Applying themselves to economics

It's been 10 years since UD conferred the first doctorate in economics in the Alfred Lerner College of Business and Economics. The recipient, Tevfik Aksoy of Turkey, now is the director of research and chief strategist for Global Securities Turkey and Global Securities USA.

Although Aksoy was the first graduate, he is by no means the doctoral program's only success story, according to Saul Hoffman, professor and chairperson of the economics department.

In fact, all 30 alumni who have earned Ph.D.'s in economics from UD during the past decade have gone on to distinguish themselves as advisers and scholars, Hoffman says, adding that the College's program was designed with exactly that goal in mind.

The doctoral program began in 1991, during a time in which the economics community was questioning what was being seen as the discipline's previous overemphasis on theoretical economics.

That questioning began in the late '80s, when Hoffman says experts in the field began to see "a growing need for well-trained applied economists, people who do statistical, practical, day-to-day work like making forecasts or providing economic advice." At the time, the Department of Economics already had a flourishing master's degree program and was considering offering a doctorate.

Then, in May 1990, the American Economic Association's Commission on Graduate Education in Economics published a report that asked: "Has economics training become an increasingly theoretical, technique-driven enterprise giving short shrift to examining real-world economic problems with important empirical, institutional and policy dimensions?" The report concluded that there was "a need for Ph.D.'s with more formal training in the application of economic theory."

The commission report coincided with the Lerner College's decision to design its doctoral program to emphasize applied economics, Hoffman says. The University, he says, wanted to produce economists who would help government, business and institutions make the hard decisions.

Ken Lewis, Chaplin Tyler Professor of Economics and director of graduate programs, was there at the beginning. "We were sending our students to other schools to do doctoral work, and they were coming back and asking why there was no Ph.D. program at UD, where they were sure they would have received a better education," Lewis says.

University and College administrations were supportive, he says, and by 1991, students were taking doctoral-level courses in economics. The first Ph.D. was awarded in 1995, and the program received permanent status in 1996.

What started with one or two students graduating each year has blossomed into one of the largest Ph.D. programs at UD, graduating eight doctoral degree recipients in economics in May 2004 and six the previous year. Hoffman says eight to 10 are expected to finish this academic year.

What Hoffman and Lewis say they are especially proud of is the quality of their graduates. Most of the 30 are doing exactly what was envisioned when the program was created, working as applied economists. But, Hoffman says, the department got a bonus when several alumni went on to become educators.

"When we started, we weren't training our students to go into teaching as much as business, government and consulting, but what happened was that some decided to go into teaching and have been extremely successful," he says.

An outstanding example of an economist working in the public sector, he says, is Andrew T. Hill, who received his Ph.D. in 2003 after winning a UD Excellence in Teaching Award. He was a visiting assistant professor of economics at Washington College in Chestertown, Md., before becoming the economic education specialist at the Federal Reserve Bank in Philadelphia.

Other alumni who currently are educators include Margaret Ziurys Clarke, a 1998 graduate and an assistant professor at Pennsylvania State University who has published a paper in the prestigious Journal of Money, Credit and Banking, and Joseph Carlton Augustine, who graduated in 2002 and is an assistant professor at Howard University in Washington, D.C. This year, graduates of the doctoral program have found teaching positions at such institutions as the University of West Florida; Aquinas, Hood and Rivier colleges; The American University in Dubai; and the Kazakhstan Institute of Management and Economics.

And, there is no lack of Ph.D. graduates who are accomplishing exactly what the program originally intended. George Sharpley, 1996, is a senior economist with the Delaware Department of Labor. Those working as economists in and around Washington, D.C., include Al Gottschalck, 1999, with the U.S. Census Bureau; Karen Goodman Smith, 2000, with the Social Security Administration; David Matthew Massey, 2002, and Erik Helm, 2003, both with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency; Leonid Koryukin, 2003, with The World Bank; and Carol Robbins, 2003, with the Bureau of Economic Analysis, which produces economic accounts statistics for tracking the performance of the nation's economy.

While Hoffman and Lewis take pride in the quality of alumni, they say they are equally proud of the program's multinational flavor. Graduates have come from all over the globe, including Turkey, Morocco, France, Lebanon, Bangladesh, Cyprus, the United Kingdom, Russia, Egypt, Kazakhstan and Bulgaria.

"It's nice to know these people will go back to their countries and make a difference," Hoffman says.

The department has a joint degree program with the University of Lyon in France and an exchange program with University College Dublin. This year, Christine Saliba, a Lyon student, won UD's Ryden Prize for the best dissertation in the social sciences.

--Barbara Garrison