There are numerous rankings of Economics Ph.D. programs available.  One very recent assessment resulted from a comprehensive survey of doctoral programs undertaken by the National Research Council (“A Data-Based Assessment of Research-Doctorate Programs in the United States (2010)”).  The NRC’s program assessment methodology and results are somewhat complex, but one synthesis of their findings places our program within the top 30 Economics Ph.D. programs in the U.S.; and among the top 10 in public universities.

Other studies have ranked programs by field of specialization.  A ranking by econphd.net places our department 4th in the “subdiscipline” of Resource and Agricultural Economics.  This subdiscipline is further partitioned according to JEL descriptors into two parts:  Resource and Environmental Economics, in which we rank 8th; and Agricultural Economics, in which we rank 1st overall.

Yet another recent ranking of economics departments can be found in “A Guide to Graduate Study in Economics: Ranking Economics Departments by Fields of Expertise,” by T.C. Grijalva and C. Nowell, Southern Economic Journal, 2008: 74(4), pp. 971-96.  This study ranked Economics Ph.D. programs on the basis of faculty productivity as reflected by the quantity and quality of their publications.  According to this study, our program ranks 31st overall (15th among public universities) and 1st overall in the field of Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics.