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When Economics Phds Are Too Rigorous For Economists

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by Yves Smith and Felix Salmon
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Oct 17 2007 12:00am EDT

When Economics PhDs are Too Rigorous for Economists

What is an economics degree for? "Marshall Jevons" complains today that it doesn't qualify people to get accepted into economics PhD programs:

We have a system where the engineer or the physicist has greater chance of getting accepted to a PhD in economics than someone who has studied economics at graduate or undergraduate level- don't we need to completely change the content and approach of teaching undergraduate economics?

My answer is that it's much easier for graduate-level economics students to take a few mathematics courses if they want to continue on to a PhD than it is to re-architect entire undergraduate economics classes for the sake of the small minority of students who might want a doctorate in the subject.

In any event, you've gotta love the tone of the Cornell Economics faculty's website:

Courses called Mathematics for Economists, Mathematics for Social Scientists, and Econometrics are not a substitute for formal Mathematics.

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