ABSTRACT

The Public Field is multidisciplinary and potentially interdisciplinary. Economics is one of its components, along with public administration, political science, and other knowledge fields. This paper aims to understand the presence of economists in the Public Field in Brazil. An exhaustive survey was conducted on a) the academic career of professors who are economists and work in the Public Field, b) courses related to economics in academic programs, and c) articles published in conference proceedings and journals evaluated through the Qualis system developed by the Coordination for the Improvement of Higher Education Personnel (Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior - CAPES). The results indicate that economists have relevant participation in higher education institutions and at a level above the minimum required to teach courses related to economics. In addition, the survey identified that economists with interdisciplinary training have a greater presence in the Public Field than economists with strict disciplinary training, to the extent that they publish their articles in journals and conferences focusing on public policies.

Keywords:
Public Field; economists; multidisciplinarity; interdisciplinarity; public policies