Workshop in Macroeconomic Research at Liberal Arts Colleges (Summers 2007-2011)

Hamilton College, Clinton NY

Investigators

Abstract

This proposal seeks support for a series of annual workshops implemented over a five year period for macroeconomists at liberal arts colleges in the United States. The objective of the proposed workshops is to increase the research productivity of macroeconomists at these institutions by providing an annual forum at which the participants can present, discuss, and receive feedback on their research as well as form research collaborations with other macroeconomists in similar environments. These workshops meet a need that is not currently filled by existing workshops, conferences or other traditional means of collaboration. Macroeconomists at liberal arts colleges are often isolated both within and outside of their departments. Within their departments, each macroeconomist has only one other colleague, on average, with macroeconomic research interests. Outside of their departments, they are also often isolated due to the geographic locations of many of these institutions, making it difficult for these macroeconomists to attend seminars at larger research universities or research institutes that tend to be located in urban areas. The lack of opportunity for collaboration and networking is evidenced in the low participation rates of liberal arts macroeconomists in national conferences and even more specialized conferences focused on macroeconomics. These participation rates are low relative to both macroeconomists at other types of institutions as well as economists in other fields at liberal arts colleges. Broader Impact of Proposed Conference: Successful implementation of two pilot workshops and preliminary evidence of collaborations that have already arisen from them provide support for the claim that this proposal will be successful in achieving its objective. The intellectual merit of the proposal lies in the facilitation of knowledge sharing amongst faculty who work in similar research environments, but currently have little opportunity to do so. The broader impact of the workshops will be increased research productivity by macroeconomists at liberal arts colleges. This will benefit the economics profession generally, as these economists increase their contributions to the current literature. Furthermore, the undergraduate students who are taught by these individuals will also benefit, particularly those who will enter economics Ph.D. programs themselves. Faculty at liberal arts colleges play an important role in generating successful economics Ph.D. students and the research productivity of these teacher-scholars has been linked to an increased likelihood of their students earning an economics Ph.D. Finally, the proposal may disproportionately benefit female economists because the percentage of female faculty is higher at liberal arts institutions than at other types of institutions.