The 2024 winners of the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences shared the prize for their research on global inequality, helping our understanding of the differences in prosperity between nations, and demonstrating the importance of societal institutions for a country’s prosperity.
Two of the winners, Daron Acemoglu and Simon Johnson are professors at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, (MIT), while James Robinson is a professor at the University of Chicago. But none of them are originally from the United States, and illustrate the intellectual migration of many of the world’s leading economists.
Acemogulu was born in Turkey, and studied at the University of York in the UK, as well as the London School of Economics (LSE). Johnson studied PPE at the University of Oxford, and then received an MA in Economics from the University of Manchester before heading to MIT for his PhD. Robinson completed his undergrad at the LSE, then a Master’s from the UK’s University of Warwick, with a Doctor of Philosophy from Yale University.
U.S. universities dominated the Nobel in Economics, officially known as The Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel. Of the 96 individuals awarded the prize since it was introduced in 1969, 68 were affiliated with an American institution at the time of receipt, or where they had the most significant tenure.
The University of Chicago stands out with a significant number of Nobel laureates in economics. As of 2024, 15 laureates were affiliated with the university at the time of their award. This includes influential figures such as Milton Friedman and Gary Becker, who have been instrumental in shaping economic thought.
MIT has made substantial contributions to the field, with 10 laureates affiliated at the time of their award as of 2024. In addition to the 2024 winners, Daron Acemoglu and Simon Johnson, esteemed economists such as Paul Samuelson and Robert Solow are among those recognised.
Harvard University has also been a leading institution in this regard. By 2023, eight laureates were affiliated with Harvard at the time of their award. Notable laureates include Amartya Sen and Alvin E. Roth, whose contributions have significantly impacted economic sciences.
As of 2024, the institution with the most PhD (or equivalent) graduates who went on to receive the prize is MIT (14), followed by Harvard University (13), the University of Chicago (10) and Princeton University (6).
Outside the U.S., the London School of Economics and the University of Cambridge both claim 5 Economic Nobel laureates by PhD, followed by Leiden University in the Netherlands, Stockholm University in Sweden, and the University of Oslo in Norway (2 each), with other institutions in France, Germany, Soviet Union and Austria (1).
These institutions have played pivotal roles in advancing economic sciences, with their affiliated scholars making groundbreaking contributions that have shaped modern economic thought.
So which are the best global universities for Economics?
When it comes to the best universities in the world for Economics, the U.S. is equally dominant. BlueSky Thinking compiles the performance of schools across the major global subject rankings published by Times Higher Education (THE), QS Quacquarelli Symonds, US News and ARWU Shanghai, and in 2024 eleven of the top 14 institutions are in the U.S.
You can see the BlueSky Ranking of Engineering Rankings here, the BlueSky Ranking of Computer Science Rankings here, as well as the overall BlueSky Ranking of University Rankings.
As each ranking measures different things, with the inherent limitations of each assessment, the combined performance across multiple rankings provides a wider lens. Doing particularly well in one ranking and less well in another is reflected in the overall average score.
Harvard University takes the #1 position ahead of MIT at #2, both with remarkable consistency at the top of global subject tables. Harvard is #1 in QS and US News, #2 in Shanghai and #3 in THE, while MIT ranks #1 according to THE, and is #2 in QS and US News, and #3 in Shanghai,
The rest of the top 5 is made up of Stanford University, the University of Chicago and UC Berkeley, ahead of the UK institution, the London School of Economics (LSE). Yale University, Princeton University, Columbia University and the University of Oxford complete the top 10.
When it comes to economics, 14 different institutions make the top 10 in at least one of the four league tables of 2024. Among the top 30, 17 are US universities; 5 schools are in the UK; 2 are from China; 2 are located in continental Europe; 2 are from Australia; 1 is from Canada, and 1 from Singapore.
Contrasting fortunes and regional variation
NUS made the US News top 10 for economics, while China’s Tsinghua University and Perking University were 8 and 10 respectively in the THE subject ranking.
The biggest disparity among the four major rankings involves Monash University in Australia, which US News places at #9 while QS positions the school at #36, ARWU Shanghai at #42 and THE has them at #46.
Such huge variances are a reflection of the different methodologies, which have been detailed below.
We’ll be generating more subject-specific rankings, and you can also check out our global and regional rankings of university rankings.
