Trends in Undergraduate Economics Degrees, 1991 to 2001.

The article focuses on the trends in undergraduate economics degrees in the U.S. from 1991 to 2001. The latest data on undergraduate economics degrees awarded by U.S. colleges and universities indicate that recovery from the severe plunge in the number of degrees experienced in the early 1990s continues unabated. Although the sample is not random, it is large. Essentially all of the nation's lost economics majors since the peak in 1991-92 are accounted for by a 24 percent decline at public universities. In contrast to recent experience, however, the gap between public and private institutions started to close in 2000-01, whereas public university degrees rose by 4.5 percent, the number of economics degrees awarded by private colleges and universities hardly changed last year. The percentage of undergraduate degrees in economics awarded to women is reported. At public universities, it has risen from 26 or 27 percent in the early 1990s to about 30 percent today. Women are least well represented among those earning an undergraduate economics degree at regional state universities that do not offer any advanced degrees in economics.