Contact: Sammy McDavid
Mississippi State proudly finds itself in the top 10--not for a sport, but for the level of research articles published by academic faculty members in the world's leading economic education journal.
Listed at No. 10, the university ranks ahead of such larger institutions as Princeton, Duke, Georgia, and Northwestern for inclusion in the Journal of Economic Education. The University of Nebraska at Lincoln is first among the top 30. Vanderbilt, third on the list, is the only other Southeastern Conference school in the upper tier.
"This excellent ranking by our faculty is all the more significant because the JEE is considered the 'core' journal of our academic field," said Paul Grimes, head of MSU's department of finance and economics. "It is sponsored by the world's most important professional economic organization and has published articles by Nobel laureates such as Paul Samuelson and the late George Stigler."
Since being founded in 1969 by the American Economic Association and National Council on Economic Education, the journal has deemed only about 1,000 articles worthy of its pages. Submissions come from more than 400 universities and colleges around the world.
Grimes said the new study, titled "Ranking Institutions Based on Economic Education Scholarship," covers the journal's entire 35-year run. Adjusted to account for multiple-authored articles, the rankings are based on the total number of pages published by authors from each submitting institution.
"MSU actually moves up to sixth place when the analysis is restricted to just the last 15 years of publication," Grimes said. Institutions in Canada and Australia also showed up in the latter rankings, he added.
Authors of the newly published study, Melody Lo and M.C. "Sonny" Wong, are faculty members at the University of Southern Mississippi.
Grimes said the achievement is even more noteworthy since MSU's finance and economics department has only 10 full-time economists. The department is a part of the College of Business and Industry, which was established in 1915 and is among the South's oldest.
"Because our economics faculty is relatively small, it is extremely difficult to compete with larger departments that have broad-based research agendas," Grimes observed. "Given these constraints, we have chosen to focus on economic issues that address compelling needs in our state.
"Economic education is one of those needs because it provides the necessary foundation for economic development and economic growth for both individuals and the state as a whole," he added.
In addition to published research, the department has been successful in attracting outside funding for specific, state-centered projects. The largest is the department-based Center for Economic Education and Financial Literacy.
Director Megan J. Millea said the center currently is the only one of its kind in Mississippi primarily involved with improving the teaching of economic education in the state's public schools. It also is the only one affiliated with the Washington, D.C-based National Council on Economic Education, which is leading a 50-state effort to improve secondary-school instruction in this subject area.
"Our research agenda supports the center's mission to provide ongoing professional development training for Mississippi social studies and personal finance teachers from kindergarten through 12th grade," Millea said.
NEWS EDITORS/DIRECTORS: To receive a complete listing of institutions listed in the report or to obtain additional information on the MSU department's work, contact Drs. Grimes and Millea at (662) 325-2341.