Current instructor

Kim Ruhl

/5Adjusted rating
/5RMP difficulty
captured reviews
About this rating

Raw average: 4.20/5 from 10 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 570
Quality 1/5Difficulty 1/5
I was excited when Prof. Ruhl announced a project to design an optimal tariff policy. Imagine my dismay when my paper, based on a careful application of Felbermayr et al. (2013) received an F. Meanwhile, my friend used Chat GPT and suggested the trade deficit / total imports. They received an A+ and were invited to work for the CEA with Prof. Ruhl!
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ECON 570
Quality 1/5Difficulty 2/5
Professor Ruhl was not a particularly engaging instructor, which is a shame, because I was interested in the subject material. Lectures were not interesting or all that informative, and I did most of my learning outside of class. I would consider other options if at all possible. Ruhl is certainly not the best the econ department has to offer.
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ECON 570
Quality 5/5Difficulty 3/5
Kim Ruhl is easily hands down one of the best professors in the economics department. His class, ECON 570 was very interesting and my favorite course so far. The class is project heavy but that is a good thing as long as you put in the work, and the exams can be a little tricky, but trust me they are not that bad.
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ECON 570
Quality 5/5Difficulty 3/5
Easily one of my favorite and one of the most useful classes I've taken through the econ department. I had virtually 0 coding experience coming into this class and left with a solid basis. Lectures are very clear and he is always accessible outside of class. He doesn't hesitate to answer any questions, and his feedback is always clear and useful.
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ECON 871
Quality 5/5Difficulty 4/5
I took 871 with Prof Ruhl. He always takes efforts to immerse the students in the context before explaining the concept. Apart from being a great teacher, mentor, guide and friend, what stands out about Prof Ruhl is that despite of being so research active and academically busy, he invests time and efforts to see positive growth in students.
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ECON 770
Quality 5/5Difficulty 3/5
The class is really inspirational and a great opportunity to get hands-on experience to deal with data in Python, which inspires my interest in programming and would like to learn more. The lectures are well-organized and help you learn Python from zero to one. If you want to learn data analysis and visualization, take it!
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Personal experiences, not a representative survey. Profile matching and captured coverage are shown in the source details.

Classes with Kim Ruhl

ECON 581 is an honors thesis course where students conduct independent research.

Offering recorded · Fall 2026

historical GPA · grades

Spring 2022–Spring 2022 · limited sample

ECON 691 is a Senior Thesis course focused on faculty-guided original research.

Offering recorded · Fall 2026

No recorded grade history

ECON 692 is a senior thesis course involving faculty-guided original research in economics.

Offering recorded · Fall 2026

No recorded grade history

ECON 699 is a directed study allowing advanced undergraduates to arrange independent research or topic study with a faculty member.

Offering recorded · Fall 2026

historical GPA · grades

Spring 2022–Fall 2024 · limited sample

Recorded teaching history

Explore courses taught by this instructor →
Browse recorded courses
TermCourseTitle
Fall 2026ECON 581Honors Thesis
Fall 2026ECON 681Senior Honors Thesis
Fall 2026ECON 691Senior Thesis
Fall 2026ECON 692Senior Thesis
Fall 2026ECON 699Directed Study

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

Instructor identity & provenance
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