Top 10 Global Universities for Economics and Business
Discover top-notch schools for economics and business.
Students interested in pursuing an economics or business degree from a global university may notice a trend among the highest-ranked schools in this field: Eight of the top 10 institutions worldwide that are strong in these subjects are in the U.S. Learn a little more about the top 10 Best Global Universities for Economics and Business, ranked by U.S. News based on academic research performance in the subject area.
10. Erasmus University Rotterdam
Location: Rotterdam, Netherlands
Best Global Universities overall rank: 62 (tie)
Fact: During his lifetime, Dutch economist H. Johannes Witteveen -- a professor from the Erasmus School of Economics -- became the first managing director of the International Monetary Fund. The deceased and legendary econometrics scholar Jan Tinbergen, who served on the school's faculty when it was called the Netherlands School of Economics, shared the first Nobel Prize in economics in 1969.
9. New York University
Location: New York City
Best Global Universities overall rank: 30
Fact:New York University has a number of research centers focused on business and economics issues affiliated with its Leonard N. Stern School of Business. Among them are the Salomon Center for the Study of Financial Institutions, the Glucksman Institute for Research in Securities Markets and the Vincent C. Ross Institute of Accounting Research.
8. Columbia University
Location: New York
Best Global Universities overall rank: 6
Fact:Columbia University's predecessor, King's College, was the alma mater of the first U.S. treasury secretary, Alexander Hamilton. The Columbia College Alumni Association has named its most prestigious prize for outstanding alumni after Hamilton, the Alexander Hamilton Medal.
7. London School of Economics and Political Science
Location: London
Best Global Universities overall rank: 230 (tie)
Fact: The employer who hired the highest percentage of 2017-2018 graduates at the London School of Economics and Political Science was Deloitte, a professional service company well known for its accounting and consulting work.
6. University of Pennsylvania
Location: Philadelphia
Best Global Universities overall rank: 13
Fact: The University of Pennsylvania's business school was founded in 1881, which the university says makes the Wharton School of Business the first collegiate business school in the world. "Wharton played a crucial role in transforming the study of business from a trade to a rigorous and respected profession," the university website states.
5. University of Chicago
Location: Chicago
Best Global Universities overall rank: 15
Fact: A total of 32 recipients of the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences have been affiliated with the University of Chicago throughout its history, according to the school's website. One is the labor economist David Card, who received half of the economics Nobel award in 2021. Card began his career as a scholar at the university's Booth School of Business and now serves on the faculty of the University of California--Berkeley.
4. Stanford University
Location: Stanford, California
Best Global Universities overall rank: 3
Fact: Two Stanford University professors, Paul Milgrom and Robert Wilson, shared the 2020 Nobel Prize in economics for their contributions to improving economic theories on auctions and their invention of new auction formats designed to benefit buyers, sellers and taxpayers worldwide.
3. University of California--Berkeley
Location: Berkeley, California, U.S.
Best Global Universities overall rank: 4
Fact: Economics was the second most popular undergraduate major among bachelor's degree recipients at the University of California--Berkeley, according to data released by the university in September 2021, while the sixth most popular major was business administration.
2. Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Location: Cambridge, Massachusetts
Best Global Universities overall rank: 2
Fact: The Sloan School of Management at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology has a Latin America office in Santiago, Chile, where prospective students can learn about the school, according to its website. The office is a "regional hub" for MIT Sloan faculty, alumni and visiting scholars in Latin America, according to the university's website.
1. Harvard University
Location: Cambridge, Massachusetts
Best Global Universities overall rank: 1
Fact: The median base salary for 2020 graduates of Harvard University's MBA program was $150,000, according to data from the Harvard Business School website. Plus, 60% of these grads received a signing bonus -- the median amount was $30,000 -- and 72% received a performance bonus in the median amount of $35,000.
View the list of the top 10 global universities for business and economics.
1. Harvard University
2. Massachusetts Institute of Technology
3. University of California--Berkeley
4. Stanford University
5. University of Chicago
6. University of Pennsylvania
7. London School of Economics and Political Science
8. Columbia University
9. New York University
10. Erasmus University Rotterdam
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