The MIT Department of Economics is a department of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge, Massachusetts. For over a century, the Department of Economics at MIT has played a leading role in economics, education, research and public service. Today, the Economics Department is a vibrant collection of faculty and students. The Department’s distinguished scholars have received numerous awards, including three Nobel Prizes (Paul Samuelson, Robert Solow, and the late Franco Modigliani), and many are Fellows of the National Academy of Sciences, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and the Econometric Society. Many faculty members have served in various elected offices of the American Economic Association and the Econometric Society. The Department offers exceptional opportunities for undergraduate and graduate study and research.
The Department attracts a very large undergraduate student enrollment. During the 2006-07 academic year, 2,150 undergraduates enrolled in economics courses, 108 undergraduates were majoring in economics, 118 were minoring in economics, and another 324 took economics as a concentration. Many undergraduate majors, as well as students from other departments at MIT, participated in research projects supervised by the faculty.
Each year the MIT Ph.D. program enrolls about 22 candidates selected from approximately 700 applicants. One important development of the last two decades has been a growing internationalization in the demand for graduate economics training. As nations in Eastern Europe and Asia have embraced free-market economics, there has been a sharp uptick in demand for economists and economic analysis. This has resulted in a significant increase in the number of foreign applicants to MIT’s Ph.D. program. As a result, currently about half of admitted students have undergraduate degrees from American universities, while the rest have degrees from throughout the developed and developing world.
During the 2006-07 academic year, there were 118 graduate students enrolled in the Department’s Ph.D. program. Student dissertation topics span a wide range of issues in microeconomics and macroeconomics. Dissertations include theoretical work, applied data analysis, and econometric methodology.
Most doctoral candidates typically spend five years in residence at MIT taking graduate courses and doing research. The first two years of the Ph.D. program are devoted primarily to course work, while the remainder of the program focuses on writing a doctoral dissertation. Graduates of MIT’s Ph.D. program pursue diverse careers. Many take positions in academia or in domestic or international economic organizations. Others join firms in the private sector, working as economic consultants or in other capacities.
As the Internet has enabled electronic dissemination of information to replace traditional print media, the MIT Economics Department has taken steps to develop a presence in cyberspace. The Department’s website provides up-to-date information on department courses and seminars. It includes links to the many web pages maintained by faculty, who often post research papers and other important information on these sites. Graduate students and economics researchers from around the world visit these web pages to download current research. Research papers are often widely read and cited months or years before they are published in academic journals.
Undergraduate studies in economics were introduced in the 19th century by institute president Francis Amasa Walker. The department's Ph.D. program was introduced in 1941.
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Prominent faculty
- Paul Samuelson (1940 - 2009), Nobel Prize, 1970
- Franco Modigliani (1962 - 2003), Nobel Prize, 1985
- John Williamson (1967 - 1980), originator of the 'Washington Consensus'
- Robert Solow, Nobel Prize, 1987
- Stanley Fischer, (1977 - 1999), governor, Bank of Israel
- Robert F. Engle
- Daniel McFadden
- George P. Shultz
- Myron S. Scholes
- Rudi Dornbusch
Alumni
- Lawrence Klein (Ph.D., 1944), Nobel Prize, 1980
- Robert Mundell (Ph.D., 1956), Nobel Prize, 1999
- George Akerlof (Ph.D., 1966), Nobel Prize 2001
- Joseph E. Stiglitz (Ph.D., 1967), Nobel Prize, 2001
- William Nordhaus (Ph.D., 1967), Council of Economic Advisers 1977 - 1979
- Robert C. Merton (Ph.D, 1970), Nobel Prize, 1997
- Tommaso Padoa-Schioppa, (M.S. 1970), European Central Bank Executive Board 1998-2005
- Martin Neil Baily (Ph.D., 1972), Council of Economic Advisers Chairman 1999 - 2001
- Lawrence Summers (B.S., 1975) Secretary of the Treasury, 1999 - 2001
- Paul Krugman (Ph.D., 1977), Nobel Prize, 2008
- Lucas Papademos, (Ph.D. 1977), European Central Bank Vice President 2002 -
- Ben Bernanke, (Ph.D., 1979) Chairman of the Federal Reserve, 2006 -
- N. Gregory Mankiw (Ph.D., 1984), Council of Economic Advisers Chairman 2003 - 2005
- Andrew Samwick (Ph.D. 1993), Council of Economic Advisers Chief Economist 2003 - 2004
- Steven Levitt (Ph.D. 1994), John Bates Clark Medal, 2003; author Freakonomics
Nobel Laureates
Among the department's past and current faculty and alumni are several recipients of the Nobel Prize in Economics:
