The North Atlantic Divide of researching/teaching Economics

[buritobr]

I read an article written in 1996 about the diferences between North America and Europe concerning researching and teaching Economics.

In North America
> A big and single labor market for professors and researchers, from Florida to Alaska. Same language.
> No employment stability. Even in the state universities, researchers and professor are not state servants.
> Incentives to have a big number of articles published in academic journals, to have a big number of quotations. Publish or perish. Payment is related to publications and not to career, experience. That´s why, there are many young economists who are top economists
> Focus on abstract theory and large use of mathematics. Departments of Economics don't have concern about issues like Local Development. There are economics working with these issues in other departments of the universities.
> High degree of especialization. A researcher studies only labor economics, or only international economics, or only financial markets, or only microeconomics, or only macroeconomics
> Use of recent textbooks and recent articles in the graduation in Economics in the universities. No interest on classic books in Economics.

Europe
> Many labor markets. Language barriers and other barriers too.
> Employment stability. Researchers and professors are state servants.
> Researchers/professors have bigger wages and bigger recognition when they are in the top of the career(= when they are old)
> Since researchers are not under pressure to write many articles, they can work on broad topics, they can be more multidisciplinary, they can write books
> The study of Economics has more connections with History, Sociology, Political Science and Philosophy
> Less especialization. The same professor can teach Microeconomics, Macroeconomics etc
> Many departments of Economics study local development issues, and they are close to the governments
> Many presidents and prime ministers have degree in Economics. Unlike in the USA, when even many secretaries of Treasury are not economists.

Are these diferences still relevant 20 years later?

[DavidB.]

Due to increasing internationalization, many European universities have adopted English as their main language, so the language barrier is not that relevant anymore. Contracts have become much more flexible, particularly for people who were hired from the 1990s onward, which has decreased employment stability. The pressure to publish has increased. In sum, in many aspects, a process of "Americanization" of European universities has taken place.

[ag]

Academic job market in economics has become much more international and integrated. There are still certain national reserves of traditional European academia, organised on different lines (Germany, first and foremost, if you think of places where serious research is done), but increasingly European academia in economics is dominated by anglophone programs, doing their best to imitate the US model, both in education and research incentives. There aer now quite a few private universities in Europe, and even a few of the state schools try to imitate the US-style tenure-track process (e.g., by initially hiring faculty as "visitors" for the duration of tenure track). If anything, these days concentrations of hard-core micro theorists (the most math-intensive field) can be found in Europe (it is cheaper to hire theorists, who have few options outside of academia).

Of course, there are still zillions of old-style departments of the sort you describe, but they are not were interesting research happens, for the most part. In the same way, the bulk of American academia is represented by teaching schools, where academic research is not what is expected from faculty. But leading research places, of course with certain exceptions, increasingly look alike.

[Kingpoleon]

In Europe, there is a growing language divide typically centered between German and English, with one of the main Romantic languages(French, Spanish, or Italian, in order of likelihood) probably trying to rise also. It would probably be best to average the Romantic, British/Irish, Scandinavian, German/related, Balkan, and the other Eastern European labor markets together, with a ratio counting in employment rates and population being averaged out by the other mass labor markets typical economical theory.

In theory, that would allow for a greater understanding of other regions' understanding of economics.

[ag]

In Europe, there is a growing language divide typically centered between German and English, with one of the main Romantic languages(French, Spanish, or Italian, in order of likelihood) probably trying to rise also. It would probably be best to average the Romantic, British/Irish, Scandinavian, German/related, Balkan, and the other Eastern European labor markets together, with a ratio counting in employment rates and population being averaged out by the other mass labor markets typical economical theory.

In theory, that would allow for a greater understanding of other regions' understanding of economics.

This is irrelevant for the Econ profession. Even decent French departments tend to teach graduate coursework in English. The battle has been won definitively a generation ago: economics functions in English. The only exception at this point is, pretty much, Israel - they do teach in Hebrew, but even they, of course, publish in English.

[buritobr]

In the end of the 1996 article, the author told that some convergence was already going on. European universities were already starting to use English, to increase researchers' mobility. European journals published in English were already replacing national journals published in the national languages. American economists were increasing their interest for History.

[ag]

In the end of the 1996 article, the author told that some convergence was already going on. European universities were already starting to use English, to increase researchers' mobility. European journals published in English were already replacing national journals published in the national languages. American economists were increasing their interest for History.

Even in 1996 (which I, alas, remember well, since I was already in the profession - getting old happens rapidly) nothing serious would be published in any language other than English. Survey articles, perhaps, still could be in French in French journals: but even many of the better French journals would increasingly publish in English. Already then there existed quite a few European institutions that modelled themselves on US lines (Pompeu Fabra, UAB, Carlos III and Alicante in Spain, Bocconi in Italy, Toulouse in France, all sorts of Dutch and Scandinavian places, etc., not even talking of the Brits) Since then things have developed, of course, but even then it was clear that any "divide" was a thing of the past.