My company has been developing a revolutionary product for teaching
economics for the last five years, together with Edinburgh and
Cambridge University staff.
It is currently being trialled with 800 BA(Honours), MBA and MSc
students as part of their degree courses.It turns the subject into a
movie using Excel and many thousands of lines of Visual Basic code,
and is hugely popular with the students. We are preparing a business
plan, and want to cross check the total potential market size,
initially of the UK and US markets, later on of "the world" since the
product is electronic and will be downloaded over the Internet. We
need, in an Excel spreadsheet, the total numbers of students studying
economics in the UK and the US, broken down into a matrix of the
various leading courses - ie from high school up to University degree
course level, including university honours economics 1st and 2nd year,
MBA's, MSc's, Diplomas in Business Studies etc.
The matrix would have these course descriptions across the top, and
the groups of institutions down the side

This question only addresses "the total market size" and not our
possible share of it. We also require the "answer" Excel spreadsheet
to be backed up with full references to the specific source data,
(Directories, web sites etc). Therefore, if one of the rows in the
Excel spreadsheet for example says "622 Universities -> 35,000 1st
year Hons Economics", --> 22,000 2nd year Hons (the figures are
fictitious), we then need to know how the figures 35,000 and 22,000
were arrived at.  Thank you, in anticipation.


If the answers seems satisfactory, we would then like to repeat the
Exercise (as a separate search) for "the rest of the world" - within
reason, and for discussion (ie China is of interest but necessarily
French Polynesia.)

We can be contacted by e-mail by the Google researcher

---

Request for Question Clarification by prof-ga on 01 Jul 2002 21:25 PDT

Hi Humbert! I'm not sure I fully understand your question. If I'm
reading you right, you want to know what the potential market is for
your new product. From the way I read your comments, this is a new
product in a potentially new industry and you have no existing
competition. Is this right?

If I'm wrong, and there is existing competition, can you define who
they are?

If I'm correct, the obvious answer is that the market right now is $0.
The "potential" market simply cannot be known without a great deal of
money spent on marketing research. For example, if I was asked to find
out the answer to your question, and given an unlimited budget, I
might go about the tast as follows:

1) Do a telephone survey of 1000 school administrators and teachers (I
assume this is your potential market). This would be done after
mailing them screen shots and a complete write-up on the product.

2) Conduct several focus group interviews in person with a variety of
teachers and administrators.

3) Beta test in school environments as you apparently are doing.

4) Beta "market" the product in a specific market, such as Edinburgh
(I love that city!). Try selling to the schools and see what your
close ratio is.

Without some type of statistical base, your question would be
impossible to answer. Sorry. :) If you'd like to clarify, I'd be glad
to take a stab at it.

Prof

---

Clarification of Question by humbert-ga on 01 Jul 2002 21:34 PDT

Claudietta - thank you. 
(1) We really only need the data for 1999-2000, but broken down
between what one might loosely call "the target markets" for our
product, so down the left hand side we need "Schools" , "Colleges" ,
"Business Schools", "Universities",

(2) The list ideally needs to include, as well as university degree
courses, *any other colleges or institutions* where one studies
Economics and the students therefore need to buy books, notably
including MBA's, diplomas in business studies etc. A lot of our
students are taking economics as an alective as part of a degree in
other subjects such as "politics and economics".

Are you one of the researchers ? Regards Humbert.

---

Clarification of Question by humbert-ga on 01 Jul 2002 22:00 PDT

Dear Prof. Thank you, and for a very professional initial answer.
(1) Yes the product is totally revolutionary because it teaches
economics without the need for a textbook, by converting, chapter by
chapter the charts in an average selection of leading textbooks into a
movie. Within it, there are exercises and a facility to wind the movie
backwards and forwards, and to vary the data. Our students absolutely
love it.

(2) *Of course* it has competition, but mostly, they are on horseback
while we have an automobile. Having used our product, you would also
still need to go and buy somebody's textbook for a fuller explanation
but by then you will probably have grasped it.
(3) We do not yet have the the resources to commission the survey you
rightly say we need. All we want to know at this stage is "how many
people study economics in the USA ?" and "where are they ?" (broken
down into say six (or ten ?) categories ("colleges" , "universities",
"business schools" etc.
(4) Yes, we do plan to conduct the research you suggest, but only
after we have raised sufficient venture capital to pay for it, and we
might even seek a US partner. I hope this helps and look forward to
hearing from you. Humbert

---

Clarification of Question by humbert-ga on 07 Jul 2002 02:43 PDT

Dear Prof: All we need to ascertain is the total number of students of
economics in the USA, including Bachelors, Masters, Doctors, and
especially including courses in accounting, business administration,
and post graduate degree courses where economics is one of the
subjects. Please could you kindly update us on whether you are still
considering the question, or is this case now closed ? The objective
is simply to determine the total potential market size in '000's , not
anybody's likely size of it ! Thanks  - Humbert

