On April 18, the University of Utah will combine its Department of Economics and the Quantitative Analysis of Markets and Organizations (QAMO) program into a unified School of Economics. This decision was praised for streamlining research but criticized by faculty who warn of incompatible missions and unequal resources.
In a letter to affected faculty, Provost Mitzi Montoya described the merger as a “strategic” step. The decision has prompted significant discussion and concern among both faculty and students.
This is not the first major academic restructuring at the U. The College of Science previously merged with the College of Mines and Earth Science, and the School for Cultural and Social Transformation and the College of Humanities recently decided to merge, as well.
History and politics
The field of economics has existed in many different forms since the university’s founding in 1850: the Economics and Sociology Department in 1917, the School of Commerce and Finance — later the College of Business — and the College of Social and Behavioral Science.
QAMO was launched in 2017 within the School of Business, backed by two $10 million donations from the George S. and Dolores Doré Eccles Foundation, the Marriner S. Eccles Foundation and the Charles Koch Foundation. The latter no longer funds the program.
The Kochs’ — billionaire investment moguls — donation sparked concerns due to the brothers’ strongly conservative political affiliations. 85 faculty members, students and alumni signed a letter detailing concerns about the U’s academic freedom following the donation.
A 2018 Chronicle article speculated that the Koch Foundation’s eagerness to donate to QAMO might be a result of their desire to influence the Department of Economics’ longtime “Marxist characterization.”
After the 2017 establishment of QAMO, Deseret News published an editorial about the merits of the program, citing the Department of Economics as failing to provide a “full spectrum of economic perspectives.”
“For the better part of a century, Castro’s Cuba and the University of Utah’s economics department seemed like the last bastions of Marxist thought in North America,” the article said.
In the 1960s, multiple left-leaning social scientists in search of “strong tenure protections” were hired at the U, according to the Deseret News. Economics then moved from the School of Business to the College of Social and Behavioral Sciences.
The claims of heterodoxy are “inconsistent” with the actual operations of the department, Department Chair of Economics Tom Maloney told the Chronicle.
“Especially given that we’re not that huge, I think that we’re broader in range and coverage of the methods that we use and the kind of schools of thought and paradigms that we’re interested in,” Maloney said. “… But I like being around a community of really smart people who are asking big and diverse questions.”
While both programs have a basis in economics, QAMO emphasizes microeconomic studies, particularly firm and company-level decision-making. QAMO professor and chair Scott Schaefer describes the division as a “slice of economics that’s interested in business decision-making.”
In an interview with the Chronicle, Dean of the David Eccles School of Business Kurt Dirks said QAMO’s unique “student angle” pushes the division to focus on outreach and modern-day issues and how they can be applied in a career.
Conversely, the Department of Economics focuses more on the history, philosophy and broader social applications of economics.
Reasons for the merger
Dr. Elizabeth Tashjian, a former finance professor at the U who helped establish QAMO, mentioned potential positive impacts on students of an integrated system.
“Students will have had slightly different training, have read slightly different articles and so forth, and those people can help to inform your work,” Tashjian said. “That’s why I think universities historically exist, is to facilitate those kinds of interactions.”
Dirks mentioned the merits of operating under a unified School of Economics from an external point of view.
“As for students on the research side, many of the top economic departments out there in the country and public institutions are larger than what we have at the University of Utah,” Dirks said. “So I think bringing them together will … be easier for the outside world to know where to come for one spot. They’ll have a full range of experts that they can come to all under the economics name.”
In the aforementioned letter from the Office of the Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs (SVPAA), contributors discuss the reasons behind combining QAMO and Economics.
“A unified school will give us a clearer path to connect curriculum, funding and faculty expertise in support of those goals,” the letter said. “For students, an integrated school will provide a broader, more cohesive curriculum that caters to their diverse interests.”
The letter also cites a “comprehensive review of economics research” and a “survey of economics faculty from across campus” as considerations for the school’s creation.
The Hillman Report
According to a 2024 external productivity report headed by Arizona State University professor Dr. Amy Hillman, QAMO outperforms the Department of Economics in overall “research excellence.” This includes journal publications and overall research output.
In the survey portion of the report, both QAMO and Econ responders expressed a “strong objection” to the ‘merger’ of the two units.
The report said that while winning competitive external grants and publishing books are “indicators of success,” the most “dominant reputation driver of academic excellence” is publication in top-ranked journals.
Maloney said his department was “presented with an analysis of some of our work that used a very narrow metric.”
Associate Dean for Academic Affairs and Student Success and economics professor Rudiger von Arnim said the report did not reflect his department’s “comprehensive nature” and “strong record of improvement.”
“Econ has not made its target to publish in these journals, but a lot of economics faculty publish in interdisciplinary journals and talk to journal lists,” von Arnim said. “We’ve been doing very well, improving our research productivity, especially in the last 10 years.”
