1. Amanda Anderson – UW Oshkosh Faculty Advisors: M. Ryan Haley, Sarinda Taengnoi 1 Graduate Program in Economics?

2. Background Increased interest in a graduate program for Economics MA Economics existed at UWO until the mid 1980s Number of Econ majors has increased from < 20 to nearly 200 The last 6-8 yrs. many UWO undergrads to grad programs elsewhere Econ dept. joined COB – soon to be in a new state-of-the-art academic building Determine the viability of MA program at UWO Many benchmark schools have similar programs Determine likelihood of sustaining a new program 2

3. Motivation Gain research experience The prior failure of a Masters program in Economics at UWO Develop a more efficient and concrete means for decision making 3

4. Data 4  Compared to benchmark universities: Size 10,000 students and greater Great Lakes region: IL, WI, OH, MI, IN At least an undergrad program in Econ Size Rating Econ department size Degrees available Enrollment Conferment Admittance scores Student to faculty ratio COB relationship  Compiled data for each school on:

5. Data Sources Integrated Post-secondary Education Database (IPED) by the U.S. Department of Education. StateUniversity.com Website for each individual university included in the study Variables: 2008 academic year to current 47 Universities 5

6. Methodology LOGIT model was most appropriate Use dummy variable: Econ Grad Program Provides a probability model using current school statistics 6

7. Models LOGIT A: Dependent variable: Graduate program in Econ dummy Independent variables: Economics faculty size, COB dummy, undergrad Econ diplomas, ACT, student/faculty ratio Multicollinearity leading to Z suppression, but pseudo R 2 of 0.2477 LOGIT B: Dependent variable: Graduate program in Econ dummy Independent variables: COB dummy and ACT Reduces multicollinearity, but pseudo R 2 decreased to 0.1620 Most parsimonious model – includes most statistically significant predictors 7

8. Descriptive Statistics 8

9. Probability Results LOGIT A =1/(1+ exp (5.582617+1.547932*[COB dummy]-0.2716347*[ACT])) LOGIT B=1/(1+ EXP(-0.2593125+ 0.043009* [Econ Faculty]+0.6626516* [COB dummy]-0.0182598* [Econ undergrad diplomas]-0.128417* [ACT]+0.132186* [student/faculty ratio])) 9

10. Conclusion UW Oshkosh has a probability of 35.18% with LOGIT A and 54.36% with LOGIT B indicating that there is evidence that a Masters of Economics program is supportable and appropriate. 10