---

Clarification of Question by humbert-ga on 12 Jul 2002 10:17 PDT

This  a message to Claudietta.Claudietta, you have been extremely
helpful, but is there any opportunity of contacting you by e-mail ? I
think it could be mutually beneficial. Humbert

Dear humbert

Here is some historical US data and sources that may interest you.  

claudietta



	|	          Economics Degrees			
Year	|					
	|	_________________________________________		____________________________		____________________________
	|	Bachelor's	|	Master's	|	Doctor's
_	|	_	|	_	|	_
1	|	2	|	3	|	4
_	|	_	|	_	|	_
1949-50 |	14,568 	|	921 	|	200 
1951-52 	|	8,593 	|	695 	|	239 
1953-54 	|	6,719 	|	609 	|	245 
1955-56 ...........................	|	6,555 	|	581 	|	232 
1957-58 	|	7,457 	|	669 	|	239 
	|	 	|		|	
1959-60 	|	7,453 	|	708 	|	237 
1961-62 	|	8,366 	|	853 	|	268 
1963-64 	|	10,583 	|	1,104 	|	385 
1965-66 	|	11,555 	|	1,522 	|	458 
1967-68 	|	15,193 	|	1,916 	|	600 
	|	 	|		|	
1969-70 	|	17,197 	|	1,988 	|	794 
1970-71 	|	15,758 	|	1,995 	|	721 
1971-72 	|	15,231 	|	2,224 	|	794 
1972-73 	|	14,770 	|	2,225 	|	845 
1973-74           |	14,285 	|	2,141 	|	788 
	|	 	|		|	
1974-75 	|	14,046 	|	2,127 	|	815 
1975-76 	|	14,741 	|	2,087 	|	763 
1976-77 	|	15,296 	|	2,158 	|	758 
1977-78 	|	15,661 	|	1,995 	|	706 
1978-79 	|	16,409 	|	1,955 	|	712 
	|	 	|		|	 
1979-80 	|	17,863 	|	1,821 	|	677 
1980-81 	|	18,753 	|	1,911 	|	727 
1981-82 	|	19,876 	|	1,964 	|	677 
1982-83 	|	20,517 	|	1,972 	|	734 
1983-84 	|	20,719 	|	1,891 	|	729 
1984-85 	|	20,711 	|	1,992 	|	749 
1985-86 ...........	|	21,602 	|	1,937 	|	789 
1986-87 ...........	|	22,378 	|	1,855 	|	750 
1987-88 ..........	|	22,911 	|	1,847 	|	770 
1988-89 ...........	|	23,454 	|	1,886 	|	827 
1989-90 ...........	|	23,923 	|	1,950 	|	806 
	|		|		|	
1990-91 ...........	|	23,488 	|	1,951 	|	802 
1991-92 ...........	|	23,423 	|	2,106 	|	866 
1992-93 ...........	|	21,321 	|	2,292 	|	879 
1993-94 ...........	|	19,496 	|	2,521 	|	869 
1994-95 ...........	|	17,673 	|	2,400 	|	910 
	|		|		|	
1995-96 ...........	|	16,674 	|	2,533 	|	916 
1996-97 ...........	|	16,539 	|	2,433 	|	968 
1997-98 ...........	|	17,074 	|	2,435 	|	928 
1998-99 ...........	|	17,611 	|	2,323 	|	810 
1999-2000 ...........	|	18,441 	|	2,168 	|	851 
_	|	_	|	_	|	_
NOTE:  Political science and government excludes degrees in public
administration and international relations. Data for
1998-99 imputed using alternative procedures.  (See Guide to Sources
for details.)

SOURCE:  U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education
Statistics, Higher Education
General Information Survey (HEGIS), "Degrees and Other Formal Awards
Conferred" surveys, and
Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS), "Completions"
surveys.  (This table was
prepared August 2001.)

Humbert,

If you run out of options for obtaining, what I figure to be, very
fragmented data, you can look at this wonderful website (by the Bureau
of Educational Affairs) that includes a huge database with the
information you want.  It includes undergrad, grad, MBA, executive
programs, etc.  Unfortunately, it is powered by search engine that
does not allow one to get the information in the structure you want
it.  However, it is in there and it will take you time to search and
cut and paste.

http://www.petersons.com/educationusa/

This also apparently has programs for outside of the US, although I
don't know how valid it is.  I tested the US information for validity,
as I have attended of few large educational institutions myself; and
it seems to be accurate.

--and on the subject of MBAs, one of my specialties, there are over
900 universities that offer such program in the US, so the breakdown
you want is no easy feat.

Much luck,

claudietta --only a google researcher.

Correction--My link above does not include high school information.  

claudietta

...and another wonderful site for aggregate statistical data for the US.

National Center for Education Statistics
http://nces.ed.gov/

claudietta