Economic Sociology

[Explorer]

What do you think are the chances for an economics major who withdrew from an economics PhD program to pursue a PhD in Sociology (keeping in mind that I intend to specialize in economic sociology)? Of course, this question has been asked here before, but I thought that my intended specialization might make me a better candidate than other applicants who mostly might have a background in Sociology.

~E

[YoungEconomist]

I would think your background in econ (especially at the grad level) would be very valuable if you were pursuing a PhD in Econ Soc. However, this is entirely speculative as I know nothing about the field.

[asquare]

Explorer,

You've started several similar threads on this forum (http://www.urch.com/forums/phd-econo...n-request.html (Special Profile Evaluation Request), http://www.urch.com/forums/phd-econo...ad-school.html (Excellent undergrad grades Vs poor grades in grad school), http://www.urch.com/forums/phd-econo...e-program.html (Change of Graduate Program), and several others). If you aren't satisfied with the advice you have gotten on those threads, perhaps you should post your question in the Graduate Admissions forum. Since you aren't applying to economics programs, the regular posters on this forum might not have any more advice than has already been offered.

The bottom line is that reapplying to a different field after dropping out of an economics PhD program is a fairly unique situation. It's hard for students and applicants to offer you solid advice, because while we are speculating about admissions the vast majority of the time, we can usually extrapolate from our own experiences, those of our friends, and the advice we have received. Your situation is outside of the experience of most people posting here. Your best sources of feedback will be your professors at your previous graduate program and your undergraduate advisors. Current and future economics PhD students just don't know very much about the chance of being admitted to a sociology program after dropping out of an econ program.

[YoungEconomist]

On a similar note to asquare's post above. Have you done much online searches about what it takes to get admitted into a Sociology PhD program? I decided to pursue a PhD in Econ less than 2 years ago, and when I first made the decision I really had no idea what it would take (in fact, I thought my 1 quarter of business calculus would be close to enough of a math background ). I started doing research online immediately, and quickly found out what you gotta do if you wanna become an Econ PhD student (as well as what my competition will look like, which is very important in the admissions process). I also talked to profs and grad students at my school, in order to pick their brain and figure out what I needed to do. Furthermore, while doing my own research I stumbled across econphd[dot]net, which led me to this forum (which has definitely been the best way for me to obtain info on the process). What I'm saying is that there is all kinds of valuable information on the internet and you just have to look for it (not to mention, there's also a lot of info available by just going and talking to advisors, grad students, profs, etc, in the correct field). Have you found out what kinds of GRE scores it takes to get admitted to Soc PhD programs (and how does your score compare)? Similarly, what about your GPA?

You likely have a few other options as well.

1. Get a Bachelors in Sociology. Or better yet, get a Masters in Sociology (as I'm assuming most terminal masters don't require much exposure). From there you could pursue a PhD in Soc.
2. Reapply to Econ PhD programs in heterodox schools for heterodox programs/specializations. If you're interested in studying Sociology topics related to Economics in the first place, you could just study Economic topics related to Sociology (a subtle difference). As I understand it, many Economists study topics that are more Sociological in nature, and therefore you could probably go to such a program and study with such a mentor/advisor. It just seems like it might be the road less traveled to get into a heterodox Econ PhD program that will accept your non-traditional interests.

Edit: Found a couple potentially helpful websites

The Association for Social Economics

Hetecon.com - The Heterodox Economics Portal

Socioeconomics - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

SASE.org The Society for the Advancement of Socio-Economics - Home

[Antichron]

Originally Posted by Explorer

What do you think are the chances for an economics major who withdrew from an economics PhD program to pursue a PhD in Sociology (keeping in mind that I intend to specialize in economic sociology)? Of course, this question has been asked here before, but I thought that my intended specialization might make me a better candidate than other applicants who mostly might have a background in Sociology.

~E

I know of at least one person who successfully switched to the sociology department after withdrawing from the PhD program at my undergrad. university, so it is possible. (Her specialty was demography.) I'm not sure how much an economics background helps, but it presumably won't hurt.

