Workshops & Initiatives

Check out our schedule for upcoming seminars.

Minnesota Lecture

The Minnesota Lecture series is sponsored by the University of Minnesota's Department of Economics. Each lecturer is a distinguished graduate of our PhD program, and they are nominated by our current graduate students. Learn more about the Minnesota Lecture.

Jon Goldstein Memorial Lecture

JON HELLER GOLDSTEIN devoted 35 years to public service as an economist working tirelessly to improve the environment and reduce poverty through investment in human capital. In 1964, Dr. Goldstein earned his Ph.D. in economics from the University of Minnesota and went on to play several key roles in the Social Security Administration, Department of the Interior, and on the Endangered Species Committee. Dr. Goldstein's distinguished career with the Department of the Interior, his seminal work on wetlands conservation, and numerous articles on the impact of federal programs on wetlands, will leave a lasting legacy on environmental policy. View the list of Goldstein Memorial Lectures.

The 2022 lecture will be given by Sir Partha DasGupta, Emeritus Professor, Frank Ramsey Professor Emeritus of Economics, University of Cambridge.   

The Workshop System

With an old and distinguished history, faculty-directed workshops for students at the dissertation-writing stage are a hallmark of the U of M economics program. Initially, this program was informal in nature, but even those who took part in the early versions look back on those days with affection.

In recent years, the program has expanded considerably with workshops offered for students writing dissertations in growth and development, international trade, industrial organization, international finance, macroeconomics, applied microeconomics, economic theory, public economics and policy, and financial economics.

The workshops meet once a week and are hosted either on campus or at the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis, where students will present on the current state of their dissertation research. This workshop provides a great learning experience focused on cooperative learning. Students routinely say that these workshops are some of the best, and toughest, experiences they have while at Minnesota.