University of Connecticut |
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A Welcome from Dennis HeffleyProfessor and Department Head 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 department has 25 full-time faculty, 20 at Storrs, and 5 at regional campuses. All full-time faculty members hold the Ph.D. degree from leading institutions. 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, 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 of Connecticut 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 1,100 full-time faculty members and total enrollment of over 26,600; there are about 7,340 graduate students enrolled in eighty fields of study in 17 Schools and Colleges. 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 2.5 million volumes, over 2.8 million items on microfilm, 9,000 current periodicals, and maintains substantial online resources, including 25,000 full-text electronic journals, and subscriptions to major databases and periodicals. The University Information Technology Services provides information and technological services to the University community. Computer labs and personal computers (PCs) are available for use by faculty and students throughout the university. The department has a PC lab available for use by graduate students. An undergraduate PC lab for classes is also located in the same building. The department is also host to several affiliated organizations: Connecticut Center for Economic Analysis (CCEA) In 1992, the Department of Economic and Community Development of the State of Connecticut awarded a grant to the Economics Department in support of the faculty's efforts to analyze and forecast the state's economy. At the same time, with the support of the department, a new publication, The Connecticut Economy: A University of Connecticut Quarterly Review was launched, a public-private partnership. The Center is involved in the operation of a state-regional macro-econometric model, the publication of The Connecticut Economy, and the establishment of a state-wide central clearinghouse for economic data. The department also supports several web-based initiatives that are among the most appreciated and used in the profession. Internet Documents in Economics Access Service (IDEAS) IDEAS is the largest free online database of economic research, built on a model that is unique in the academic world. Several hundred institutions around the world contribute bibliographic information about their publications. IDEAS then makes the gathered data available to the public. Economics Departments, Institutes and Research Centers in the World (EDIRC) EDIRC is a comprehensive directory of Economics institutions, including academic departments, central banks, statistical offices, research centers, think tanks and government institutions. Quantitative Macroeconomics and Real Business Cycle (QM&RBC) QM&RBC is a topical web site inaugurated in 1995 pertaining to dynamic general equilibrium theory. This methodology is widely used in macroeconomics, as well as other fields. In addition, while not affiliated with the department, The Center for Survey Research and Analysis and The Roper Center share the building with the Economics Department, and have extensive economic data, including the largest archive of survey data in the world. |