The Ph.D. program in Economics at Minnesota has a long tradition of producing first rate researchers. This is because the philosophy of the program is fundamentally sound. To be a good researcher, one needs to be at the frontier in the modern methods of economic research. The faculty here are moving this frontier forward constantly, and, are committed to bringing this knowledge to the graduate program at every opportunity. This, along with a good working relationship between the students and faculty, is the reason behind the success of the program.

The National Research Council's 1995 survey of graduate programs ranks the effectiveness of Minnesota's doctoral training as 6th in the country, top among U.S. public universities. The ranking of scholarly quality, where department size counts for more, is 10th, second among public universities. (Click on the book for more details; download Appendix P).

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Daniel L. McFadden (Minnesota Ph.D., 1962) shared with James Heckman the Bank of Sweden Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel, 2000. The Royal Swedish Academy recognized his most fundamental contribution as the integration of economic theory and econometric methodology for discrete choice analysis, that is, choice among distinct alternatives that cannot be studied by traditional means. The Academy singled out the contribution made by this work to such practical concerns as the structure of the Bay Area Rapid Transit system in San Francisco, residential energy demand, the demand for telephone services, and the demand for housing among the elderly. Dr. McFadden received his bachelor's and master's degrees in physics (1957 and 1960) and his Ph.D. degree in economics (1962) all from the University of Minnesota. His doctoral dissertation, on the elasticity of substitution in production functions, was written under the supervision of Regents' Professor Emeritus Leonid Hurwicz, with Regents' Professor John Chipman serving as a member of the examining committee.   The Regents of Minnesota extend congratulations to Dr. McFadden The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences: The Scientific Contributions of James Heckman and Daniel McFadden Article on Dr. McFadden, "The Minnesota Lecture" by Michael Keane, Graduate Alumni Newsletter, Spring/Summer 1998.