I wonder how that might have changed, 10 years on.

[Interestingly, and for what it's worth, my undergraduate institution (DePauw University) did not, while I was there (1965-69), require, or even offer, HET in the econ major.  (Had the school done so, I would have taken it; it was perhaps my favorite required sequence in my PhD program.  But I've spent my career doing labor econ and urban econ instead.)  Of the seven least offered in the late 1980s/early 1990s, I took three as an undergrad--international finance, economic development, and labor--as an undergrad.]

Don Coffin
________________________________________
From: Societies for the History of Economics [[log in to unmask]] on behalf of Michael Nuwer [[log in to unmask]]
Sent: Sunday, February 27, 2011 7:36 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: [SHOE] application for an assistant professor position-Milan (Italy)

As part of a study that asked the question "Does the Location of the
Economics Department Alter the Major?," David H. Dean and Robert C.
Dolan surveyed the curriculum at 148 primarily undergraduate
institutions in the USA. Their Table A1 (Frequency Distribution of
Elective Offerings for Economics Departments) reports that 121 (81.8%)
of the institutions offer "History of economic thought." I was surprised
when I first saw this data. HET is the 6th most common elective and it
was offered at more institutions than industrial organization. Here is a
partial listing of the table.

Course .....................Count . percent
---------------------------------------------
International trade ........ 145 ....98.0
Money and banking ...........138 ....93.2
Public finance ..............137 ....92.6
Labor economics .............133 ....89.9
Econometrics ................125 ....84.5
History of economic thought .121 ....81.8
Economic development ........108 ....73.0
Comparative econ systems ....107 ....72.3
Industrial organization .....103 ....69.6
Urban economics .............102 ....68.9
Environmental economics ......84 ....56.8
Mathematical economics .......81 ....54.7
U.S. economic history ........79 ....53.4
Managerial economics .........76 ....51.4
Antitrust and regulation .....62 ....41.9
Econ of less-dev countries ...53 ....35.8
International money/finance ..46 ....31.1
Business cycles & forecasting 43 ....29.1
Law and economics ............42 ....28.4

Source: David H. Dean and Robert C. Dolan, "Liberal Arts or Business:
Does the Location of the Economics Department Alter the Major?" The
Journal of Economic Education, Volume 32, Issue 1 2001, pages 18-35.

Michael Nuwer