Disciplinary Concentration Requirements: Economics

[ Economics | Political Science | Sociology ]

Public Policy PhD students with a disciplinary concentration in Economics must complete the following courses within the Economics Department:

ECON 301:                     Microeconomics I – PhD program microeconomics requirement

ECON 302:                     Microeconomics II – PhD program microeconomics requirement

ECON 341:                     Econometrics I – Research methods requirement

ECON 342:                     Econometrics II – Research methods requirement

AND a minimum of three courses (nine credits) in one of the department’s major field areas:

	Field	Exam Type
	Applied Microeconomics	Paper
	Econometrics	Exam
	History of Political Economy	Paper
	Macroeconomics and International Economics	Exam
	Microeconomic Theory	Paper

A student wishing to acquire major certification must (depending on the field) either pass a written examination administered by faculty with expertise in the field or write a research paper that is judged as satisfactory by the expert faculty. Papers in applicable fields may be based on coursework but should contain original research. Students are urged to discuss their paper topics with members of the relevant faculty committee at least three months prior to the field-paper due date.  For a major in Econometrics, Econometrics III must be one of the courses comprising the nine graded credits.

 

Applied microeconomics encompasses many fields, including Development, Environmental, Family, Health, Industrial Organization, Labor, Population and Public Economics. Our belief is that students are best served in applied microeconomics by mixing and matching across course types. The field exam committee would then be dictated by the topic of the field paper and the combination of the courses taken.

 

Course structure in the Economics Department for the second year and beyond

After the first year, many (but not all) of the upper level courses in Economics are divided into half semester 'modules'. The purpose of this structure is to allow students to better align coursework with their research interests. By their nature, modules only count for 1.5 credits and students must complete enough of them to fulfill their graded course requirements. Module courses are all currently listed under special topics course number ECON 395. In the future, courses in fields under the Applied Micro umbrella will be designated by the letter "A", Econometrics courses by "E", Macro Courses by "M" and Micro Theory courses by "T". Students who wish to major in an Applied Micro field have some flexibility in their choice of courses, but must obtain explicit approval of their course plan from their advisor.