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.
Public Economics & Economic Policy (JEL H)
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.
Global Job Market: Spanish Professionals Move to South America
Patterns in immigration around the world naturally ebb and flow with time. In South America however, the trend in recent decades has been distinctly for more individuals to take their leave of the continent than to move to it. But now in the context of the global economic crisis and the problems in the euro zone, the migration patterns in this region are notably changing, and the destination of migrants is now shifting from well-known countries in the developed world to countries with emerging economies, especially in South America. The United States and Europe are no longer the only favored destinations for skilled migrants. Instead, many European residents, both foreign and national, are now looking to attain a better economic status for their families in South America. One of the most notable cases involves Mexican immigrants in the United States. In recent years the number of Mexicans who left their homeland to continue the dream of a better future in the USA is 50% lower than in 2010. Possible causes of the phenomenon are the decline in the U.S. economy, exhausting paperwork to gain residence in the US, and the decreasing birth rate in Mexico. Moving to the south of the continent, the situation appears to be even more striking: the flow of migration to Latin America shows that the southern tip of the continent is a major destination for foreign workers. Particularly Argentina, Chile and Brazil are seen as highly attractive for skilled immigrants both from neighboring countries and Europe. Some of the reasons for this include job market opportunities, a common language and the cultural similarities with Europe in the case of immigrants from the old continent. Spanish nationals represent the largest group of migrants to this region. In the last two years approximately 110,000 Spanish people left their home to move abroad, about two-thirds of which preferred developed countries, such as United States, France, Germany or Switzerland, while about 33,540 Spanish migrated to a South American country. Due to the euro zone crisis, Spain is a less attractive environment for business and economic development than it used to be, with recovery prospects manageable only in the long term. This has been enough to cause migration of thousands of highly skilled Spanish professionals in search of employment and progress in countries like Argentina, which has become one of the favourite destinations. Furthermore, due to the difficult economic situation, many Argentinians who had previously lived in European countries decided to return to their home country. Between 2004 and 2012 the applications for residence permits in the country exceeded 1.5 million, according to the Department of Immigration. Most of the migrant population are Spanish young professionals aged between 25 and 35, whose priorities are based on professional autonomy and development prospects of a career in a company. Such migration profiles result in bringing an increased competitive level in the labour market of the region. The migration trends within South America and between European countries and Latin America represent an encouraging surprise for the developing continent. The European case registers strong criticism due to the immense loss of Spanish talent, and the process of a “brain drain” to the new world. The projections in the level of economic growth for Latin American regions have increased considerably thanks to the flow of young professionals from Europe and the regional talent who had moved to other places and are now returning home. No one knows for sure if the current migration to developed countries will return to the same levels it was at some years ago. In the time of crisis nothing is certain, and what remains for Latin America is to adapt to changes in society on the political, social and economic levels, with the shifting demographic and labour market trends in focus.
Source: Estadística de Variaciones Residenciales y Estimaciones de la Población Actual, INE.
University Rankings: Top 10 Economics Departments in Europe
As we described in our previous post, both rankings use significantly different methodologies: QS Rankings – Economics and Econometrics The QS Ranking is based on a survey among academics, which asks them to rate universities by research output, a survey among employers, which asks these to rate universities on the quality of graduates, and then additionally faculty/student ratio, citations per faculty, and ratios of international students and faculty.” RePEc – Top 25% Economics Departments Updated monthly and based on a variety of REPEC data, including number of authors, citations and popularity ratings, the REPEC department listing is in many ways the most complete economics department listing around. It is, however, reliant on authors and institutions registered with REPEC, which although very comprehensive, does not claim to be complete.”
With the application deadlines for PhD and Master’s courses in Europe approaching, we decided to post a list of Top 10 European Economics Departments to support your decision when choosing the right institution. As all university rankings have their flaws and there is an obvious shortage of rankings for specific disciplines, we combined two ranking systems in one table: RePEc, Top 25% Economics Departments (February 2013) and QS World University Rankings by Subject (2012).
