Trends in Undergraduate Economics Degrees: A 1996-97 Update.

The article examines the trends in undergraduate economics degrees awarded in the United States, for the time-span 1996 to 1997. Subsequently available data on undergraduate degrees awarded in 1995 and 1996 revealed a third consecutive decline of almost 10 percent in 1995. In just three years, a sample of 172 colleges and universities had lost 32 percent of their economics majors. The 1996 data suggested that self-correcting mechanisms were taking hold, however, as the slide finally moderated, to about 2 percent that year. Economics degrees at public colleges and universities were hit much harder than at private institutions, the former falling 38 percent compared with a 14 percent decline at the latter from 1991 to 1997. Although the downward trend at public institutions is also moderating, the reversal of fortunes at state-supported institutions seems to be lagging private institutions by a year or so. Whereas the decline in economics degrees at private institutions slowed to 3 percent in 1995, followed by increases of 4 percent in 1996 and 5 percent in 1997, public institutions continued their slide through 1995 and 1996, losing 15 and 8 percent, in those years.