University of Maryland Economics Department: Research Areas and Academic Events

The Department of Economics at the University of Maryland (econ.umd.edu) organizes its research around five named fields and surfaces current activity through a News & Events section, featured stories, and a Publications listing. If you are trying to identify faculty expertise, find a potential collaborator, or follow what the department is producing, those three areas—the research field list, the news/events feed, and the publications page—are the places to look. The sections below describe what each one contains and how to use it.

Research Areas Listed on the Site

The department's research page groups its work into five broad fields:

These five categories are the department's own grouping, so they are the most reliable way to match a topic to the right part of the department. If your interest sits between two fields—for example, applied micro work with a policy focus—check both the Development/Labor/Public field and the Microeconomic Theory/Behavioral/IO field, since faculty affiliations can span categories.

News & Events: What the Department Is Currently Highlighting

The News & Events section is the department's running record of announcements, awards, and public sessions. From the site's current listings, it includes:

• Faculty recognition — for example, faculty affiliate Evan Starr receiving the University of Maryland Distinguished Scholar-Teacher Award for 2026, and several department members recognized by UMD's Teaching and Learning Transformation Centers (TLTC) for teaching innovation, including Ronda Ansted's TLTC Teaching Academy Award in Course Design Practitioners.
• Department milestones — such as the department completing its first study abroad trip to Mexico City, and the announcement of Allan Drazen's retirement.
• Professional honors — Katharine Abraham being elected President-Elect of the American Economic Association.
• Recurring information sessions — for example, an information session for the Master of Science in Applied Economics listed for November 12, 2026.

There is also a "View All Featured Stories" link, which is the entry point if you want the full archive rather than the current highlights. For anyone tracking departmental activity, this section is the fastest way to see awards, retirements, and event dates as they are posted.

Publications and Items of Interest

The site's Publications and Items of Interest sections serve as pointers to current research output rather than a single consolidated database. Use them when you want to see what the department is circulating publicly—working papers, announcements of new output, and similar items. Because these are listings rather than a searchable repository, the practical approach is to scan them for names or topics that match your interest, then follow the individual faculty or center pages linked from the site's People and Centers sections.

How to Use the Site for Collaboration or Expertise-Finding

A workable sequence:

1. Start with the five research fields to narrow your topic to a category.
2. Open the People section to see which faculty sit in that area.
3. Check News & Events and Featured Stories to see who is currently active and what they are being recognized for.
4. Check Publications and Items of Interest for recent output before reaching out.

One caveat: the site presents research fields as department-level categories, not as individual faculty profiles, so the field list alone will not tell you who works on what. You need to cross-reference with the People pages to get from a topic to a person.