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Fields & Courses

Fields

Course structure for second year and beyond

Seminars and workshops

Fields

The Economics Department requires doctoral candidates to acquire certification in one major field and one minor field. The following fields are currently offered:

Field Exam Type 1st/2nd Attempt Committee Chair
Applied Microeconomics Paper Fall 3/Spring 3 Staff
Econometrics Exam Spring 2/Spring 3 Tauchen
History of Political Economy Paper Fall 3/Spring 3 Goodwin
Macroeconomics and International Economics Exam Summer 2/Summer 3 Uribe
Microeconomic Theory Paper Fall 3/Spring 3 Taylor

To obtain major certification, a student must take at least 6 credits in the field beyond the first year series with no less than a B average and no single grade less than B-. In addition, 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. To obtain minor certification, a student must take at least 6 credits in the field beyond the first year series with no less than a B average. No exam or paper is required for minor certification. For a major or minor in Econometrics, Econometrics III must be one of the courses comprising the 6 graded credts.

All coursework for a major and minor certification should be finished by the end of the third year.

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; hence, it is possible to obtain major and minor certification under the applied microeconomics umbrella. The field exam committee would then be dictated by the topic of the field paper and the combination of the courses taken.

It is possible to obtain minor certification in fields outside of the Economics Department, provided the student has obtained approval of the Director of Graduate Studies.

Course Structure 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 take courses along methodology lines rather than field lines and 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.

Seminars and Workshops

Beginning in the second semester of the second year, financial assistance from the department requires regular seminar (often referred to as 'lunch group') and workshop attendance. The purpose of these seminars and workshops is to encourage an exchange of ideas among those students and faculty members who share similar interests. Seminars are listed as course numbers ECON 385A, 385E, 385F, 385M and 385T; workshops are all listed under course number ECON 380.