Economics
Economics is the study of how societies organize production, distribution, and the exchange of goods and services and about choices on how scarce resources are allocated to satisfy human wants. Who wins? Who loses? Why? Economists use models that are substantiated by statistical analysis to study important issues such as economic growth, unemployment, productivity and efficiency, poverty and inequality, international trade, and the effects of government policy.
The Economics Department offers two undergraduate degrees, one through the College of Arts & Sciences, and the other through the Leavey School of Business. Students have the option to choose a concentration in data analysis or mathematical economics. The department also provides foundational courses for the graduate programs.
Our faculty produce rigorous state-of-the-art research. Students often serve as research assistants to faculty, gaining hands-on exposure to modern research questions and methods, and occasional opportunities for co-authorship.
The economics degree provides graduates with a strong foundation to work in a wide variety of careers and provides excellent preparation for a broad range of career possibilities from management and finance to public policy and nonprofit work as well as prepares students for graduate study in economics, business, and law.
Submissions from 2003
Mirowski’s Machine Dreams, Alexander J. Field
Are Investments in Daughters Lower When Daughters Move Away? Evidence from Indonesia, Michael Kevane and David Levine
Improving Design and Performance of Group Lending: Suggestions from Burkina Faso, Michael Kevane and Barbara MkNelly
Submissions from 2002
Marriage in Africa: simple economics, Michael Kevane
Community-Based Targeting Mechanisms for Social Safety Nets: A Critical Review, Jonathan H. Conning and Michael Kevane
Submissions from 2001
Not What it Used to Be: The Cambridge Economic History of The United States, vols. II and III, Alexander J. Field
Social Norms and the Time Allocation of Women's Labor in Burkina Faso, Michael Kevane and Bruce Wydick
Bankruptcy, Debt, and the Macroeconomy, 1919-1946, Alexander J. Field
The Regulatory History of a New Technology: The Electromagnetic Telegraph, Alexander J. Field
Evolving Tenure Rights and Agricultural Intensification in Southwestern Burkina Faso, Michael Kevane and Leslie C. Gray
Microenterprise Lending to Female Entrepreneurs: Sacrificing Economic Growth for Poverty Alleviation?, Michael Kevane and Bruce Wydick
Submissions from 1999
Why do I live in African villages?, Michael Kevane
Comment on Paper by Gavin Wright, ‘Can A Nation Learn? American Technology as a Network Phenomenon’, Alexander J. Field
Titanium Hoes? Farmers, Wealth and Higher Yields in Western Sudan, Michael Kevane
A Woman's Field Is Made At Night: Gendered Land Rights And Norms In Burkina Faso, Michael Kevane and Leslie C. Gray
Submissions from 1998
Sunk Costs, Water Over the Dam, and Other Liquid Parables, Alexander J. Field
Extra-Household Norms and Intra-Household Bargaining: Gender in Sudan and Burkina Faso, Michael Kevane
The Telegraphic Transmission of Financial Asset Prices and Orders to Trade: Implications for Economic Growth, Trading Volume, and Securities Market Regulation, Alexander J. Field
Critical Issues Relating to Impacts of Information Technology: Areas for Future Research and Discussion, Alexander J. Field
Submissions from 1997
A Developmental State Without Growth? Explaining the Paradox of Burkina Faso in a Comparative Perspective, Michael Kevane and Pierre Englebert
Submissions from 1996
Qualitative Impact Study of Credit With Education in Burkina Faso, Michael Kevane
Agrarian Structure and Agricultural Practice: Typology and Application to Western Sudan, Michael Kevane
Submissions from 1995
Adults’ Abilities To Detect Children Who Are Ready To Learn, Michelle Perry, Jacqueline Woolley, and John Ifcher
Local politics in the time of Turabi's revolution: gender, class and ethnicity in western Sudan, Michael Kevane and Leslie C. Gray
Submissions from 1994
Village labor markets in Sheikan district, Sudan, Michael Kevane
French Optical Telegraphy, 1793-1855: Hardware, Software, Administration, Alexander J. Field
Submissions from 1993
An Interview with Moses Abramovitz, Alexander J. Field
Is the “Sheil” a Shill? Informal Credit in Rural Sudan, Michael Kevane