Global Top 100: BlueSky Thinking Ranking of University Rankings 2022/23 – Global
N.America Top 50: BlueSky Thinking Ranking of University Rankings 2022/23 – N.America
Europe Top 50: BlueSky Thinking Ranking of University Rankings 2022/23 – Europe
Asia & Oceania Top 30: BlueSky Thinking Ranking of University Rankings 2022/23 – Asia & Oceania
BlueSky Ranking of Economics Rankings 2024
| Global Rank 2024 | Institution Name | Country | THE 2024 | QS 2024 | US News 2023/24 | ARWU Shanghai 2024 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Harvard University | USA | 1 | 2 | 2 | 2 |
| 2 | Massachusetts Institute of Technology | USA | 3 | 1 | 1 | 3 |
| 3 | Stanford University | USA | 2 | 3 | 4 | 4 |
| 4 | University of Chicago | USA | 7 | 4 | 3 | 1 |
| 5 | University of California, Berkeley | USA | 4 | 6 | 5 | 5 |
| 6 | London School of Economics and Political Science | UK | 11 | 7 | 8 | 9 |
| 7 | Columbia University | USA | 14 | 11 | 6 | 6 |
| 8 | Yale University | USA | 9 | 8 | 14 | 7 |
| 9 | Princeton University | USA | – | 5 | 18 | 8 |
| 10 | University of Oxford | UK | 6 | 9 | 15 | 13 |
| 11 | University of Pennsylvania | USA | 12 | 13 | 7 | 15 |
| 11 | University of Cambridge | UK | 5 | 10 | 15 | 17 |
| 13 | New York University | USA | 17 | 12 | 10 | 10 |
| 14 | Northwestern University | USA | 13 | 15 | 13 | 11 |
| 15 | National University of Singapore | SPR | 15 | 17 | 10 | 23 |
| 16 | University of California, Los Angeles | USA | 19 | 14 | 38 | 12 |
| 17 | Peking University | CHN | 10 | 20 | 21 | 33 |
| 18 | University of Toronto | CAN | 24 | 19 | 31 | 19 |
| 19 | University of Michigan – Ann Arbor | USA | 21 | 23 | 24 | 30 |
| 20 | Cornell University | USA | 20 | 25 | 25 | 29 |
| 21 | UCL | UK | 23 | 18 | 35 | 24 |
| 22 | Bocconi University | ITA | 27 | 16 | 29 | 32 |
| 23 | Duke University | USA | 18 | 30 | 37 | 21 |
| 24 | Tsinghua University | CHN | 8 | 22 | 17 | 62 |
| 25 | University of Warwick | UK | 26 | 23 | 33 | 40 |
| 26 | Erasmus University Rotterdam | NTH | 22 | 47 | 10 | 49 |
| 27 | Monash University | AUS | 46 | 36 | 9 | 42 |
| 28 | Boston University | USA | 65 | 32 | 22 | 20 |
| 29 | University of Minnesota | USA | 34 | 51 | 40 | 22 |
| 30 | University of Melbourne | AUS | 41 | 39 | 45 | 44 |
Each of the major university rankings uses a different methodology and weights the use of different data to produce their league tables, so it is important to understand what is being measured. In simple terms:
THE – the performance indicators are grouped into five areas: Teaching (the learning environment); Research (volume, income and reputation); Citations (research influence); International Outlook (staff, students and research); and Industry Income (knowledge transfer).
Teaching (30%); Research (30%); Citations (30%); International Outlook (7.5%); Industry Income (2.5%).
QS– six indicators looking at four broad categories: research reputation, the learning and teaching environment, research impact, and internationalisation.
Academic Reputation (40%); Employer Reputation (10%); Citations per Faculty (20%); Faculty Student Ratio (20%); International Student Ration (5%); International Faculty Ratio (5%)
US News – calculates the rankings using 13 indicators and weights that U.S. News chose to measure global research performance.
Global Research Reputation (12.5%); Regional Research Reputation (12.5%); Publications (10%); Books (2.5%); Conferences (2.5%), Normalized Citation Impact (10%); Total Citations (7.5%); Number Of Publications Among 10% Most Cited (12.5%); Percentage Of Total Publications Among 10% Most Cited (10%); International Collaboration – Relative To Country (5%); International Collaboration (5%); Number Of Highly Cited Papers Among Top 1% Most Cited In Respective Field (5%); Percentage Of Total Publications Among Top 1% Most Highly Cited Papers (5%)
ARWU Shanghai – considers every university that has any Nobel Laureates, Fields Medalists, Highly Cited Researchers, or papers published in Nature or Science. In addition, universities with a significant amount of papers indexed by Science Citation Index-Expanded (SCIE) and Social Science Citation Index (SSCI) are also included.
Quality of Education (10%); Quality of Faculty (40%); Research Output (40%) Per Capita Performance (10%)
About the author
Matt Symonds is Chief Editor of BlueSky Thinking. He is the S of QS, co-founding QS Quacquarelli Symonds, publishers of the QS World University Rankings and numerous business school rankings.
In 2010 Matt was the media consultant for Times Higher Education to support the launch of their own THE World University Rankings, and has subsequently worked for THE and WSJ for business school rankings.
Matt writes about Higher Education and management for Forbes, BBC, Times of India and formerly The Economist and Bloomberg.