A Welcome from Kathleen Segerson,
Department Head

328 Monteith Building
341 Mansfield Road/U-63
Storrs, Connecticut 06269-1063 USA
Telephone: (860) 486-3022
FAX: (860) 486-4463

The department prides itself on the diversity of interests and fields of its faculty. All of the faculty are actively involved in research and publication activities, and are active in international, national, and regional professional societies. Faculty members have also served in positions with the national and state governments, and international institutions.

The Faculty

The department has 29 full-time faculty, 23 at Storrs, and 6 at regional campuses. All full-time faculty members hold the Ph.D. degree from leading institutions.

Mission Statement

The Department of Economics seeks excellence in research, teaching, and service. Both faculty and students are responsible for carrying out this mission.

In RESEARCH, the standard is refereed scholarly publications in leading journals and books. By-products of research excellence should be (1) participation at national and international meetings; (2) success in winning external funding; and (3) integration of research into our undergraduate and graduate courses, along with student involvement in that research. We encourage creative scholarship of any kind, on any topic. We believe in and support collaborative research and publication, and we pledge to maintain a collegial research atmosphere.

In TEACHING, the standard is effective, committed teaching at all levels -- principles, intermediate and advanced undergraduate, M.A. and Ph.D. While students have primary responsibility for their own educations, we consider it our duty to provide them with diligent, competent guidance. Excellence in teaching is not only compatible with but is actually strengthened by high-quality research, provided we always remember that good teaching matters. Giving Ph.D. students teaching experience is important, but it must not take precedence over staffing our courses, especially in principles and intermediate theory, with experienced economists who offer sound intuition along with analytical technique.

In SERVICE, we recognize our unique obligation to offer economic expertise to the citizens and governments of Connecticut, the nation, and the world. We also have obligations to serve the national and international communities of scholars and the University community. These obligations are in fact an opportunity: High-quality service both depends on and spawns high-quality research, and it also sharpens teaching skills by exposing faculty to different audiences.

The University

The University of Connecticut, a land-grant institution, is located in picturesque northeastern Connecticut. It is about 25 minutes by car from Hartford, and centrally located between Boston (1+ hours) and New York (2+ hours).

Founded in 1881, the University now includes the main campus at Storrs, with 120 major buildings on a 3,100-acre site, plus five regional campuses and many offices and centers throughout the state. The University has about 1,150 full-time faculty members and total enrollment of over 22,900; there are about 6,650 graduate students enrolled in 14 schools and 59 departments. The University is ranked among the top 40 research institutions in the United States in research productivity.

The University's Homer Babbage Library has holdings of approximately 2.1 million volumes, over 2 million items on microfilm, and 20,000 current periodicals.

The Computer Center has an IBM ES9000, an IBM 5390, and an IBM SP2 computer facility for use by students and faculty. Computer terminals and personal computers (PCs) are available for use in the department.

Center for Economic Analysis

In 1992, the Department of Economic and Community Development of the State of Connecticut awarded a grant the Economics Department in support of the faculty's efforts to analyze and forecast the state's economy. At the same time, the department launched a new publication, The Connecticut Economy: A University of Connecticut Quarterly Review, a public-private partnership. The Center is involved in the operation of a state-regional macro-econometric model, the publication of a periodical, and the establishment of a state-wide central clearinghouse for economic data.

The Center for Survey Research and Analysis shares the building with the Economics Department, and has extensive economic data, including the largest archive of survey data in the world.