General Information

The UO Department of Economics is distinguished among others in the College with four endowed chairs/professorships. In addition to pursuing frontier research, the department’s faculty strives for excellence in the classroom. Three have received the Ersted Award, a University-wide award for distinguished teaching. In the most-recent NRC rankings of economics departments, which rate the quality of a department’s faculty and doctoral program, the department ranked 16th among all public institutions in the nation.

Undergraduate Studies

The department’s undergraduate student enrollment continues its long-term upward trend, with students majoring in Economics nearly tripling in the past decade. Today, the department has grown to include more than 900 undergraduate majors, in addition to thousands of UO students from other majors who include economics coursework as an integral part of their undergraduate studies.

Our majors have many opportunities to expand their academic activities beyond coursework. Career opportunities abound for Economics majors and our graduates have found positions in both the public (federal, state, and local government agencies) and private (banking, consulting) sectors. In addition, a degree in Economics is an excellent springboard for graduate studies across a wide variety of fields, including law, business, and international relations, among others.

Graduate Studies

The University of Oregon offers a PhD in Economics, in addition to a focused, terminal Master’s degree program. Our PhD program, with its low student/faculty ratio, is structured to develop high quality research and teaching skills. It prepares students for faculty positions in colleges and universities, and for advanced research positions in both government and private industry. Likewise, our Master’s program prepares students for a wide range of consulting and applied research positions in private industry and government, as well as teaching positions in two-year and other colleges for which a PhD is not required.