The tools of economics are used to analyze interactions among consumers, firms, and governments, particularly as they relate to the production, distribution, and consumption of goods and services. This framework is integral to the study of competition, government behavior, globalization, poverty, discrimination, the environment, and other issues of public and private life. Indeed, John Maynard Keynes described economics as “a method rather than a doctrine, an apparatus of the mind, a technique of thinking, which helps its possessors to draw correct conclusions." more...
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Assistant Professor of Economics Phil Brown has been elected Vice President of the Chinese Economists Society (CES), the organization for academics and professionals who conduct research on the Chinese economy. During the 2008-2009 academic year, he will be planning the program for the annual conference to be held in mainland China next summer. Past conferences have drawn several hundred scholars from China, North America, and elsewhere, including nearly a dozen Nobel laureates.
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Assistant Professor of Economics Phil Brown has been awarded a major research grant from the National Science Foundation to study the socioeconomic, biophysical, and geopolitical impact of dams in China. Together with Colby RAs and colleagues in Anthropology, Geography, Hydrology, and Political Science at Oregon State University and Hobart & William Smith Colleges, Professor Brown will conduct field research in China over each of the next three summers. |
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Professor of Economics Debra Barbezat was appointed to the Board of the Committee on the Status of Women in the Economics Profession (CSWEP), a subcommittee of the American Economics Association. It publishes a three-times-a-year newsletter, organizes sessions at the annual meetings of the AEA and the regional economics associations, runs mentoring workshops, and publishes an annual report on the status of women in the economics profession. |
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 Assistant Professor Jason Long was recently awarded a two-year grant from the National Science Foundation to support his research on social mobility in Britain since 1850. The particular focus of the grant is to explore the roles of education and migration in income mobility. The award pays for Colby students to assist in gathering and analyzing data from 19th century British census records. Long spent the 2005-2006 academic year on sabbatical with the Department of Economics at the University of Oxford.
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Students in economics learn a systematic approach to studying social phenomena. Classes emphasize theoretical modeling, empirical analysis, and critical thinking. In addition to completing the core courses in microeconomic and macroeconomic theory, students choose from a wide variety of electives, including international trade and finance, comparative economic systems, labor economics, industrial organization, economic development, economic history, money and banking, public economics, mathematical economics and game theory, and econometrics. Economics majors also complete a senior seminar and conduct research projects on topics of their own choosing.
 Within the major, students may elect concentrations in financial markets, international economics, public policy, and mathematical economics. Graduates of the program pursue careers in a wide variety of fields, including finance, banking, government, consulting, business, health administration, teaching, advocacy, and non-profit administration. The major also provides an excellent foundation for graduate study in economics, law, public policy, business administration, and other fields.
The Department of Economics actively contributes to interdisciplinary programs at Colby, including American Studies; East Asian Studies; Environmental Studies; International Studies; Latin American Studies; Science, Technology, and Society; and Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies.
Department of Economics faculty members regularly publish articles in prestigious academic journals, write leading textbooks in the discipline, and contribute to scholarly edited volumes. Department members also serve as economic advisers to the state, national, and foreign governments as well as to industry. They present their research at conferences and seminars around the world, including in the Department of Economics Research Seminar Series at Colby.
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"Pirational Choice: The Economics of Infamous Pirate Practices"
Peter Leeson
George Mason University
October 17, 2008
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"On the Completion of the Three Gorges Project and China's Environmental Issues"
Dai Qing
Independent journalist and environmental activist
October 28, 2008
7:00 PM
Ostrove Auditorium, Diamond
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| Speakers in the Research Seminar series in the spring will include Nathan Nunn (Harvard) and Beata Smarzynska Javorcik (Oxford). Check this space for a detailed schedule in the spring. |
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