For Whom is the Rural Economy Resilient? Initial Effects of Drought in Western Sudan, Leslie C. Gray and Michael Kevane
Submissions from 1992
Uncontrolled Land Development and the Duration of the Depression in the United States, Alexander J. Field
The Magnetic Telegraph, Price and Quantity Data, and the New Management of Capital, Alexander J. Field
Submissions from 1991
Do Legal Systems Matter?, Alexander J. Field
Submissions from 1988
Economic History and the Modern Economist: Let Us Now Praise Exogenous Variables, Alexander J. Field
Submissions from 1987
Modern Business Enterprise as a Capital-Saving Innovation, Alexander J. Field
The Future of Economic History, Alexander J. Field
Submissions from 1985
On the Unimportance of Machinery, Alexander J. Field
Submissions from 1984
Microeconomics, Norms, and Rationality, Alexander J. Field
A New Interpretation of the Onset of the Great Depression, Alexander J. Field
Asset Exchanges and the Transactions Demand for Money, 1919-1929, Alexander J. Field
Submissions from 1983
Land Abundance, Interest-Profit Rates and Nineteenth Century American and British Technology, Alexander J. Field
Malthus's Macroeconomic and Methodological Thought, Alexander J. Field
Submissions from 1982
Optimal Pricing in the Presence of Experience Effects, Frank H. Clarke, M. N. Darrough, and John Heineke
Land Abundance, Factor Returns, and Nineteenth Century American and British Technology: A Ricardian/Linear Production Model Retrospective, Alexander J. Field
Submissions from 1981
The Problem with Neoclassical Institutional Economics: A Critique with Special Reference to the North-Thomas Model of pre-1500 Europe, Alexander J. Field
Whither Quantitative History?: A Review of Some Recent Work in the Economic and Social History of Education, Alexander J. Field
Submissions from 1980
Industrialization and Skill Intensity: The Case of Massachusetts, Alexander J. Field
The Relative Stability of German and American Industrial Growth, 1880-1913: A Comparative Analysis, Alexander J. Field
Law Enforcement Agencies as Multiproduct Firms: Correcting Some Misconceptions, John Heineke and M. N. Darrough
Submissions from 1979
Economic and Demographic Determinants of Educational Commitment, Massachusetts, 1855, Alexander J. Field
On the Explanation of Rules Using Rational Choice Models, Alexander J. Field
Occupational Structure, Dissent and Educational Commitment, Lancashire, 1841, Alexander J. Field
Law Enforcement Agencies as Multiproduct Firms: An Econometric Investigation of Production Costs, John Heineke and M. N. Darrough
Submissions from 1978
Sectoral Shift in Antebellum Massachusetts: A Reconsideration, Alexander J. Field
Education and Social Programs: Workshop Report, Alexander J. Field
Technical and allocative efficiency: preliminary ideas toward discrimination between the hypotheses, John Heineke and M. N. Darrough
Submissions from 1977
The multi-output translog production cost function: the case of law enforcement agencies, John Heineke and M. N. Darrough
Submissions from 1976
Educational Expansion in Mid-Nineteenth Century Massachusetts: Human Capital Formation or Structural Reinforcement?, Alexander J. Field
Educational Reform and Manufacturing Development in Mid-Nineteenth Century Massachusetts, Alexander J. Field
Modeling the offense decision: a critical survey, John Heineke
Submissions from 1975
The models of economic choice theory: a paradigm for non-economists, John Heineke
A Labor Theoretic Analysis of the Criminal Choice, John Heineke and M. K. Block
Submissions from 1973
Demand for Refined Lead, John Heineke
The Allocation of Effort Under Uncertainty: The Case of Risk Averse Behavior, John Heineke and M. K. Block
The supply of legal and illegal activity: A choice theoretic analysis, John Heineke and M. K. Block
Submissions from 1972
A theory of household behavior under uncertainty, John Heineke and M. K. Block
Submissions from 1971
Rigid pricing policies and profit maximization, John Heineke
Submissions from 1970
A note on a compound distribution: the demand for hospital beds, John Heineke
Submissions from 1969
A stochastic model of wildfire ignitions and damages, John Heineke and Stein Weissenberger
Submissions from 1967
Stochastic Reserve Losses, John Heineke and Eleanor M. Birch
Stochastic Reserve Losses: A Rejoinder, John Heineke and Eleanor M. Birch