As a discipline, economics is well represented. The virtual opening of Marginal Revolution University in September 2012 is just one prime example of this. MR University is an open access site currently offering five MOOCs within economics. It is run by prominent economics bloggers (Marginal Revolution Blog) and George Mason University Professors Tyler Cowen and Alex Tabarrok. It offers participants the option to simply follow along with the material or to complete the lessons and a final exam for a certificate. One of the front-runners in the MOOC field is Coursera, which has an entire section devoted to Economics and Finance MOOCs. Listed on their site you can find over thirty courses being offered by professors at well known universities in the US, China, Mexico, Canada, and Australia with titles including Model Thinking, Economic Issues, Food & You, and Generating the Wealth of Nations. Similar in style, albeit smaller (400,000 users compared to Coursera’s 2.7 million), Udacity has also started making moves in the field of MOOCs. Their founders all come from computer science and engineering backgrounds, but they are offering some mathematics and statistics courses, although nothing directly in the field of economics. A non-profit project coordinated by Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), edX is using the prestige behind its founder’s names to offer university level courses to the masses. The site currently offers courses from the two founding institutes as well as the University of California – Berkley, with additional institutions lined up to start offering their courses later this year and next year, including some international institutions from Canada, Australia, Switzerland, and the Netherlands. EdX’s current economics-related courses include: an intro to statistics and a course on development economics. Another major player in the field is the Khan Academy – a non-profit backed by individual donors, as well as high-profile donors including the Melinda & Bill Gates Foundation and Google, but not tied to any universities or university professors. They have made their name by expanding outside of higher education and targeting high-school students as well. Its economics courses include: micro, macro and finance and capital markets. As the examples above show, MOOCs are appearing across a number of platforms ranging from individual professors opening up their courses for the masses, to sites created solely for the purpose of hosting MOOCs, to Universities banding together to offer some of their curriculum in this format. One thing that almost all of these courses have in common (other than being online and catering to audiences in the hundreds of thousands!) is that the information learned is not transferable to a degree program. Some offer completion certificates, but professionals are still up in the air as to the value of such a certificate. This means that for now at least, these free alternatives, while providing useful information from reliable sources, are purely for personal growth.
Last year I wrote a post on whether free education would replace the skyrocketing tuition fees being faced around the world. A year later and this topic has expanded so much that it has a name: MOOCs – Massive Open Online Courses – and there are, literally, millions of them and the trend is growing fast, as illustrated by this ‘MOOC Timeline’.
Rankings: Top 10 Economics Institutions in Asia
Following our series of posts about the rankings of economics institutions, we decided to have a look at it in a regional context, starting with Asia. The list presented in this post is based on RePEc data, as it is one of the few rankings available for Economics specifically. Please note that only 887 institutions and 3019 authors, registered with RePEc, were included. If you are interested in more general rankings of Universities in Asia, it is worth having a look at the Top Asian Universities 2012-2013 by the THE World University Rankings or 2012-2013 Asian University Rankings by QS. To read about the difference in methodology for all the rankings listed above, see our earlier post University Rankings for Economics and Econ Department Directories. This ranking is: “based on a limited sample of the research output in Economics and Finance” “based on data about authors who have registered with the RePEc Author Service, institutions listed on EDIRC, bibliographic data collected by RePEc, citation analysis performed by CitEc and popularity data compiled by LogEc” „The average rank score is determined by taking a harmonic mean of the ranks in each method, except the first one (number of works), the best and the worst rank.“
Data Source: RePEc, Top 12.5% Asia, as of January 2013
Conferences & Prizes for Young Economists
Below is an overview of some of the most interesting events currently listed on INOMICS. If you know of other conferences for young economists, please feel free to mention them in the comments below. Specifically for Young Economists: Irish Society of New Economists (September 5th – 6th, 2013) Co. Kildare, Ireland Paper Submission Deadline: June 10th, 2013 Participant Registration Deadline: July 15th, 2013 “The ISNE was formed to encourage research, information and social links among economists at the early stages of their careers in Ireland and Europe. The annual conference is intended for MSc, PhD students, and young professionals in the early stages of research. Eligibility to present has nothing to do with age.” Spring Meeting for Young Economists (May 30th – June 1st, 2013) Aarhus, Denmark Paper Submission Deadline: December 21st, 2012 Participant Registration Deadline: April 1st, 2013 “SMYE is an annual conference for talented young economists such as PhD students, post-doctoral researchers, and assistant professors. The conference provides a forum for the best young economists from all fields of economics where they can discuss their work and share experiences, knowledge, and ideas.” Sixth National Graduate Students in Economics Conference – VI CNEPE 2013 (May 23rd-24th, 2013) Bahía Blanca, Argentina Paper Submission Deadline: March 1st, 2013 Deadline for participant registration: May 24th, 2013 “The National Graduate Students in Economics Conference is aimed at students enrolled in graduate programs in any branch of Economics and related disciplines at Argentine or foreign universities. The objectives of this conference are: to contribute to the dissemination of research results, to encourage a profitable exchange of ideas, and to promote the creation of bonds between members of the new generation of economists. Papers addressing any current research topic in Economics or related areas are welcome.” The 5th International Doctoral Meeting of Montpellier In Economics, Management and Finance – D.M.M. 2013(May 13th-15th, 2013) Montpellier, France Paper Submission Deadline: December 14th, 2012 Deadline for participant registration: April 26th, 2013 “The aim is to offer a stimulating environment where PhD students and young researchers could share ideas about their works in Economics, Management and Finance with experienced researchers. Submitted papers should focus on recent issues within all major fields of research in Economics, Management and Finance.” Supportive of Young Economists: Warsaw International Economic Meeting 2013 (July 4th-6th, 2013) Warsaw, Poland Paper Submission Deadline: March 31st, 2013 “Young economists, such as graduate students or post-docs are encouraged to apply. Conference language is English. No conference fee. Best Paper Prize for Young Economists is established.” Regional Integration: Europe, the Mediterranean and the World Economy (August 27th-31st, 2013) Palermo, Italy Paper Submission Deadline: March 1st, 2013 Participant Registration Deadline: May 31st, 2013 Each annual ERSA conference includes the EPAINOS award for young regional scientists. There are also special sessions each year for entrants for young scholars entering the competition, and cash prizes for the winners and runners up. 52nd Meetings of the Southern Regional Science Association (April 4th-6th 2013) Washington DC/Arlington VA, USA Paper Submission Deadline: March 14th, 2013 Participant Registration Deadline: March 14th, 2013 Includes the presentation of the Barry M. Moriarty Award, including a $1000 prize, for the best graduate paper. Scottish Economic Society 2013 Annual Conference (April 8th-10th, 2013) Perth, Scotland, UK Paper Submission Deadline: February 1st, 2013 Participant Registration Deadline: March 15th, 2013 The Scottish Economic Society promotes conference participation by young economists and supporting PhD students. “The Scottish Economic Society will award a prize of £1000 for the best paper presented at the 2013 annual conference by an economist currently registered for a PhD or who has successfully completed a PhD within the last five years.” 40th Annual Conference of the European Association for Research in Industrial Economics (EARIE 2013) (August 30th – September 1st) Évora, Portugal Paper Submission Deadline: March 15th, 2013 Participant Registration Deadline: July 15th, 2013 This major conference has, since 1989, included several “Young Economists’ Essay Awards”, which include scholarships and prizes for upcoming talents in the field of industrial economics. Image Credit: NTNU Engineering Science and Technology
After our post last summer about the trend for conferences and prizes aimed at young economists, several further events are coming up this year, which could be of interest to PhD students and young researchers. Some of these are specifically for students or junior academics whilst others offer financial support or prizes to those attending or presenting papers at the meeting.
Armen Alchian: A Great Loss to the Economics Community
Known by colleagues as “the Armenian Adam Smith,” Dr. Alchian was a fixture at UCLA, the department he joined in 1946. He spent the entirety of his academic career at UCLA, remaining on active staff until 1984, when he took up his place as a professor emeritus. According to the UCLA Obituary, he kept his office on the campus open to students until 2007. In addition to his work at UCLA he was also affiliated with RAND Corporation, was a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences (1978) and a Distinguished Fellow of the American Economics Association (1996). Dr. Alchian was best known as a price theorist, especially for his work in employer-employee relations. His most famous work is his coauthored 1964 Textbook Exchange and Production. It is in this publication that Alchian explains the “Alchian-Allen Effect” or Theorem; an effect explained as the result of “when a fixed cost is added to substitute goods, the more expensive one becomes relatively less expensive, and so people are likely to increase consumption of the higher quality good.” This theory has also come to be known as the ‘Third Law of Demand.” Dr. William Allen, Professor Emeritus at UCLA and coauthor of Exchange and Production, described Dr. Alchian’s approach to the economics profession as “broadly empirical and commonsensical, imaginatively utilizing fundamental theoretical concepts and straightforward logic to account for an astonishing variety of market and social phenomena”. A testament to his great work, his 1972 paper: “Production, Information Costs, and Economic Organization” was recognized by the American Economic Review on their 100th Anniversary as one of the 20 most influential articles published. Many of today’s prominent economists are so because of his teaching. Here are a selection of his former students, admirers and others who have paid tribute to him in the economics blogosphere: UCLA’s Obituary Café Hayek: has written a few words, but promised more on the topic FEE (Foundation for Economic Education) Marginal Revolution Wall Street Journal The Independent Institute – Beacon Blog EconLib
Yesterday, the 19th of Feb, the economics community lost another famed scholar – Armen Alchian, 98, professor emeritus at the University of California Los Angeles.