- Paul Krugman, 2008
- Eric Maskin, 2007
- Robert F. Engle, 2003
- George Akerlof and Joseph Stiglitz, 2001
- Daniel McFadden, 2000
- Robert Mundell, 1999
- Robert C. Merton, 1997
- Robert Solow, 1987
- Franco Modigliani, 1985
- Lawrence Klein, 1980
- Paul Samuelson, 1970
Current Faculty
Professors
- Daron Acemoglu
- George-Marios Angeletos
- Joshua Angrist
- David Autor
- Abhijit Banerjee
- Olivier Blanchard [past Department Head]
- Ricardo J. Caballero [current Department Head]
- Victor Chernozhukov
- Dora L. Costa
- Peter A. Diamond [past Department Head]
- Esther Duflo
- Glenn Ellison
- Amy Finkelstein
- Robert S. Gibbons
- Michael Greenstone
- Jonathan Gruber
- Jeffrey Harris
- Jerry A. Hausman
- Bengt R. Holmström [past Department Head]
- Paul Joskow [past Department Head]
- Whitney K. Newey
- Michael J. Piore
- James M. Poterba [past Department Head]
- Nancy Rose
- Stephen Ross
- Richard L. Schmalensee
- James M. Snyder
- Peter Temin [past Department Head]
- Lester Thurow
- Robert M. Townsend
- Iván Werning
- William Wheaton
Associate Professors
- Mikhail Golosov
- Muhamet Yildiz
Assistant Professors
- Panle Jia
- Sergei Izmalkov
- Guido Lorenzoni
- Anna Mikusheva
- Stephen Ryan
Senior Lecturer
- Sara Fisher Ellison
Professors Emeriti
- Morris Adelman
- Sidney Alexander
- Robert L. Bishop
- Richard S. Eckaus [past Department Head]
- Franklin M. Fisher
- Stanley Fischer [past Department Head]
- Jerome Rothenberg
- Paul Samuelson
- Abraham J. Seigel
- Robert Solow
Affiliated Faculty
Former Faculty
- Susan Athey (Ph.D., Stanford) John Bates Clark Medal, 2007
- E. Cary Brown (Ph.D., Harvard) Professor of Economics, Emeritus
- Evsey Domar (Ph.D., Harvard)
- Rudi Dornbusch (Ph.D., Chicago) Ford International Professor, International Economics
- Robert F. Engle (Ph.D., Cornell)
- Stanley Fischer (Ph.D., MIT)
- Charles P. Kindleberger (Ph.D., Columbia) Ford International Professor of Economics, Emeritus
- Edwin Kuh (Ph.D., Harvard)
- Paul Krugman (Ph.D., MIT) John Bates Clark Medal, 1991
- Eric Maskin (Ph.D., Harvard)
- Daniel McFadden (Ph.D., Minnesota)
- Franco Modigliani (D.Jur., Rome and D.Soc.Sci., New School of Research) Institute Professor Emeritus; Professor of Finance & Economics
- George P. Shultz (Ph.D., MIT)
- Hal Varian (Ph.D., Berkeley)
Notable Alumni
- Lawrence R. Klein (Ph.D., 1944) John Bates Clark Medal, 1959; President of the Econometric Society, 1960; President of the American Economic Association, 1977; Nobel Prize in Economics, 1980
- George P. Shultz (Ph.D., 1949) Distinguished Fellow of the American Economic Association, 2004
- Robert A. Mundell (Ph.D., 1956) Distinguished Fellow of the American Economic Association, 1996; Nobel Prize in Economics, 1999
- Peter A. Diamond (Ph.D., 1963) President of the Econometric Society, 1991; President of the American Economic Association, 2003
- George A. Akerlof (Ph.D., 1966) Nobel Prize in Economics, 2001; President of the American Economic Association, 2006
- Joseph E. Stiglitz (Ph.D., 1966) John Bates Clark Medal, 1979; Nobel Prize in Economics, 2001
- Jagdish N. Bhagwati (Ph.D., 1967) Distinguished Fellow of the American Economic Association, 2003
- Robert E. Hall (Ph.D., 1967) President of the American Economic Association, 2010
- William D. Nordhaus (Ph.D., 1967) Member of the Council of Economic Advisers, 1977-1979; Distinguished Fellow of the American Economic Association, 2004
- Avinash K. Dixit (Ph.D., 1968) President of the Econometric Society, 2001; President of the American Economic Association, 2008
- Michael Rothschild, (Ph.D., 1968) Distinguished Fellow of the American Economic Association, 2005
- Stanley Fischer (Ph.D., 1969) Governor of the Bank of Israel
- Robert C. Merton (Ph.D., 1970) President of the American Finance Association, 1986; Nobel Prize in Economics, 1997
- Tommaso Padoa-Schioppa (Ph.D., 1970) European Central Bank Executive Board, 1998-2005
- Jeremy J. Siegel (Ph.D., 1971) financial markets guru
- Martin Neil Baily (Ph.D., 1972) Chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers, 1999-2001
- Robert J. Shiller (Ph.D., 1972) Fellow of the American Finance Association, 2006
- Paul R. Krugman (Ph.D., 1977) Member of the Council of Economic Advisers, 1982-1983; John Bates Clark Medal, 1991; Nobel Prize in Economics, 2008
- Lucas Papademos (Ph.D., 1977) Vice President of the European Central Bank, 2002-
- Ben S. Bernanke (Ph.D., 1979) Chairman of the Federal Reserve, 2006-
- Kenneth S. Rogoff (Ph.D., 1980) IMF Chief Economist
- Jean Tirole (Ph.D., 1981) President of the Econometric Society, 1998; President of the European Economic Association, 2001
- N. Gregory Mankiw (Ph.D., 1984) Chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers, 2003-2005
- Andrei Shleifer (Ph.D., 1986) John Bates Clark Medal, 1999
- Matthew Rabin (Ph.D., 1989) John Bates Clark Medal, 2001
- Andrew Samwick (Ph.D., 1993) Member of the Council of Economic Advisers, 2003-2004
- Steven D. Levitt (Ph.D., 1994) John Bates Clark Medal, 2003; co-author of Freakonomics
- Emmanuel Saez (Ph.D., 1999) John Bates Clark Medal, 2009
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External links
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