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2025 Best Economics Doctor's Degree Schools
In 2025, College Factual analyzed 49 schools in order to identify the top ones for its Best Economics Doctor's Degree Schools ranking. Combined, these schools handed out 1,395 doctor's degrees in economics to qualified students.
Jump to one of the following sections: * Our Methodology
- Best Doctor’s Degree Schools List
Choosing a Great Economics School for Your Doctor's Degree
Overall Quality Is a Must
The overall quality of a doctor's degree school is important to ensure a quality education, not just how well they do in a particular major. To make it into this list a school must rank well in our overall Best Colleges for a Doctor's Degree ranking. This ranking considered factors such as graduation rates, overall graduate earnings and other educational resources to identify great colleges and universities.
Average Early-Career Salaries
Average early-career salary of those graduating with their doctor's degree is one indicator we use in our analysis to find the schools that offer the highest-quality education. That is, everyone wants their doctor's degree to be worth something, and salaries are one measure of determining that.
Other Factors We Consider
In addition to the above, you should consider some of the following factors:
- Major Focus - How much a school focuses on economics students vs. other majors.
- Major Demand - The number of economics students who choose to seek a doctor's degree at the school.
- Educational Resources - The amount of money and other resources allocated to students while they are pursuing their degree. These resources include such things as number of students per instructor and education expenditures per student.
- Student Debt - How easy is it for economics to pay back their student loans after receiving their doctor's degree.
- Accreditation - Whether a school is regionally accredited and/or accredited by a recognized economics related body.
Our full ranking methodology documents in more detail how we consider these factors to identify the best schools for economics students working on their doctor's degree.
One Size Does Not Fit All
The economics school you choose to invest your time and money in matters. To help you make the decision that is right for you, we've developed a number of major-specific rankings , including this list of the Best Economics Doctor's Degree Schools.
Best Schools for Doctorate Students to Study Economics in the United States
Learn about the top ranked colleges and universities for economics students seeking a a doctor's degree.
10 Top Schools for a Doctorate in Economics
Northwestern University is a wonderful choice for students pursuing a doctor's degree in economics. Northwestern is a fairly large private not-for-profit university located in the city of Evanston. More information about a doctorate in economics from Northwestern University
University of Pennsylvania is a good decision for students interested in a doctor's degree in economics. Located in the city of Philadelphia, UPenn is a private not-for-profit university with a very large student population. More information about a doctorate in economics from University of Pennsylvania
It is hard to beat Columbia University in the City of New York if you wish to pursue a doctor's degree in economics. Located in the city of New York, Columbia is a private not-for-profit university with a very large student population. More information about a doctorate in economics from Columbia University in the City of New York
Any student who is interested in a doctor's degree in economics has to look into University of Chicago. Located in the large city of Chicago, UChicago is a private not-for-profit university with a fairly large student population. More information about a doctorate in economics from University of Chicago
Cornell is a very large private not-for-profit university located in the small city of Ithaca. More information about a doctorate in economics from Cornell University
Harvard is a fairly large private not-for-profit university located in the medium-sized city of Cambridge. More information about a doctorate in economics from Harvard University
Stanford is a large private not-for-profit university located in the large suburb of Stanford. More information about a doctorate in economics from Stanford University
Located in the city of Durham, Duke is a private not-for-profit university with a fairly large student population. More information about a doctorate in economics from Duke University
UC Berkeley is a very large public university located in the city of Berkeley. More information about a doctorate in economics from University of California - Berkeley
Located in the medium-sized city of Providence, Brown is a private not-for-profit university with a fairly large student population. More information about a doctorate in economics from Brown University
Additional Noteworthy Schools
Here are some additional great schools for Economics students that almost earned our Best Economics Doctor's Degree Schools award.
Economics by Region
View the Best Economics Doctor's Degree Schools for a specific region near you.
Other Rankings
Best associate degrees in economics, best master's degrees in economics, best value in economics, best for non-traditional students in economics, best online in economics, most popular online in economics, best bachelor's degrees in economics, best overall in economics, highest paid grads in economics, best for veterans in economics, most popular in economics, most focused in economics.
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Economics Related Rankings by Major
Economics is one of 13 different types of Social Sciences programs to choose from.
Economics Concentrations
Majors similar to economics, notes and references.
- The bars on the spread charts above show the distribution of the schools on this list +/- one standard deviation from the mean.
- The Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System ( IPEDS ) from the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES), a branch of the U.S. Department of Education (DOE) serves as the core of the rest of our data about colleges.
- Some other college data, including much of the graduate earnings data, comes from the U.S. Department of Education’s ( College Scorecard ).
- Credit for the banner image above goes to pixabay . More about our data sources and methodologies .
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- Resources for Students
- Preparing for graduate school
Program rankings
The following organizations rank graduate economics programs using various approaches:
- US News and World Report 2023 Best Economics Schools
- US News and World Report Ranking of the Best Global Universities for Economics and Business
- RePEc Ranking of Institutions
- National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine 2011 Ranking
Academic research evaluating economics programs
- Amir, Rabah and Malgorzata Knauff. 2008. " Ranking Economics Departments Worldwide on the Basis of PhD Placement ." Review of Economics and Statistics , 90 (1), pp. 185-90.
- Grijalva, Therese C. and Clifford Nowell. 2008. " A Guide to Graduate Study in Economics: Ranking Economics Departments by Fields of Expertise ." Southern Economic Journal , 74 (4), pp. 971-96.
- Kalaitzidakis, Pantelis, Theofanis P. Mamuneas, and Thanasis Stengos. 2011. " An Updated Ranking of Academic Journals in Economics ." The Canadian Journal of Economics , 44(4):1525-1538.
- McPherson, Michael A. 2012. " Ranking US Economics Programs by Faculty and Graduate Publications: An Update Using 1994-2009 Data ." Southern Economic Journal , 79 (1): 71-89.
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