Department of Economics

Department of Economics

Founded in 1903, our department is well-known for the excellence of its teaching and advising, with a strong reputation for producing outstanding Ph.D. graduates, as well as rigorous and innovative economic research. We are consistently ranked among the world’s leading departments.

On the forefront in research

The impact Berkeley faculty have had on various fields of economics has been enormous. Our department is currently at the forefront of many exciting new developments in economics:

5 Nobel Prizes
5 John Bates Clark Medals
2 MacArthur Foundation Fellows
25 Alfred P. Sloan Research Fellowships (an average of one per year since 1995)
1 Fisher-Black Prize

Excellence in Teaching

Carol D. Soc Distinguished Graduate Student Mentoring Award: Professor David Card (2017); Professor Edward Miguel (2015).
Division of Social Sciences Distinguished Teaching Award: Professor Martha Olney (2016); Professor David Romer (2014).
Campus: Distinguished Teaching Award: Professor Ulrike Malmendier (2015)

Our roster just got bigger

This year we are pleased to add Professors Emi Nakamura and Jon Steinsson to our dynamic and diverse faculty.

Recent faculty hires include Dmitry Taubinsky and Supreet Kaur.

News and Announcements

It is absurd that the working class is now paying higher tax rates than the richest people in America, argue Berkeley economists Emmanuel Saez and Gabriel Zucman in this Op-Ed for the New York Times. Read more (Illustration by Alex Merto)

Research on labor in boardrooms by Berkeley economics professor Benjamin Schoefer highlighted on NPR's Here and Now. The research found that companies become more productive when they put workers on their boards. Read the article and listen to the interview here

Researchers have long noticed that wages hardly drop during recessions. But showing that this causes unemployment has proven tricky, according to economist Supreet Kaur. Kaur analyzed the wage, employment, and weather data of over 600 districts across India from 1956 to 2009. Like previous studies, she confirmed that nominal wages are sticky but real wages aren’t. Read more

Research suggests the most effective way to help poor people can be to give them no strings attached cash. A new study finds even neighbors who don't get the aid benefit from a big ripple effect. Listen to the interview with UC Berkeley Professor Ted Miguel on NPR's Morning Edition.

"Zucman is an economist, but he also had some of the qualities—youth and fervency—that investigative reporters often have, and that made him someone people would go to when they thought something was very wrong." Gabriel Zucman and his colleagues are advocating a progressive wealth tax as a solution to global inequality, one that rethinks both evasion and the goals of taxation. Read the New Yorker Story here.

Michael Kremer, Berkeley Economics Prof. Ted Miguel’s former Ph.D. adviser at Harvard University, won the 2019 Nobel prize in Economics. To recognize Miguel’s contribution to the winners’ “experimental approach to alleviating poverty,” the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences has invited him to the Nobel Prize award ceremony and banquet in Stockholm, Sweden, in December. Read the interview with Prof. Miguel here (Via Berkeley News)

Research and Teaching

We're proud to share that Berkeley Economics professors Emi Nakamura and Chris Shannon were elected to join The American Academy of Arts and Sciences, which recognizes the outstanding achievements of individuals in academia, the arts, business, government,and public affairs. Congratulations! To learn more about their work and of all UC Berkeley faculty members elected, read more.

We're thrilled to share that Berkeley Economics Prof. Emi Nakamura has been announced as the 2019 recipient of the John Bates Clark Medal! The prize is awarded to an American economist under the age of forty who is judged to have made the most significant contribution to economic thought and knowledge. Read more

Congratulations to Berkeley Economics professors, Philpp Strack and Gabriel Zucman, for winning the prestigious Sloan Research Fellowship! Read more.

Berkeley Economics Professor Yuri Gorodnichenko has been awarded 2018 Monetary Economics and Finance Prize, which distinguish researchers who have developed central concepts to improve our understanding of Monetary Economics and Finance. Read more

Economics Professors Supreet Kaur and Danny Yagan have been awarded 2018 Sloan Fellowships, which “honor early-career scholars whose achievements mark them as among the very best scientific minds working today."