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A Profile of Senior Economics Majors in the United States

1984; American Economic Association; Volume: 74; Issue: 2 Linguagem: Inglês

1944-7981

John J. Siegfried, Jennie E. Raymond,

Economic Theory and Policy

The American Economic Association's (AEA) Committee on Economic Education and the Joint Council on Economic Education (JCEE) have sponsored a comprehensive study of the economics major in the United States.' This article reports results of an April 1981 survey of 1,080 senior majors in economics at 48 colleges and universities who graduated in spring 1981. An earlier report presented the results from a survey of 546 departments that offered a bachelor's degree with a major in economics.2 Information in this article may help departments to identify strengths and weaknesses in their students and programs, and may be useful to the economics profession generally by revealing the educational goals and career plans of our students. The data collected in our survey are available for further research on economics education.3 The student questionnaire required approximately 15 minutes to complete. Respondents were invited to report their names and permanent addresses to facilitate a follow-up study, but they were also urged to complete the questionnaire even if they preferred to remain anonymous. Seventy-one percent of the respondents provided name and address. These students were contacted again in May 1983 and asked to verify their educational and career experience; 398 responded. The questionnaire was administered by a faculty member at each of 50 colleges and universities. The sample institutions were chosen to provide a representative distribution of respondents on six criteria: region of the country, total institution enrollment, exclusive gender of students, predominant race of students, private or public control, and degree level in economics (whether they offer graduate degrees). The percentage of respondents in each category is reported in column (3) of Table 1. Table 1 also reports the distribution of economics degrees conferred across these categories based on National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) data for 1978 (the most recent year for which data were then available). Sample schools were selected so that their enrollments generated approximately the same distribution of students across the criteria as did 1978 degrees conferred. Variation in response rates at individual schools caused deviations between the actual sample distribution and the goal. Our sample includes too many students from the Southeast, the smaller schools, and private institutions. These are the only statistically significant (Chi-square test) deviations between the distributions in column (1) and column (3) of Table 1. Because the survey is not based on a random sample, we generally avoid formal statistical testing. The sample appears to be substantially above average academically, with an estimated average combined SAT score of 1,216 compared with the nationwide average for graduating seniors (in all disciplines) in 1981 *Professor of Economics and Graduate Student in Economics, respectively, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN 37235. This project received enormous encouragement and aid from Allen Kelley, W. Lee Hansen, Arthur Welsh, Rendigs Fels, John Soper, James Wilkinson, Kaye D. Evans and Katherine M. McElroy. Phillip Saunders, Michael Salemi, Marianne Ferber, Jum Nunnally, Robert Highsmith, John Sumansky, Stephen Buckles, J. S. Butler advised us on the design of the study. We are most grateful to the 48 professors who distributed and collected the survey and the 1,080 students who completed it. 'The Sloan Foundation provided primary financial support for this project. Supplementary support was received from the JCEE, AEA, and the University Research Council of Vanderbilt University. 2See Siegfried and James Wilkinson. That study reports on the number of economics major programs in the United States, the characteristics of their students and faculty, requirements for the major, availability of special educational opportunities, course enrollments, and the effect of curriculum design on the choice of majors by students. 3For information on the public use data tapes produced by this project, contact the Joint Council on Economic Education, 1212 Avenue of the Americas, New York, NY 10036.