for online learning and self-improvement in this field.
Econometrics, Statistics and Quantitative Methods (JEL C)
Research/subject literature. The first category is simple and straightforward. It encompasses the subject or subjects you are researching, the issues you are looking into, and the broad field you are exploring. It is the literature meant to support your research in every possible way and the reason you embarked on your research project in the first place. This type of literature is unique to each PhD student, as it is tailored to an individual research topic. Methods literature. The methods literature is somewhat less exclusive to an individual PhD student. Depending on your study and method of enquiry you might lean towards qualitative, quantitative, or mixed methods, each of which have their own methodological approaches and methods of data collection and analysis. In my case, for example, I rely on elite interviews and documents (qualitative method & text analysis) to decipher meanings behind the narrative of ‘soft power’ (discourse analysis) that drive relevant policies undertaken by Russia’s key decision-makers and institutions (bureaucratic politics/organisational process) in order to establish a link between the foreign policy process and the outcome (foreign policy analysis). For each of these methods, there is a plethora of literature outlining how-to and best practices to ensure that you are making the most of the information you have available. Methods literature is in a league of its own and is as important as the topic literature. ‘How to do your PhD’ literature. Finally, there is the literature on the more practical and logistical aspects of pursuing a doctoral degree. This type of literature would be useful to any research student as it provides lots of pointers on each stage of a PhD student’s life, from building a productive relationship with your supervisor to generally leading a well-balanced lifestyle for the sake of you and your thesis. Some books and other sources are more general than others. For example, Pat Cryer’s The Research Student’s Guide to Success (2006, McGraw-Hill Education), Phillips & Pugh’s How to Get a PhD: A Handbook for Students and Their Supervisors (2010, McGraw-Hill Education), and Hall & Longman’s The Postgraduate’s Companion (2008, Sage) straddle pretty much every aspect of PhD study, from the intricacies of the PhD process and the examination system to research ethics and peer support, to conference presentations and job search when your thesis is completed. Other helpful works that offer student guidance are more specific, such as Patrick Dunleavy’s Authoring a PhD: How to Plan, Draft, Write and Finish a Doctoral Thesis or Dissertation (2003, Palgrave Macmillan) and Rowena Murray’s How to Write a Thesis (2011, Open University Press). These books focus exclusively on the writing process in its entirety, from style and referencing to developing good writing habits and overcoming writer’s block, to publishing your research results. David Silverman’s Doing Qualitative Research (2010, Sage) and Chris Hart’s Doing a Literature Review: Releasing the Social Science Research Imagination (2009, Sage) dissect data collection & analysis techniques, and the literature review part of the thesis respectively. Organizing and Managing Your Research: A Practical Guide for Postgraduates by Phelps, Fisher & Ellis (2007, Sage) offers even more practical advice on the purely technical side of the PhD process; going through all handy hardware and software designed to support research students’ work and increase its productivity, including data management software, data analysis tools, and the so-called Deep Web and Web 2.0. The latter and the Internet as a whole are also exclusively covered in greater detail by Niall O Dochartaigh’s Internet Research Skills (2012, Sage), another useful resource meant to help PhD students with their research. Internet-based resources. Overall, it is amazing to see so much good and valuable literature on the bookshelves these days that really makes the PhD experience a great deal more efficient, enjoyable and satisfying. The proliferation of Web 2.0 technology mentioned above has made first-hand advice on student life and work even more readily available. Multiple blogs and student discussion groups on the Internet provide interesting points of reference for anyone engaged in research work. Some of those I have found particularly interesting and useful are The Thesis Whisperer, the Vitae portal for postgraduate researchers, and The Three Month Thesis project. There is also a live peer support group in London called London Doctorate on the Meet-Up social networking service, which holds regular informal meetings for doctoral students at different venues and discusses problems they encounter on their PhD journey. Even if you are not based in London, you are likely to find a peer support group near you, or you can set up one yourself. Photo Credit: GlasgowAmateur (Charles Clegg)
The literature research students need to rely on throughout all of their thesis writing is diverse. Broadly categorized there are three types of literature useful for PhD students: research/topic literature, methods literature, and ‘how to do your PhD’ literature. A somewhat similar classification of PhD materials can, for example, be found in Chris Hart’s Doing a Literature Search: A Comprehensive Guide for the Social Sciences (2010, Sage, p.2), which I recommend immensely.
