Research

Each summer, many economics faculty members hire current students as research assistants (RAs), often through the college’s Class of 1957 Summer Research Program. Professors typically assign RAs a variety of tasks, including gathering and preparing data, reading and summarizing journal articles, working with a theoretical model, carrying out econometric analysis, and writing computer code. 

The Van Duyne Fellowship offers funding to Williams economics majors to conduct full-time research on an honors thesis during the summer before their senior year.

The Barbara Solow Research Fellowship provides financial assistance to Williams students conducting research in economic or business history and a few other fields, usually over the summer.

The Kershaw Summer Internships in Public Policy program provides funding for Williams students to pursue unpaid summer internships related to public policy.

During Winter Study, students may choose to pursue independent projects of their own design with careful planning and in close collaboration with a faculty or staff member. Economics lends itself naturally to practical application and real-world learning, making independent research and internships an ideal way to deepen your knowledge during this January term.

The honors program is an opportunity for motivated and qualified senior economics majors to conduct sustained, independent research on a topic of your interest. You can choose a full-year thesis or one semester in either the fall or spring of your senior year. 

For the honors thesis, you will conduct original and independent research using economic tools and write a thesis reporting your research. Many theses involve econometric analysis of data, theoretical economic modeling, simulations matching mathematical economic models to data, and experimental economics, while others take the form of case studies, historical analyses, economic philosophy, or topics in the history of economic thought.

High-achieving students with an honors thesis proposal that shows unusual promise may be awarded the Carl Van Duyne Prize in Economics, which includes an optional summer stipend for nine weeks of full-time research, as well as stipends during the school year and for graduate study.

The economics department maintains a working papers series where you can see the early-stage research our faculty are currently pursuing.

The Williams College Center for Development Economics, which offers a 10-month graduate program in Policy Economics, hosts an annual conference on a policy-relevant development topic. The economics department is also part of Northeast Universities Development Consortium (NEUDC), a major forum for the field of development economics, and has occasionally hosted the annual NEUDC conference.

Williams students from any major can sign up to participate in economics experiments, where you can earn money while learning about economics.