The Cambridge Economics Tripos 1903-55 and the Training of Economists (original) (raw)
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In Becker (1997), I called attention to economists' lack of interest in the teaching of economics and the plunging number of majors in economics within the United States. Six years later I reported on the growth in economists' interest in the teaching of economics and an apparent turnaround in the number of majors (Becker, 2003). For instance, when economics degrees were at a relative high of 2.13 percent of all U.S.
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As economists, we have an interest in and individual knowledge of the initiation process that turns students into professional economists. However, other than anecdotal evidence, very little in the way of data exists. This paper is a step toward providing insight into that process. We obtained our data from questionnaires distributed to graduate students at six top-ranking graduate economic programs -- University of Chicago, Columbia University, Harvard University, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Stanford University, and Yale University -- exploring who current graduate students are and what they think about economics, the economy, and graduate school. The 212 respondents were relatively equally divided by year of study. We followed up our survey with a series of interviews. Certain results seem unambiguous and worth repeating. Specifically, there is a significant variety of opinions among graduate economics students and among the schools in the survey, and there definitely s...