How Students Look for and Choose Masters Courses
Timing. The INOMICS Course Search is active all year round, as academic calendars and applica- tion deadlines vary by country and study program. However, regardless of regional differences, the interest in Masters programs, in particular, tends to peak in May and September. Course Aggregation Platforms. According to Google, most students search for listings of masters courses, rather than directly for specific courses or subject areas. As such, the presence of masters courses on platforms like INOMICS is an important way for students to find them. First-hand Student Experience. After identifying a country and programs of interest, students look for first-hand experiences before taking a more informed decision. As it is not always possible to contact alumni personally, they will search for available experiences online. Testimonials and videos with real students featured in them are without a doubt a powerful means of filling this information gap. Quality of Information. Comprehensive and well-presented information online can become a key factor for prospective students in their decision to opt for a study program. This includes coverage of all relevant information like modules, entry requirements, student profiles, application details, fees and financial arrangements, internships, future career opportunities and support for international students. Language. Many universities in non English-Speaking countries struggle to provide the necessary information for international students in English. Even if knowledge of the local language is vital for studies, pages in English are important for a university and its programs to be found online.
Less than a decade ago student relied on word of mouth and the information available in their universities when choosing a Masters Program. Today, internet-based searching is the foremost source of advice when it comes to exploring opportunities for postgraduate education. Students who are interested in studying abroad in particular turn to search engines and course-listing platforms in their search, and often make their decisions based on the information presented online. Using our own and published data about online behavior, it is possible to identify the key trends in how people search for study programs. Understanding these trends is vital for universities to stay competitive in the global educational market.
University Rankings – Top Economics Departments in Latin America
As it was pointed in our earlier posts about Rankings of Economics Departments, unfortunately there is a lack of comprehensive rankings systems for specific disciplines, and specially so for specific geographic regions. In this case, the QS Latin American University Rankings is based on two types of surveys and a set of indicators. The first survey is to measure the academic reputation of the university; therefore it is carried out among the academics in charge of evaluating universities according to their research results. A second survey is aimed at employers who evaluate the quality of graduates, thus a business reputation can be evaluated. Additionally different indicators are taken into account, such as the number of studies and publications, the ratio between the number of students and teachers, and the number of doctorates. 250 institutions in the region were evaluated. As a result, Chilean and Brazilian universities dominate the top of the list. Mexico and Colombia are the next on the list of recognized economics departments in Latin America. QS LATIN AMERICAN UNIVERSITY RANKINGS No Institution Country Score 1 Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile Chile 99.98 2 Universidade Estadual de Campinas Brazil 97.55 3 Universidad de Chile Chile 93.73 4 Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (UNAM) Mexico 92.83 5 Universidad de Los Andes Colombia Colombia 90.37 6 Tecnológico de Monterrey (ITESM) Mexico 85.81 7 Pontificia Universidade Católica do Rio de Janeiro – PUC – Rio Brazil 76.5 As an complementary option, RePEC shows in the Top 25% Economic Departments, a list of the best economics faculties around the world. The Faculty of Economics and Business of the University of Chile represent the Latin American region. However, due to the number of institutions that are registered, the list is not fully complete. When looking for the best University or academic program, it is always recommended to make use of additional criteria. Different rankings correlate different factors such as academic reputation, number of doctorates and the number of publications, giving more weight to some than others. Additionally, many rankings systems offer the option to customize search results, meeting the needs of each candidate. If you use any other Economics Departments rankings for Latin American Universities, please feel free to share it with others in the comments.
The application deadline for the winter semester in many Latin American universities is approaching. To help those considering further education or work in this region we are sharing a list of top Economics Departments in Latin America. If you are interested in universities in other regions, check out our previous posts on the Top 10 Economics Departments in Europe and Top 10 Economics Institutions in Asia. The following list is based on the QS Latin American University Rankings for Economics and Econometrics.
INOMICS Officially Supports CitEc: Citations in Economics
INOMICS became an official sponsor of CitEc: Citations in Economics. CitEc is a service, which provides citation analysis for economics papers distributed on the RePEc digital library. For more information, visit this page.
At INOMICS we strive to offer the best resources for economists to support them in their careers. Besides providing information on jobs, courses and conferences in the economics field, in partnership with RePEc we’ve been working on making economics research more accessible to our users. As a means of support in promoting economics research, in April 2013
These findings are based on the responses of 355 economists from 68 countries. You can see the details of the sample group here.
