The Department of Economics emphasizes both teaching and research, and sees them as mutually reinforcing. Faculty members are encouraged to engage in important research that leads to publication in leading international journals. Faculty members are also encouraged to apply rigorous methodologies to local economic issues that are of high academic value.

Besides microeconomics, macroeconomics, and econometrics, the Department’s research areas focus on: economic growth and development, industrial organization, international economics, China economy, experimental and behavioral economics, monetary and financial economics, and labor economics.

Faculty members in the Department are highly regarded and their accomplishments are formally recognized in several studies of productivity in economics research. In 2012, the Academic Ranking of World Universities, conducted by Shanghai Jiaotong University, ranked the Department as No. 1 in Asia and No. 48 in the world. Also in 2012, the EDUNIVERSAL Best Masters Ranking rated the Department as No. 1 in Far East Asia. 

The Center for Economic Development was established in 1995 with support from the Department.  Its goals are to support research on the process of economic development, with emphasis on economic development in Greater China and the Asia-Pacific region. Some of the department’s members are active in the School's multidisciplinary Center for Experimental Business Research.

Click here to learn more on Economics faculty and their research areas.