The department was founded along with the University in 1969. Our faculty initially came from the schools and colleges that formed the core of the new university. We have grown to more than five times our original size, and our research and teaching activities have grown commensurately.
The first MSc thesis in the department was submitted in 1974. In 1991 the department became part of UQAM's School of Management (both in terms of physical location and administratively). Our first cohort of PhD students arrived in 1994-1995, and the first PhD thesis was submitted in 1997. We currently have 35 full-time faculty members, all of whom publish regularly in top journals, approximately the same number of part-time teachers, about 30 PhD candidates, 50 MSc students and several hundred undergraduates in our own BSc program and undergraduate certificate programs.
The department hosts the UQAM branch of a major interuniversity research center (CIRPÉE, le Centre interuniversitaire sur le risque, les politiques économiques et l'emploi), has several faculty members affiliated with the Center for Interuniversity Research and Analysis of Organizations (CIRANO), and is the location of the Canada Research Chair in Regional Impacts of Globalization held by our colleague Kristian Behrens and is the location of the Industrial Alliance Research Chair on the Economics of Demographic Change held by our colleague Pierre-Carl Michaud . Our PhD graduates have been hired by universities such as the University of Alberta, Carnegie Mellon University, Guelph University, l'Université des sciences et technologies de Lille, l'Université du Québec en Outauais, Southwestern University of Economics and Finance (Chengdu) and the University of Waterloo.