Department of Economics

Our Programs and Curriculum

Economics at Northwestern

Our world-class department owes its reputation to outstanding faculty dedicated to teaching and research, as well as engaged students who take advantage of learning opportunities in and beyond the classroom.

The Economics major and minor are open to all undergraduates. The Ph.D. program has 125 students in residence.

More about the Department

QUICK LINKS

Job Market Candidates

Winter 2026 Newsletter

Admissions

Declare an Economics Major or Minor

Class Schedules

Ph.D. Program

Upcoming Event: Honoring 2025 Nobel Laureate Peter Howitt, March 9, 2026

Upcoming Event: Susan Bies Lecture on Economics and Public Policy with Michael Kremer, April 6, 2026

2026 Senior Celebration and Awards

Our Faculty

Learn about faculty accomplishments, publications and news.

Meet our Faculty

Our distinguished faculty includes fellows of the American Economic Association, the Econometric Society, members of the National Academy of Sciences and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and current and past coeditors of the American Economic Review, Econometrica, the Journal of Political Economy and the Review of Economic Studies, as well as most of the leading field journals.

Longtime faculty member Dale Mortensen was winner of the 2010 Nobel Prize in Economics, and Prof. Joel Mokyr is winner of the 2025 Nobel Prize in Economics.

Recent Publications

Equilibrium Existence in First-Price Auctions with Private Values (Wojciech Olszewski, Philip J. Reny, and Ron Siegel, Econometrica vol. 94, no. 1, January 2026)
The Local Approach to Causal Inference under Network Interference (Eric Auerbach, Hongchang Guo, and Max Tabord-Meehan, Quantitative Economics vol. 17, no. 1, January 2026)
Mechanism Design for Acquisition of/Stochastic Evidence (Eddie Dekel, Elchanan Ben-Porath, and Barton L. Lipman, Theoretical Economics vol. 21, no. 1, January 2026)
Trauma at School: The Impacts of Shootings on Students’ Human Capital and Economic Outcomes (Molly Schnell, Marika Cabral, Bokyung Kim, Maya Rossin-Slater, and Hannes Schwandt, The Review of Economic Studies vol. 93, no. 1, January 2026)
Five-year Impacts of Group-based Financial Education and Savings Promotion for Ugandan Youth (Dean Karlan, Samantha Horm, Julian C. Jamison, and Jonathan Zinman, Quantitative Economics vol. 16, no. 4, December 2025)

ALUM JAMIE DOYLE ('92) MAKES A TRANSFORMATIVE GIFT TO THE DEPARTMENT

The Department of Economics wishes to express our deepest gratitude to Jamie and Ruby Doyle, who have made a transformative gift of $500,000 in support of our students and faculty and their ongoing education and research.

PROF. JOEL MOKYR WINS 2025 NOBEL PRIZE

On Monday, October 13, 2025, economic historian Prof. Joel Mokyr was awarded the 2025 Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences.

PHD ALUM PETER HOWITT WINS NOBEL PRIZE IN ECONOMIC SCIENCES

Brown University Professor Emeritus Peter Howitt received his PhD in Economics from NU in 1973.

Economics Video Series

Learn about the innovative research of our faculty.

Mar Reguant on machine learning and energy efficiency.

View more videos.

News and Events

Weekly Seminars

Our weekly seminars bring renowned economists from universities around the globe. Explore all 7 of our seminar series, which are held in fall and spring quarters.

See all Seminars