Requirements for Graduate Degrees
(for students entering before Fall 2006)
The Ph.D.
The Ph.D. program has three main parts taken in sequence: the core, the fields (of specialization), and the dissertation. For most students, the program is a 5-year program. Occasionally, but rarely, a student completes the program in 4 years.
The Core . The core consists of 3 semesters of coursework: a 3-semester sequence in microeconomic theory, a 3-semester sequence in econometrics, and a course in mathematics for economists followed by a two-semester sequence in macroeconomic theory. At the beginning of the fourth semester, students are required to take two 3-hour candidacy exams: one in microeconomics and one in macroeconomics. Students who fail an exam on their first attempt are allowed to take the exam a second time. Competence in econometrics must be demonstrated through satisfactory completion of the coursework. Students with prior graduate training may skip some of the coursework in the core and take the candidacy exams earlier than the 4th semester.
Fields . Students must demonstrate competence in three fields. Competence in a field is demonstrated by completing two courses in the field with no grade lower than a B.
With the permission of the student's advisor and the Director of Graduate Studies, a student may take a field in another department. For instance, students have taken field courses in Demography, or Political Science and Statistics.
3rd-Year Paper . Students must complete a paper by the end of their 6th semester, the spring semester of their 3rd year. The paper must be approved by a 3-person faculty committee. The paper must contain original research and must be written in a form suitable for submission to a journal. For more information about this requirement, click here .
Dissertation Research . Most dissertations consist of several essays, each of which has the substance and quality of a journal article. However, a dissertation which has the substance and quality of a single major article in a leading journal is also acceptable. (Electronic versions of recent Ph. D. dissertations can be found here .)
A student making good progress will begin dissertation research during the 6th semester and will be in a position to present a seminar that describes proposed dissertation research at the start of the 4th year (the 7th semester). The student will spend the 4th year and the beginning of the 5th year completing the dissertation and will use the summer after the 4th year and the beginning of the 5th year in preparation for the job market.
Dual Degrees. Occasionally students construct a dual degree program. One such program is a joint Economics and Demography program. Another is Economics and Operations Research. Details may be obtained by clicking the links above or from the Graduate Director.The M.A.
The M.A. degree in economics may be earned by (a) satisfactorily completing at least twenty-four credits of appropriate graduate course work, together with a master's thesis for which six credits is granted, and passing a final oral examination; or (b) by satisfactorily completing thirty credits of appropriate course work, presenting a master's essay for which no graduate credit may be granted, and passing a final oral examination. The master's essay option, which most students elect, includes preparation of a paper which is written under the supervision of a faculty member. Under either option, at least eighteen credit hours must be in approved graduate courses.
The department does not admit students who seek an M.A. as a terminal degree.