UNL Economics Department ranked 2nd worldwide in education research
Released on 12/10/2004, at 2:00 AM
Office of University Communications
University of Nebraska–Lincoln
A recently published book on economic education has cited the University of Nebraska-Lincoln Department of Economics for excellence in economic education scholarship.
In "Shaping the Learning Curve: Essays on Economic Education," edited by Franklin G. Mixon Jr. (BookSurge Publishing, 2004), Melody Lo and M.C. Sunny Wong of the University of Southern Mississippi ranked UNL second worldwide behind Vanderbilt based on the number of articles published in the Journal of Economic Education, the leading journal in the field, from 1969 to 2004. Of the 416 institutions that published in the journal during that period, Vanderbilt was credited with 37 articles and UNL with 34.
The authors also looked at the number of pages published in the journal by individual departments and ranked UNL No. 1 worldwide with 256.8 total adjusted pages, ahead of Purdue (202.97) and Vanderbilt (197).
"This paper constructs a new ranking of economics departments worldwide according to a measure of teaching quality," Lo and Wong wrote. "We use the research contribution to economic education literature as a proxy for teaching quality (in economics). Much of the research in economic education is related to the effectiveness and innovations in economic teaching. As such, we assume that schools with greater contributions to the economic education literature have a comparative advantage in teaching economics."
UNL economic education scholars also consistently increased their contributions to the Journal of Economic Education throughout the 35-year sample period. Nebraska was sixth in the number of total adjusted pages published from 1969-79 (35.67 pages), second from 1980-89 (91.13, to 92 for Illinois), and first from 1990-2004 (130, to 114.5 for Vanderbilt).
"We think that the economic education program here is among the very best in the country and it's gratifying to be recognized nationally and internationally," said John Anderson, Baird family professor and chair of economics at UNL.
CONTACT: John Anderson, Professor & Chair, Economics, (402) 472-2319