The City, the University and the Department

New Orleans is one of the most extraordinary and exciting cities in the United States! With its distinct European and cosmopolitan flavor, it is well known for its music: from jazz to blues, from country to zydeco; from salsa to soul; for its restaurants: from Creole to Cajun cuisine; from French to Mediterranean; for its celebrations and festivals: from Mardi Grass to the Louisiana Jazz and Heritage Festival. Its old-world architecture, trolley cars, a thriving Central Business District, and well-known French Quarter provide a unique living environment in which to pursue an education.

Founded in 1958 and having a waterfront location on the south shore of Lake Pontchartrain, in a pleasant upper-income part of the city, the University offers several graduate programs at the master’s and doctoral level. With and enrollment of more than 16,000, the University is the second largest in Louisiana and the largest of the seven universities in New Orleans. UNO is part of the Louisiana State University System. Relations between the University and the local business community as well as with other universities in the city are excellent.

Among the facilities on the 195-acre campus is the Earl K. Long Library, which has more than one million volumes and offers computer access to numerous on-line databases. The library is an official depository of U.S. Government documents and has an excellent collection in the disciplines of economics and finance. The University Computer Center has two main processors and most major statistical and simulation programs.

The College of Business Computer Installation (CBCI) is a laboratory with more than 80 personal computers connected in a network. These computers are hard-wired to the VAX mainframe and connected to laser printers. The CBCI has INTERNET connections, Lexus-Nexus services, a variety of software programs, and recently the Department acquired a set of Experimental Economics Software which has been incorporated as a pedagogical device into a number of classes.

The Division of Business and Economic Research is a center organized for the purpose of encouraging and supporting academic and applied research. It offers computer and other ancillary assistance, and provides data bases and information about the economy of New Orleans and the state of Louisiana. It publishes The Statistical Abstract of Louisiana, a comprehensive statistical reference on the state; the Louisiana Business Survey,the Metropolitan Report: Economic Indicators for the New Orleans Area, and a variety of publications and monographs.

The College of Business Administration also operates a Center for Economic Development, a Small Business Development Center, the Louisiana International Trade Center, and the Real Estate Market Data Center. All of these are accessible to students and faculty to assist them in their research efforts.

The Department of Economics and Finance at the University of New Orleans has a faculty of twenty nine full-time members, all of whom have the doctoral degree and are committed to excellence in teaching and research in various facets of economics and finance.

The faculty that have been recruited in the last five years have received their doctoral degrees from some prestigious universities, including the University of Wisconsin, Northwestern University, the University of British Columbia, The Ohio State University, the University of Nebraska, the State University of New York, and Claremont Graduate School.

The Department has under editorial management two academic journals. Public Finance Review is a semi-annual economics journal for the study of the public sector on the economy. The Review of Financial Economics publishes biannually scholarly contributions from academicians and practitioners in financial economics.

The faculty and the students interact frequently and constantly. A high percentage of the Ph.D. students receive some financial aid, either from the Department or from other sources.

The Ph.D. program offers a variety of specialized fields and a degree of excellence that enhances the employability of our graduates.

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