Trends in Undergraduate Economics Degrees, 1991 to 2002

Abstract

Following a one-year lull, the recovery in undergraduate economics degrees from the precipitous decline in the early 1990s regained substantial momentum in 2001-02. After six consecutive years of growth, all but 7 of the 30 percentage points lost from 1992 to 1996 now have been recovered. The big news for 2001-02, however, is that large flagship public universities finally have joined the recovery. Indeed, they are now leading it. Undergraduate degrees awarded for the last 12 academic years by 207 U.S. colleges and universities are reported in Table 1, subdivided by institutional control, highest degree offered in economics, and selectivity. The number in this table is 59 percent of the undergraduate economics degrees reported for 1999-2000 by the Department of Education's National Center for Education Statistics, the most recent year available. Depending on how double and triple majors are counted (Siegfried 2002), this sample probably accounts for anywhere from 43 to 59 percent of the nation's undergraduate economics degrees. The sample is opportunistic rather than random, in that it consists of institutions willing and able to report their earned degrees. Fortunately, the sample is large, and the time series reports degrees awarded for the identical set of institutions over the entire period. Last year's report (Siegfried 2002) was based on a sample of 148. Nineteen of those 148 institutions failed to report this year. Fortunately, on the basis of a concerted effort and the cooperation of many department chairs and administrative assistants, I have been able to add 78 new institutions to the database this year. Annual rates of change in the number of earned bachelors degrees are reported in Table 2. Although all of the 2001-02 deficit in annual degrees vis-h-vis 1990-91 remains at public universities, each category of public institutions made a substantial gain last year. If 2002-03 mimics 2001-02, the entire deficit from the early 1990s will be eliminated, and 2002-03 will be a record post-1990 year for undergraduate degrees in economics. Private universities awarding Ph.D.s in economics and selective private liberal arts colleges continue to report the most growth in undergraduate economics degrees since 1990-91. Econom-