The Program provides students with a sophisticated and critical grounding in economic analysis, so that they can contribute creatively to research, teaching, and social policy. This commitment has gained the Department an international reputation as a center of research in innovative approaches to economics.
Each graduate class consists of ten to fifteen students. The focus of the Department, as well as its policy of maintaining small classes and promoting close contact between faculty and students, has permitted the program to attract talented students on a par with other highly selective graduate programs in the country. The students are of diverse backgrounds, nationality, gender, and race. They are drawn by the program''s strengths in such areas as political economy, development economics, economic history, gender and class, labor economics, and industrial organization, as well as in theoretical and applied micro-and macroeconomics. This leads to a breadth of perspective unusual among graduate programs in economics. Yet the Department is more than a leading center for research on political economy. Many of our faculty are of the neoclassical mainstream, with specialties in theory, economic history, labor, econometrics, industrial organization, and the like.
The Department is committed to innovation in economic theory, to improvement in economic life, and to be an open environment for critical intellectual inquiry. This diversity has proved fertile ground for learning and research. Our graduates have been recruited by leading liberal arts and research institutions in the United States and abroad. They include such public institutions as the Universities of California, Texas, and Vermont; private universities such as American University, Harvard, MIT, Notre Dame, and the University of Southern California; and such liberal arts colleges as Bowdoin, Colby, Smith, Mount Holyoke, Vassar, Franklin and Marshall, and William and Mary, Skidmore, and Loyola.
Amherst, the location of the University, is situated in the historic Pioneer Valley, one of the most interesting natural and social environments in New England. Bordering on the Berkshire hills, the area is noted for its year-round musical and arts activity. The home of Smith, Hampshire, Mount Holyoke, and Amherst Colleges as well as the University of Massachusetts, the Valley enjoys sophisticated musical, artistic, political, and recreational resources. Amherst is two hours from Boston, four hours from New York, and one hour from Bradley International Airport. There are ample bus and train connections for domestic and international travel.
Department of Economics
Thompson Hall
University of Massachusetts
Amherst, MA 01003
For information about the Graduate Program in Economics, contact the Graduate Program Office listed below. Please do not contact individual faculty members.
Gerald Epstein, Chair
1006 Thompson Hall
(413)545-3815 Secretary to Faculty
1038 Thompson Hall
(413)545-2590
Undergraduate Office
1004 Thompson Hall
(413)545-0855
Email: Undergraduate Program Office Graduate Program Office
1024 Thompson Hall
(413)545-2082
Email: Graduate Program Office
Department Fax: (413)545-2921 Department E-mail: econs@econs.umass.edu
Contacts for Additional Information
And you can contact the other four campuses of University of Massachusetts:
University of Massachusetts Boston
http://www.umb.edu/academic_programs/Undergraduate_Catalog/ CAS/Majors,_Minors,_Programs%7E/Economics/index.html
University of Massachusetts Dartmouth http://www.umassd.edu/CAS/economics/
University of Massachusetts Lowell http://www.uml.edu/Dept/Economics/