According to our study last year, 35% of economists are working outside their home countries. The majority of economists go to work to the US, Germany and France (11% of the respondents respectively), followed by Switzerland (8%), Italy, Netherlands and the UK (6% respectively).
The Current Crisis And Recovery: Conferences And Blogs
Blogs: 1. A series of financial shocks have jolted the economy in recent decades, but the experts are not much closer to understanding how such problems develop. The New-York times about a recent IMF conference: ‘Economists Agree: Solutions Are Elusive’ 2. Macroeconomist Gavyn Davies about the ‘Great Recession and Not-So-Great Recovery’ in the Financial Times 3. Defining who is the one to blame for the crisis is a pretty tough task. Reasons for and against blaming the Fed can be found at: ‘Is the Federal Reserve Breeding the Next Financial Crisis?’ 4. Quite optimistic comments of Tim Duy about how resilient the current economy is: ‘The Recovery is Real’ 5. Jeffrey Sachs on the Crisis, the Recovery and the Future (a podcast). Conferences: 1. The Conference ‘Supervising Banks in Complex Financial Systems’ on financial institutions, financial stability, complexity, and linkages to the real economy will be held in Frankfurt, Germany. 2. The joint conference by The European Centre for Corporate Engagement (ECCE) at the Maastricht University and the University of Stellenbosch Business School (USB) ‘Financial Globalisation and Sustainable Finance: Implications for Policy and Practice’ will be held in Cape Town, South Africa. 3. The International Conference on Applied Business and Economics (ICABE) 2013 has the theme “The Role of Financial Accountability and Transperency in Economic Activities” and is aiming to “address the issues that arise from financial speculation and limited disclosure to the build up of a Financial and Economic crisis”. It will take place in New York, USA.
For the last couple of years we have been hearing repeated, if sporadic ‘rumours’ about the soon-to-be recovery. Different economists have different views on this, and below you can find a list of up-to-date comments about the prospects for the near future, and conferences which are open for registration if you have ideas on this topic to tell the world about.
Economic Development, Innovation and Growth (JEL O)
Are academics too smart and busy to become active participants in the share-and-like race on social media platforms? To answer this question exactly one year ago we surveyed 340 economists who visited the INOMICS platform. The majority of economists who responded to the survey (87%) were employed in Universities, Research Institutes/Think Tanks or Government. Given the global nature of internet space and keeping in mind that the use of the social media platforms may vary from country to country, we ensured a fair representation of all regions among the respondents, with 63% of respondents still being based in Europe. What did economists share with us about their use of social networks? Twitter was reported to be the least used by the economists with only 21% of the respondents having an account. 62% of those economists who do use Twitter use it for professional networking, while 38% use it solely for private purposes. Google+ had a slightly higher use (33% of respondents) and is used by equal numbers of economists for professional and private purposes. Not surprisingly, LinkedIn, used by 60% of survey participants, was mostly kept for professional networking. Surprisingly, none of the economists surveyed mentioned any professional platforms created specifically for academics. Facebook is an obvious exception in the types of social media used by economists. Despite continuous predictions of the coming fall of the “like button” monopolist, which are supported by the declining numbers of Facebook users, it remains the most used social media platform regardless of professional profile of users. Moreover, as online communication methods are increasingly becoming the norm, user behavior is changing. According to last year’s survey, 60% of economists still used Facebook for private purposes only, but the growing number of jobs and academic conferences shared suggests that private and professional spheres in the online world are currently not that isolated from each other. And while from the privacy point of view it is perceived by many as a negative side effect of social networks, it has its obvious advantages, too. An opportunity to connect with people in your professional community regardless of their geographical location and school of thought can have an enhancing effect on both career and personal development, whereas trust and accountability increase proportionally to the number of shared connections. If it has to be done on another platforms, created for these professional communities and networking only, is another question – especially if predictions about Facebook fall come true. Being a platform for economists, here at INOMICS we have the privilege to watch these trends in the context of the economics community ourselves. Since April last year the INOMICS Facebook page has grown by 100%, and also demonstrated a disproportional increase in fans activity. Users are engaging significantly more actively in the professional discussions and are sharing related information with their private networks. The trends in web platforms use are changing with amazing speed, as do the platforms themselves. Given the changing landscape of professional networks for academics, we have added extra dimensions to our survey this year.
* The original article was published in the INOMICS Customer Newsletter. Click here to subscribe.