Is Academic Economics Withering in Australia?

Lodewijks, John; Stokes, Tony

doi:10.22459/ag.21.01.2014.04

Cited by 6 publications

(7 citation statements)

References 12 publications

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“…Trends similar to those observed in the UK have been observed in other countries: Siegfried (2014) reports an increase in the demand for economics programmes In the US between 2007 and 2010, albeit one that appears to have stalled between 2011 and 2013; Lodewijks and Stokes (2014) uncover a similar picture of growing elitism in economics education in Australian universities. There is also evidence that the binary divide in the UK that the FHEA of 1992 was designed to remove may have reasserted itself, with new universities now offering more vocational course such as Business Studies, with their older counterparts focusing on more traditional academic disciplines such as Economics .…”

Section: Introductionsupporting

confidence: 62%

“…the so-called Diamond list) are essential for a high rating to guarantee funding for future research (Lee et al 2013). It is believed by some that the Diamond list journals are open only to those with specialist training in econometrics and work against researchers working in areas that do not excel in econometric techniques (Lodewijks and Stokes 2014). In their attempt to get a higher rating, some universities may have moved out of the E&E UOA into the B&M UOA in the belief that they will achieve a higher rating and consequently boost research funding.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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An investigation into the role played by research assessment in the socio-geographic fragmentation of undergraduate economics education in the UK

Johnston

Reeves

2018

High Educ

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This study charts the socio-geographic fragmentation of the economics discipline in the UK. It is revealed that the marriage of economics teaching and research is now limited to elite institutions located mainly in the south of the UK. None of the UK's new (post-1992) universities submitted to the Economics and Econometrics (E&E) unit of assessment (UOA) in 2014, the UK's most recent research evaluation exercise (REE). Lower REE scores are shown to be associated with higher withdrawal rates from the next E&E UOA and subsequent undergraduate economics programme closure. Universities that exit the E&E UOA moving to the Business and Management (B&M) UOA appear to benefit in the form of higher REE scores. Though restricted to the experience of one academic discipline in one country, the lessons from this study yield important insights into how the results of REEs can be a principal driver of change in higher education.

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Section: Introductionsupporting

confidence: 62%

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

An investigation into the role played by research assessment in the socio-geographic fragmentation of undergraduate economics education in the UK

Johnston

Reeves

2018

High Educ

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“…In this context, internationalisation is defined as the percentage of staff with overseas postgraduate qualifications. Several commentators have drawn attention to the increased Americanisation of Australian economics in the post-war period (Coleman, 2015;Lodewijks and Stokes, 2014). It was Groenewegen and McFarlane (1990) who first suggested that American-trained Australian economists '… did not seem to be aware of particular institutional, cultural and historical characteristics of the Australian economy' (p. 225).…”

Section: Discussion Of Findingsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Funding Australian economics research: Local benefits?

Doraisami

Millmow

2016

Econ. labour relat. rev.

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In Australia there is a systematic ranking of academic research performance, with a major impact metric being based on publications in prestigious journals. Other countries like Britain with its Research Excellence Framework also have similar metrics. While much analysis and publicity is devoted to the rankings of the quality of research, there has been very little focus on how this ranked research has then gone on to make a public policy impact. In the case of the economics discipline, there has been little exploration of the relationship between publication in a high-ranked journal and contribution to an analysis of Australia’s most pressing economic issues. This article investigates the extent to which articles in the Diamond list of journals from 2001 to 2010 addressed Australian economic issues. Our results indicate that articles on current policy issues accounted for a very modest fraction of total Diamond list journal articles. One possible explanation for this finding, which is investigated further, is the correlation between an economics department’s Excellence in Research Australia ranking and the number of staff who obtained their doctorates from an overseas university. Such a correlation has implications for the status afforded to economics research with a specific national focus.

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“…A decade later, Lewis et al (2004) noted a decline in the tertiary-level numbers of economics students, and Abelson (2005) concluded that student standards had also declined. More recently, Lodewijks & Stokes (2014) have reported on the inevitable closure of economics departments across Australia, with many being subsumed into business schools and other faculties. Unsurprisingly, a desktop review of 39 Australian university websites in 2015 by Dobes et al (2016) identified only five undergraduate or postgraduate courses dedicated to CBA.…”

Section: Attrition Of Australian Public Service Expertise In Economicmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Post-Truth Era in Government Evaluation of Major Projects and Policies

Dobes

2017

SSRN Journal

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Australian experience reveals an increasingly post-truth approach to economic evaluation, with governments ignoring or avoiding professional expertise when promoting their favoured projects and policies. Lack of formal guidelines for economic evaluation, such as those promulgated by Congress and successive American presidents, are a partial explanation. A concomitant hollowing-out of public service expertise in economic analysis has also occurred. More importantly, public sector agencies have even lost much of their capability to understand and assess evaluations carried out on their behalf by commercial consultants. An effective antidote to this deskilling would be the production and publication of analyses of major government policy and project proposals, as well as the development of a standardised analytical framework, reinforced with training for public servants.

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Is Academic Economics Withering in Australia?

Abstract: Departments of economics in

Cited by 6 publications

References 12 publications

An investigation into the role played by research assessment in the socio-geographic fragmentation of undergraduate economics education in the UK

An investigation into the role played by research assessment in the socio-geographic fragmentation of undergraduate economics education in the UK

Funding Australian economics research: Local benefits?

The Post-Truth Era in Government Evaluation of Major Projects and Policies

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