Some articles, like 21 Reasons Why You Should Never Date an Economist by INSEAD, give quite an explicit answer. Others take a more scientific approach, but still agree on one thing: if you are dealing with a dilemma as to whether you should go for an economist or not, you should be prepared that an economist will be very unlikely to resist a temptation to apply professionally learned principles to their love life, too. Surprisingly for some, many of their assumptions might turn out true. As a special treat for a Valentine’s Day, we gathered a small collection of articles and blog posts about how economists approach love and how dating can be explained using a more scientific approach. Before looking at them into detail though, you might want to have a look at the paper by Matthew E. Kopfler “Effects of Romantic Relationships on Academic Performance” … 1. Let’s start with How Economics Can Get You a Date – an exploratory video by Tim Harford 2. How Nobel Economic Prize Winners Solved Dating Problem – an explained application of Alvin Roth’s and Lloyd Shapley’s work to finding the One. 3. An Economist Goes to a Bar and Solves the Mysteries of Dating – a quest of understanding what makes people desirable, including the results of a speed-dating experiment by Ray Fishman. 4. Game theory applied to a first kiss and some other interesting observations through economic principles in Dating for Economists. 5. The Secrets of Dating With an Economic Twist is a post by The Everyday Economist, explaining how we pick our partners. 6. Why I’m Beginning To Understand The Economist Dating Jokes … by Jodi Beggs on Economists Do It With Models. 7. “LOVE-O-NOMICS” is a blog which is entirely dedicated to “economic evidence useful for normal people in their daily lives, and, indeed, to help you find The One“. 8. 14 Ways an Economist Says I Love You – a witty visual about how economists explain their feelings – in graphs! The image from the top of this post is actually taken from here. 9. In Lessons in Love, by Way of Economics Ben Stein explores a return on investment in love. 10. “Relationship dilemma” through the eyes of an economist in Why Smart Women Go For Jerks. And here are two more articles about dating specifically for those working in academia: A comparison of the academic job market to dating by Lori A. Flores, an assistant professor at the State University of New York at Stony Brook in Dating and Job-Hunting, and what happens when academics get into online dating in Geek Love: Dating While Academic and Other Misadventures.
Image Credit: Liz Fosslien Have you ever considered dating an economist, and if yes, what did you decide? If you are puzzled by this question, there are plenty of resources, which can help you to find an answer. The amount of material on this topic found by searching Google and the number of jokes made clearly indicate that it is indeed a hot topic, even more so on a Valentine’s Day.
If you know and use other apps, which we haven’t featured here, please let us know in the comments and we will be happy to add them! 1) If you want to track international news in your phone, all major media, including The Economist, Bloomberg Businessweek and The Wall Street Journal, have apps available for subscription. 2) A large number of free lectures and events from top universities, which you can simply download on your iPhone, are available in iTunes. For example, LSE Public Lectures and events or Principles of Microeconomics by MIT. If you are generally interested in more free economics podcasts, have a look at our previous post. 3) EconGrapher: Solve, Graph, and Touch Economics is an interesting tool with which you can make good-looking custom economics graphs and interact with economics models. There is also a version of the app specifically designed for academic professionals. Another interesting app for creating graphs is OmniGraphSketcher (available both in English and Japanese), which allows you to create freehand sketches and turns it into proper graphs. 4) Mathematics with PocketCAS pro could be a great help with any mathematical calculations that you’d need to make by automating algebraic formulas. It also enables users to create 2D and 3D graphs. 5) EconBiz is a “search portal for business and economics”, which offers access to hundreds of thousands books, journal articles and working papers. This app was initially financed by German research foundation and many articles are available in German only. 6) A2ZEconomy is an iPhone version of Android Indicators Online. It provides up-to-date US business and economic indicators from an array of government sources. 7) If you are just starting with economics, the Economics AP is a useful app to review materials and prepare better for the exams in Macroeconomics and Microeconomics. Alternatively you might like to have a look at the EconClassroom or Study Econ. 8) And if you are just bored in the subway on the way home, you can have a look at Economist QuickQuotes with more than 700 quotes from renowned economists or play an Economics Trivia Quiz. Some of these Apps were already featured on the New York Times blog Economix by Casey B. Mulligan, an economics professor at the University of Chicago. In his article he also wrote about several useful apps to read papers and unpublished materials, which could be especially useful for academics.
Last year we published a list of “The Best Economics Android Apps”, with the intention to follow it up with a post about economics apps for iOS devices later. As promised, here is the list of the apps for economists, who prefer to use Apple products, and which could be useful for both students and professionals in economics.
IAEE’s values and dedication to the field of energy economics tie into what INOMICS strives to do within the greater economics community, so we are very excited to be working together closely over the coming months and years.
The US-based International Association for Energy Economics is the world’s largest organization of Energy Economists with members from over 100 countries. Part of their mandate includes facilitating the mutual association of people interested in energy economics, in order to create a forum for professional discussion and to provide a means of international communication and exchange. Collaboration between INOMICS and IAEE has already benefitted both organizations in terms of consolidating global reach and sharing resources.