| Abstract: |
This paper provides results of a survey of European graduate programs that are
designing their programs to be similar to top US programs and compares those
results to an earlier study done by the author of US schools. The study (1)
provides a profile of European graduate economics students; (2) considers the
degree to which European training at these schools differs from U.S. training;
(3) offers some insights into the differences that exist among some top
European programs in economics, and (4) provides a glimpse of the views that
the students have of economics and of the training they are receiving. It
finds that these global European programs are similar in many ways to US
programs and that the students are satisfied with the programs. However,
because of the different job markets in the US and Europe, it is not clear
that the training is appropriate for the majority of European students. The
paper concludes with a discussion of some of the concerns that should be kept
in mind by other programs as they consider adapting their programs to become a
global program. These concerns include the argument that the traditional
European system did a number of things right; the European academic economics
institutional structure is quite different from the U.S. institutional
structure; and the U.S. system has its own set of problems. |