CORRECTION APPENDED

Harvard College produces the largest number of students who eventually receive economics Ph.D.s of any college in the country, according to a recent study by Vanderbilt Professors John J. Siegfried and Wendy A. Stock. [SEE CORRECTION BELOW]

The study ranked undergraduate institutions based on both the number of students who went on to receive a Ph.D. in economics and the relative percentage of the schools’ graduating classes that did so.

While Harvard had the largest number of eventual doctorates, small liberal arts colleges such as Swarthmore produced the most economics Ph.D.s relative to their class size. Siegfried said that many ideas have been proposed as to why the smaller schools were yielding higher percentages.

One very popular hypothesis, he said, is that professors at large research Universities—career academics whose children tend to be more likely to pursue their own Ph.D.s—are inclined to send their offspring to smaller schools, where they know they will be able to get attention from faculty. For his part, James H. Stock, chair of the Harvard economics department, cited the College’s attempt to provide personal advice and individualized counseling as a reason for the large number of eventual economics doctorates.

“Many economics concentrators decide to write a senior thesis, which allows them to work closely with a faculty member who supervises their work and provides frequent feedback,” Stock said.

Though Siegfried agreed that writing a senior thesis contributed to higher levels of future Ph.D. students, he cited that fact as the main reason for why liberal arts colleges led the rankings when it came to overall percentage of eventual Ph.D.s.

“Many believe that the larger proportion of students at liberal arts colleges who write senior theses and undertake senior research projects is one of the primary causes for the larger number of eventual doctorates at smaller institutions,” Siegfried said.

Even in spite of the recent economic downturn, Stock said he does not expect the number of eventual Ph.D.s produced by Harvard to decrease.

“For people of an academic and research-oriented mind-set, this is undoubtedly one of the most interesting times to be involved in the field of academic economics,” Stock said.

CORRECTION

The April 14 news article "College Leads U.S. In Producing Economics Ph.D.s" incorrectly stated that Wendy A. Stock was a professor at Vanderbilt. In fact, she is a professor at Montana State.