The Department of Economics at Johns Hopkins offers a focused approach that sets it apart from other economics programs around the world. Drawing upon Hopkins’ history as America’s first research university, the department’s emphasizes depth of graduate education in core research fields. Faculty and graduate students engage in the exploration of five economic disciplines: applied microeconomics, economic theory, macroeconomics, econometrics, and finance.
An individualized, concentrated approach enables students to immerse themselves in collegial and interactive relationships with faculty. The small size of our department means that students are able to regularly present their research to the entire faculty in their field, obtaining valuable feedback on their work and how it is likely to be perceived by the profession. Such an extensive student-faculty interaction is infeasible at larger institutions where individual student’s work is rarely familiar to more than a couple of advisors. The unique environment of mutually enriching interactions routinely places the department among the highest ranked economics programs in the United States.
Our Research
The department features world-renowned senior and promising junior faculty, both conducting research at the forefront of the field with substantive and methodological rigor. Its primary strengths are in economic theory, macroeconomics, and applied microeconomics. The theorists in the department conduct research on the economic behavior of individuals and groups, in markets and in politics, the role of uncertainty, news and feedback on negotiations, and the methodological tools underpinning the discipline.
Its macroeconomists study the behavior of consumption and savings, inflation and unemployment, monetary and fiscal policy, exchange and interest rates, the U.S. and global financing system, and develop the empirical methods to analyze them. The applied micro faculty specialize in the study of labor economics, industrial organization, health economics and the economics of gender and race. The department also has several excellent faculty members specializing in microeconometrics and macroeconometrics.
The department holds weekly workshops to bring in distinguished scholars from around the world, as well as specialized lectures and conferences.
Education
The undergraduate program offers core courses in microeconomics, macroeconomics, and econometrics, as well as a wide variety of electives in other areas in the discipline. Economics is one of the most popular departments at the university and attracts many majors. The Center for Financial Economics offers a popular minor as well, providing students with both coursework and practical training in the field of finance. Students majoring in other departments and conducting interdisciplinary majors often take advantage of the course offerings in the department.
The graduate program offers a PhD degree where students engage in original and independent research, under the supervision of its faculty. Graduates of the program are employed in academics, government and industry alike.
Other specialization opportunities
The department has a specialized concentration in finance, represented by the Center for Financial Economics, with two chaired faculty in the area complemented by several of the macroeconomics faculty. Both undergraduate and graduate students take courses taught by the faculty affiliated with the center and learning from practitioners from the world of finance to get a solid foundation for a career in finance.
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