From the Chair

Welcome! As chair of the Economics Department at Vanderbilt University’s College of Arts and Science, I thank you for visiting our website. Widely regarded as a leading U.S. economics department, we are a vibrant group of faculty ready to engage students at the undergraduate, master’s, and doctoral levels in cutting-edge research, and to provide up-to-date training in theoretical and applied economics to prepare you for the challenges of the marketplace.

With strengths in applied economics, econometrics, economic history, and international economics, in addition to the standard core areas, our faculty have the instructional experience and research expertise to bring out your potential, all within a collegial environment where students come first. This diverse and distinguished faculty represent more than a dozen countries and five continents, and their backgrounds make them especially well-suited to addressing policy issues of global import. I encourage you to explore their research by visiting their personal web pages and that of the department’s highly-regarded working paper series. Faculty in the department are recipients of major grants, including those from the National Science Foundation and the National Institutes of Health, and are associated with economic think tanks such as the National Bureau of Economic Research.

Our public lecture series has recently featured five Nobel laureates and two chairs of the Federal Reserve Bank, and Vanderbilt serves as home to the American Economic Association, the world’s largest professional association of economists.  I invite you to come visit us in Nashville to see for yourself what Vanderbilt Economics, nestled in the heart of Music City, has to offer. 

Yours Sincerely,   

Peter L. Rousseau
Hubbard Family Chair and Professor of Economics
Chair, Department of Economics