Martin I. Milkman

Why Have Some Schools Not Experienced a Decrease in the Percentage of Students Majoring in Economics

Schools offering an economics minor or more economics electives appear to have been at less risk than those that do not. Economics departments that did not face competition from a business program also may have been at more risk of losing majors than those that had to compete with a business program.

The academic labor market for economists: 1995–96

This paper provides a comprehensive, up-to-date picture of the job market for economists using new survey data on job search and employment experiences for a recent cohort of market participants. Several empirical facts are established about the labor market for economists based on separate surveys of job market applicants and chairs of programs advertising job openings in economics. In addition to providing descriptive statistics, this paper examines methods to reduce the costs of job search and recruiting and describes how market outcomes differ by department rank. Such information is of interest to current and future market participants, to advisors of job candidates, and to search committees.

Evolution of the Masters in Economics

In this article, the authors update their previous study of terminal masters degree in economics programs to determine whether changes in the characteristics and students or the desired outcomes of masters programs have occurred during the decade between the two studies. The authors find that there are now fewer programs and on average, there has been a reduction in rigor in terms of degree requirements. They also find some evidence for increased diversity of faculty in these programs. The average number of students in programs remained about the same over the decade, but the average number of faculty serving these students decreased. While some differences are found, overall the authors conclude that masters in economics programs have not dramatically changed over the past 10 years.

Do Recent PhD Economists Feel Prepared to Teach Economics

A survey of recent economics PhDs who graduated from U.S. PhD programs and are now teaching in either the United States or Canada revealed that only half of the respondents who taught a stand-alone course during their doctoral program had any teacher preparation training. Those who did have training only felt “adequately” prepared for teaching. However, as a general rule, the respondents felt that they were well-prepared for teaching at the completion of their graduate program. The authors did not find significant differences in the responses of those who did complete formal pedagogical training during their doctoral program and those who did not. Those who completed training during their doctoral program appear to currently be more enthusiastic about training.

The Impact of Brazil’s 'Broadband at School Program' on Student Achievement

In the past decade policymakers in many countries have implemented programs to expand access to broadband in public schools. Instituted in 2008, the “Broadband at School” federal program in Brazil aimed to bring broadband to all urban public elementary and middle schools in the country by the end of 2010, beneficiating more than 64,000 schools, while maintaining the service free of charge until 2025. This paper uses the data collected by the “Instituto Nacional de Estudos e Pesquisas Educacionais Anisio Teixeira” (National Institute of Educational Research Anisio Teixeira), or INEP, in 2007, 2009 and 2011 to examine the effect of “Broadband at School” program on students’ academic performance. Using the system generalized method-of-moments panel data estimator, the paper assesses the impact of the program on the improvement of schools’ average Portuguese and mathematics standardized scores of 9th graders in all public schools. The identification strategy is based on the panel aspect of the data and on the fact that there is no evidence, neither in the data nor in the laws that regulate the implementation of this policy, that school participation is endogenous. Precision is improved by controlling for an extensive student, instructor, and school level variables such as household assets, parental education and involvement with student activities, the school physical infrastructure, safety, electronic equipment and library as well as teachers’ academic history and experience. Results indicate that schools that participate in the program have higher average Portuguese and mathematics scores. Besides, the longer a school has been enrolled in the program, as measured by the number of months, the larger is the effect.

How Do Instructor's Attendance Policies Influence Student Achievement in Principles of Microeconomics?

This paper examines the question of how an instructor’s attendance policy influences student performance in Principles of Microeconomics. This study asked students in several different microeconomics classes at a medium sized regional university what sort of attendance policy they were subject to: was there a grade incentive for coming to class (i.e. bonus points), was there a grade punishment for not coming to class (i.e. deduction of points, missed assignments, etc.), was there some combination of the previous two or was there simply no attendance policy. We expected a variety of results because the six classes surveyed were taught by five different instructors, each with slightly different attendance policies. While there are a few papers showing a positive correlation between required attendance and course performance, this paper seeks to understand more about the impact from the type of attendance policy employed. Data is collected from a student survey and from the university’s registrar. The main empirical evidence is gathered from a two-stage regression analysis with student absenteeism as the dependent variable in the first equation and a student’s final grade (using a 4.0 scale) as the dependent variable in the second equation. We find that, everything else equal, students seem more motivated to come to class when they expect a positive reward and they are more likely to miss class if they expect a negative punishment. Also, student attendance is a small, but significant determinant of a student’s course performance after controlling for other relevant factors.

Union influence on plant size

Much research has focused on the direct effect of unions on production efficiency given set technology and plant scale. However, another path through which unions may influence productivity has received virtually no attention: the indirect productivity effect that unions may exert on the firm’s choice of plant size. We present a model in which firms explicitly consider the positive correlation between the probability of being unionized and plant scale in choosing plant scale and show that unions may prevent firms from fully exploiting economies of scale by their threat of organizing. Although it may be difficult to directly estimate this effect, there is ample casual empirical support that union status and plant scale are positively related.

Undergraduate Mathematics Courses Required and Recommended for Admission to Economics PhD Programs in the United States

This note presents a list of mathematics courses, normally taken at the undergraduate level, which are required or recommended as part of the admissions criteria for all economics PhD programs in the United States. The data in this note were gathered through a survey of PhD program directors, retrieval of data from PhD program websites, and personal conversations with PhD program directors in the United States. All of the data were collected during the spring and summer of 2016.

The Masters of Economics: Where are we Now?

In this article, the authors present results from a survey of Masters of Economics program directors to determine the missions, inputs, and outcomes of these degree programs throughout the United States and Canada. They compare results of this survey to those of two previous studies that they conducted 20 and 10 years ago. Respondents were asked to provide information on program admission requirements, curriculum, faculty characteristics, enrollment, graduation rates, student financial support, and placement. The authors describe the changes that have occurred in the most recent decade; determine whether the changes they observed between 1992 and 2002 have continued, been reinforced, or been reversed in the most recent 10 years; and determine whether any consistent long-term trends are evident over the 20 years of study.

An Analysis of Mathematics Requirements and Recommendations for Admission to PhD Programs in Economics

This article presents an analysis of the mathematics course requirements and recommendations for prospective students seeking entry into economics PhD programs in the United States. We find that applicants must complete seven mathematics courses to safely assume that they have enough math credits for admission to most programs. Using National Research Council (NRC) rankings of economics departments according to the level of research activity, we find no strong evidence that the mathematics courses required and recommended are dependent upon the level of academic research conducted by the faculty in the respective PhD programs. JEL Classifications: A22, A23