[Weary]

Econ background is irrelevant if only you are not planning to whine about abstractedness of mainstream economics. Otherwise, economic theory is irrelevant with the rare exception of economics of networks.

[representative_agent]

Originally Posted by Weary

Otherwise, economic theory is irrelevant with the rare exception of economics of networks.

I disagree. First, I think there is a wide field on the border between economics and sociology that has to be analyzed from both disciplines' perspective. While economists work with the paradigm of homo oeconomicus as a purely self-interested agent, the homo sociologicus is driven by social pressures. Since the truth is somewhere in the middle, it can only be helpful to have studied both extreme cases.
Second, applying the methodology of economic theory (i.e. the rigorous analysis through formal models) to sociological phenomena will improve the insights we get from sociology. In particular, game theory has a lot to offer.

[YoungEconomist]

Originally Posted by representative_agent

First, I think there is a wide field on the border between economics and sociology that has to be analyzed from both disciplines' perspective. While economists work with the paradigm of homo oeconomicus as a purely self-interested agent, the homo sociologicus is driven by social pressures. Since the truth is somewhere in the middle, it can only be helpful to have studied both extreme cases.

I've often thought that Sociology and Psychology might have a lot to contribute in terms of where preferences come from. Economists generally take preferences as given and operate from there, but with insights from Sociology and Psychology it seems possible to have models in which preferences are also endogenous. Anyway, it's just a thought, and I've never taken any grad classes in Econ, Soc, or Psych, so maybe I don't know what I'm talking about. If there are economists that study these issues, I hope somebody will inform me because I'd like to take a look at some of their research.

Originally Posted by representative_agent

Second, applying the methodology of economic theory (i.e. the rigorous analysis through formal models) to sociological phenomena will improve the insights we get from sociology. In particular, game theory has a lot to offer.

I totally agree. I almost majored in Psychology, and before I decided that I wanted to become an Economist, I was strongly considering getting a PhD in Psych (most likely in Industrial Organization Psych for any of you that know about the field). Looking back on all the Psych classes I've taken in college, I truly believe that some areas of Psych would be improved if they took a more rigourous approach to modeling social/human phenomena. However, I understand it might be more difficult to do so in such a field. Nevertheless, I tend to believe that in the future all areas of social science will look more like economics in terms of rigour, mathematical models, and the statistical techniques used to analyze real world data. Maybe economic imperialism will contribute to this.

[Diplomer]

Originally Posted by YoungEconomist

If there are economists that study these issues, I hope somebody will inform me because I'd like to take a look at some of their research.

The field of behavioural economics could be interesting for you. Perhaps, you even remember Kahneman, a psychologist, who won the Nobel Prize for Economics a few years ago. The main psychologists contributions to economics are theories about how people decide. Classical theories like "maximization of expected utility" can easily be classified as "rejected" (in positive decision theory, not normative). Psychologists models like Prospect Theory can explain observations much better.

I am not aware of any sociologists who have contributed to economics. However, if we say that modelling different kind of classes and groups and their interaction as well as the influence of institutions and norms on them, the agent-based models might be what you look for. In standard economic theory it is assumed that there is a representative agent, but in more recent models different kinds of agents are modeled. This might resemble the sociologists approach (but I have acutally no idea about their specific methods).

[representative_agent]

Originally Posted by Diplomer

The field of behavioural economics could be interesting for you.

I agree. But although behavioural economists have integrated very interesting findings from psychology into economic theory, only a small part of this literature adresses things like social pressure. I think that social psychology and sociology still have a lot of undiscovered treasures for us...

I agree with YoungEconomist that a lot can be learned from endogenizing preferences. I found the following paper on the topic very interesting:

Manski, C., 2000, „Economic Analysis of Social Interactions“, Journal of Economic Perspectives, 14 (3), 115 – 136.

In standard economic theory it is assumed that there is a representative agent

That's me!