Welcome to the Department of Economics at the University of Pittsburgh. On our website you can find information about our faculty and students, our alumni, our programs, our research centers, and our commitment to diversity.
We have a strong and distinguished faculty. Eleven of our faculty members rank in the top ten percent of economists worldwide based on the last 10 years of publications (IDEAS/ RePEc). We have a fantastic group of junior faculty that consistently publishes in top journals. We are a top economics department, ranking No. 38 according to the US News rankings of best economics schools with a PhD granting program.
Economics is one of the largest undergraduate majors of Pitt’s Dietrich School of Arts and Sciences, serving over 1,400 undergraduate students; our major is ranked No. 41 among economics undergraduate majors by US News. Our STEM-designated PhD program counts more than 60 students, with historically more than half of our graduates obtaining tenure-stream academic jobs and a third joining research institutions. We launched an eight-month STEM-designated MS in Quantitative Economics in 2020; it has expanded the impact of our training of students to industry, government agencies, and NGOs.
Our department houses the Pittsburgh Experimental Economics Laboratory (PEEL), a leading center for experimental economics research founded in 1988 by Professors John Kagel and Alvin Roth, Nobel Laureate in Economics. We also house the Behavioral Economics Design Initiative (BEDI), launched in 2020 to promote the science and practice of economic design within the areas of women’s advancement, charitable giving, health economics, labor markets, and market design.
Our department recognizes the importance of diversity, equity, and inclusion and is committed to promoting these principles in our workplace, teaching, and research activities. Many of our faculty and PhD students have contributed research insights to the areas of gender differences in the labor market, residential segregation by race, labor market outcomes of minorities in the US, racial exclusion, the roots of the Civil Rights Movement, and the health, economic outcomes, and assimilation of immigrants.
We host six different seminars and brown bags, where outside visitors, faculty, and PhD students present and discuss their research. Many of these run jointly with Carnegie Mellon University’s business and policy schools. Our faculty and PhD students collaborate with researchers from CMU and RAND, as well as other units at the University of Pittsburgh.
Enjoy exploring our website and please do not hesitate to contact if you have any questions.
Luca Rigotti
Chair, Department of Economics
University of Pittsburgh