According to a presentation by Economics located in the report, peer-reviewed journal articles per faculty member tripled over the decade. Citations per article also tripled, and as a result, citations per faculty member increased by over 9 times.
Additionally, some professors mentioned a discrepancy in resources between QAMO and Economics. Transparency Utah presents comparisons between faculty salaries in different departments.
“In Econ, we have continually increased our caps, sort of 50 to 80 because we have to,” von Arnim said. “We don’t have the resources to teach smaller courses.”
Schaefer confirmed suggestions he made on the report but did not go into detail about what specifically they described. However, he said the “roadmaps” of his and Maloney’s suggestions ended up “looking very different.”
“QAMO faculty do not think a merger that includes all current faculty members of both departments would be productive,” the QAMO department, headed by Schaefer, wrote in the report. “However, we will support a plan like the one we proposed where departments are merged in a way that allows some faculty to seek other departmental homes.”
The Economics response stated that QAMO’s “one-unit” proposals were essentially “plans to dissolve [the] department.”
Maloney said the report had “really not come up” in discussions about the School of Economics. Administration did not comment on the report’s potential role in the early decision-making processes of the School of Economics.
Multiple professors stated that external reports are not typical methods of analyzing a department’s productivity. It is standard for universities to use regular Graduate Council Reviews as mandated by the Utah Board of Higher Education to assess the relative success of a department.
The Department of Economics scored well in its 2024 Graduate Council Review. The program was “commended for outstanding growth in research quality and productivity since the last seven-year review.”
“External reviews commend the scope, substance and quality of the department’s academic and practical impact relative to peer programs, especially remarkable given relatively limited resources,” the review said.
The Graduate Council Review advised the department to increase the number of undergraduates and student services. The university told the Chronicle that there is “not a [GC] review for QAMO available.”
Financial impact
Many faculty members mentioned concerns about settling the current difference between program salaries.
“Business school salaries are much higher than econ salaries in general,” Tashjian said. “The second thing is that the research output of the people who teach in QAMO is far above the research output of the people who teach in Economics.”
Von Arnim said that in an April faculty town hall, Provost Montoya said that “the resource imbalances will need to be addressed,” but that the School of Economics was not developed enough to have a straight answer yet.
Despite faculty salary disparities, Schaefer noted the merger is unlikely to significantly affect the university’s budget.
“I think this is less about financial implications and more about setting direction forward,” Schaefer said.
Nevertheless, some faculty and students are concerned that the School of Economics will keep the same student prices as the School of Business.
“I think more than doubling the cost of a credit hour, which at least at the time of my retirement was the business school differential, shuts out a bunch of students who would really benefit from having degrees in business,” Tashjian said.
Ashley Caldwell, an Economics major and rising sophomore, mentioned similar concerns.
“I have some friends in Econ who specifically didn’t do QAMO because, apparently, the School of Business has a lot more fees,” Caldwell said. “It’s just more expensive for your tuition. So that could be an issue if students are charged more for a merger they didn’t even agree on.”
Caldwell said her graduation track is not majorly affected by the merger, although she said her professors, advisors and peers don’t have enough information to be sure.
The School of Economics
According to the merger announcement, applications for the shared chair of the School of Economics will be open from mid-May to mid-June. The leader will report jointly to the deans of CSBS and the School of Business.
Before the decision is made by mid-Fall of 2025, Peter Trapa, vice provost and senior dean for Liberal Arts and Sciences, will act as the main facilitator for the transition. The process for fully developing the school will be entirely “faculty-driven.”
Schaefer discussed the search committee and how it will affect the outcome of the department.
“When the university provides more clarity on where it wants to go, then whoever’s leading that combined effort will have to figure out how to align the direction of economics with whatever direction is set by the Deans and the upper administration,” Schaefer said. “Then we’ll have to figure out how to build faculty consensus around that.”
Tashjian discusses the importance of choosing a chair who can “serve two student populations with very similar points of view.”
“The only way that’s going to happen is if we hire a chair who is a good listener, who is a good collaborator and who is flexible,” Tashjian said. “But my experience is, you know, 18 to 22 year-olds often do know what they want, and so I think it’s worth asking.”
As the application for chair is internal, there is no comprehensive list of applicants. von Arnim plans to apply.
“The opportunity to build a school really is exciting, but it needs to be done right,” von Arnim said. “My time in the Dean’s office has prepared me to talk to leaders and faculty openly and honestly … [I don’t] lose sight of the objectives, which, in this case, is to build a school that is successful in advancing research excellence and student success.”
Maloney expresses hope for the future of the School of Economics, despite anxieties about potential obstacles.
“It’s sort of new to most of us,” Maloney said. “Certainly we’re encouraged by the idea that the administration thinks this discipline matters, and they’re interested to invest in it … It’s just important that the things [Economics and QAMO] value are respected and honored and incorporated in this process.”
