|
Over
the last fifteen years, through the acquisition of a number
of distinguished senior and junior faculty, the Department
of Economics at Boston University has grown into one of the
leading economics departments in the world. A recent publications-based
ranking of U.S. economics departments placed it seventh
among U.S. departments, tying Yale and leading Stanford and
Berkeley.
Strengths
in the department include development economics, game theory,
health economics, industrial organization, international trade
and finance, labor economics, macroeconomics, microeconomic
theory, public enterprise, regulation, and public finance.
While the faculty work in a diverse set of fields, a common
characteristic of their research is the application of frontier
theoretical and quantitative tools to the analysis of important
practical issues. Research at BU has looked at, among other
things, auctions for rights to the airwaves, the effect of
having a single parent on school and workforce performance,
pension reform, monetary union, European integration, privatization,
and post-apartheid labor markets in South Africa.
A
distinguishing feature of the Boston University Department
of Economics is its international character. Two-thirds of
our graduate students and one-third of the faculty come from
outside the United States, and about half the faculty have
worked on African, Asian, and Latin American economic issues.
Within the Department of Economics, the Institute for Economic
Development (IED) conducts theoretical, empirical, and applied
policy research on the problems of less-developed countries.
The
department maintains a library of economics journals and working
papers that are available to faculty and students. It runs
active research seminars in development (under the auspices
of the IED), microeconomics, applied microeconomics, econometrics,
and macroeconomics, and it cosponsors (with Harvard and MIT)
a research seminar on health economics.
Recently,
members of our faculty have won a number of prestigious awards,
including four Sloan Faculty Research Fellowships (Kevin Lang,
Maristella Botticini and Jeffrey Miron) and the Olin Fellowship
(Maristella Botticini). Four of our faculty are Fellows of
the Econometric Society (Christophe Chamley, Laurence Kotlikoff,
Glenn Loury, and Andrew Weiss), and many are affiliated with
the National Bureau of Economic Research. Members of the department
have received considerable funding for research projects in
a wide variety of fields.
The
diversity in the department generates an intellectual life
that is lively and exciting. For example, a student interested
in third-world debt will find that he or she can work with
specialists in game theory, time-series econometrics, international
finance, and development. Students interested in labor economics
will find various faculty who apply both theoretical methods
and empirical techniques to problems in different regions
of the world. Students interested in industrial organization
will be able to learn modern applied microeconomic theory
and empirical techniques, and work with faculty with interests
in both developed and less-developed countries.
|
