HWS News
6 September 2026 • Faculty Putting Economics to Work
Professor of Economics Joyce Jacobsen is giving HWS students new ways to explore careers in finance while continuing to engage national audiences on some of higher education’s most pressing economic questions.
Since the Fall of 2023, Professor of Economics Joyce Jacobsen has been running a program each semester to help students independently prepare for the Securities Industry Essentials (SIE) exam, an entry point for students interested in careers in the securities industry. Eighteen students participated in the program during the spring, and several students are already enrolled for this fall. This year, she is also pleased to collaborate with the Melly Institute for Business, Innovation and Leadership, which is providing an online training program designed to help students master foundational financial concepts and prepare for the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) entry-level credential exam.
The initiatives reflects Jacobsen’s continuing interest in connecting economics education with career opportunities. She helped establish the Business Management and Entrepreneurship major, which has since become the most popular major at HWS. She also continues to teach economics courses, including “Introduction to Investments.”
At the same time, Jacobsen is taking a leading role in national conversations about the economics of higher education. As president of the Eastern Economic Association for 2025-26, she recently delivered the organization’s presidential address, “The Economics of Higher Education,” examining colleges and universities through the lens of economic principles.
The address builds on research Jacobsen conducted with HWS Chief Counsel Louis H. Guard for their 2024 book, All the Campus Lawyers: Litigation, Regulation, and the New Era of Higher Education. Jacobsen and Guard also taught a course at HWS based on the book.
In the address, Jacobsen considered higher education as an industry, applying basic economic principles to questions of cost, value and institutional decision-making. Her conclusion was stark: “The cost has risen; the payoff has fallen.”
Jacobsen says one challenge facing colleges is that higher education is often managed by people without formal training in business or economics, making it difficult for institutions to respond to changing market conditions. The subject has prompted her to consider writing another book focused on the economics of higher education.
Those interests are part of a scholarly career that has ranged widely across economics. Jacobsen is an expert in labor economics, particularly the economics of gender, and has published extensively on women’s employment, earnings, labor markets and feminist economics. Her recent scholarship includes research on the relationship between trade, competition and the gender composition of employment in Vietnam, as well as demography, human capital investment and lifetime earnings for women and men. She has also written about wine as an investment.
Jacobsen joined the HWS faculty in 2019 after serving as provost and vice president for academic affairs at Wesleyan University. She became the first woman to serve as president of Hobart and William Smith, leading HWS from 2019 to 2022 before returning to the economics faculty.
Her academic work has earned national recognition, including the 2021 Carolyn Shaw Bell Award from the American Economic Association’s Committee on the Status of Women in the Economics Profession. The award recognized her scholarship, professional leadership and mentorship.
At HWS, Jacobsen’s interests extend well beyond economics. She serves as a faculty fellow for the William Smith bowling team and adviser to the student AI club. In the community, she is president of the board of the Geneva Music Festival, drawing on years of experience as a cellist.
In the photo above, Jacobsen teaches class on campus this fall.
