Current instructor

Jean-Francois Houde

Adjusted rating
RMP difficulty
captured reviews
About this rating

Raw average: 2.33/5 from 6 quality ratings. The adjusted rating blends this with the UW review average (3.66/5), weighted as 20 additional ratings. Smaller samples stay closer to that average. Each captured review is counted once in the prior; this does not correct who chooses to leave a review.

RMP profile ↗ · All captured review dates; profile matched by name.

What students say

Original student reviews · all captured dates

ECON 706
Quality 1/5Difficulty 1/5
Houde is the most insincere Professor you'll ever meet. Never trust him in anything that he says. Or you will end up compromising your career and grades. As far as possible, avoid him being your teacher or PhD research guide (based on reviews from PhD students at UW Madison). He says something else, does something else. Never true to his words.
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ECON 468
Quality 1/5Difficulty 4/5
Awful lectures, problem sets and exams. Does not do practice problems that relate to homework or exams in class. The things he does talk about he does not explain very well. Makes the exams/problem sets incredibly difficult
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ECON 468
Quality 3/5Difficulty 4/5
Houde is the most disorganized professor I've seen in my life. And it is outrageous to cancel the lecture one hour before the lecture. It seems that he does not like teaching.
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ECON 410
Quality 3/5Difficulty 4/5
Material itself was challenging, but Houde did a good job of taking time to explain it. One very annoying student made class unbearable. I studied the notes a ton to do well. The "D-day" analogy is right on. I would almost break-down in tears during the exam, then find out my 65% was an A!
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ECON 410
Quality 4/5Difficulty 5/5
First exam average was 43/100. Second: 76/100. He curves so that average is a B so he is not sadistic. Exams are like the D-day beach assault, many die but you end up winning. His accent and hand writing make lecture sometimes hard to follow. Pray for a good TA because they are in charge of a large portion of the class. Textbook was GREAT!Good luck
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ECON 410
Quality 2/5Difficulty 4/5
He is very separated from the TA in teaching this class. He leaves topics very vague. Also his lectures are intolerable(and I am an Econ major). The math is very easy, however, and he does a good job of explaining it.
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Personal experiences, not a representative survey. Profile matching and captured coverage are shown in the source details.

Classes with Jean-Francois Houde

ECON 990

Thesis

2–9 credits

ECON 990 Thesis involves independent research and writing for graduate students under the supervision of a faculty member.

Offering recorded · Spring 2027 · Sources

No recorded grade history

Recorded teaching history

Distinct courses recorded per term

Explore courses taught by this instructor →
Browse recorded courses
TermCourseTitle
Spring 2027ECON 990Thesis
Spring 2027ECON 999Independent Work
Fall 2026ECON 581Honors Thesis
Fall 2026ECON 681Senior Honors Thesis
Fall 2026ECON 761Industrial Organization Theory
Fall 2026ECON 899Recent Advances in Economics
Fall 2026ECON 990Thesis
Fall 2026ECON 999Independent Work

Teaching history may be incomplete. Course pages contain course-specific feedback and citations.

Instructor identity & provenance
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