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Economics is the social science that deals with the allocation
and use of human and material resources under conditions of
scarcity and uncertainty. It examines this subject matter
at the micro level (the consumer, the household, the firm,
and the industry), and at the macro level (the region, the
labor force, the government, the nation, and the world).
The Department of Economics at the University of Hawai'i
at Mānoa (UHM) offers graduate programs leading to the
MA and the PhD in economics. The MA program prepares students
for policy analysis in government, international agencies,
and the private sector, emphasizing application of theory
to economic decision-making. The PhD program provides state-of-the-art
training for high level academic, government, and private-sector
careers.
Economics courses at UHM are complemented by instruction
in the statistical and mathematical tools necessary for modeling,
data collection and analysis, and hypothesis testing. Students
acquire a body of knowledge that is essential to understanding
many aspects of the modern world and contemporary public policy
issues, including such vital matters as international trade,
economic development, the environment, the budget deficit,
Hawai'i's economic challenges, deregulation, business cycles,
and consumer behavior.
The programs are consciously directed toward policy challenges
in the Asia Pacific region, which comprises the nations of
the Pacific Rim and the Pacific Islands, as well as Hawai'i. Many of the department's graduate students come from this
part of the world. Geographic and subject matter interests
of students and faculty contribute to a regional specialization
in accord with the university's overall mission. Theses and
dissertations are thus well grounded in recent theory and
methodology but deal insightfully with crucial policy issues
of the region.
The department maintains strong links with the East-West
Center, particularly with the center's Programs on Population,
International Economics and Politics, Environment, and Resources:
Energy and Minerals. Relationships also exist with various
country centers located in the School of Hawaiian, Asian,
and Pacific Studies and with other programs in the College
of Social Sciences. In conjunction with the Shidler College of Business, the department also offers a program leading
to a PhD in economics and business.
The graduate program has produced many intellectual leaders
in service throughout the world. Most MA graduates have taken
positions with local, state, federal or foreign governments
or in the private sector. PhD graduates have successful careers
in academia (48 percent), government (26 percent), and the
private sector (26 percent). The department's recent graduates
include professors of economics at many U.S. and Asian universities,
including Kyoto University and Kobe University (Japan), San
Francisco State University (U.S.A.), Singapore National University,
University of the Philippines, and Thammasat University and
Chulalongkorn University (Thailand). Within Hawai'i, recent
graduates hold positions at the State of Hawai'i Department
of Business, Economic Development and Tourism, GTE Hawaiian
Tel, HMSA, and UH. Within the international community, recent
graduates serve as economists at the International Monetary
Fund, World Bank, Asian Development Bank, Rockefeller Foundation,
and the National Academy of Sciences. Economics department
alumni include national legislators in Thailand, the Philippines,
Taiwan and Korea. Several graduates hold prominent positions
in the Ministry of Finance and the Ministry of International
Trade and Industry in Korea.
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