Duke University - Economics

Why do an Honors Thesis?

How do I graduate with Honors?

Two Possible Honors Distinctions:

Graduation with Distinction (or High Distinction) in Economics 

has an honors thesis and a minimun GPA requirement of 3.3 both in Economics and overall.

and/or

Distinction (or High Distinction) in Research 

has the same requirements at Graduation with Distinction but without the minimum GPA requirement.

Undergraduate Research

A fundamental feature of research, as opposed to classroom learning, is that it is independent and self-motivated. At the same time, researchers continually share thoughts and ideas with colleagues. This sharing is often at irregular intervals and very informal. However, workshops are one of the main regular, and more structured, venues through which research ideas are developed, disseminated, dissected and refined. In the Duke economics department, as at most research oriented economics departments, weekly workshops are held for faculty and graduate students who share common interests in any of the major fields.

Honors Research Workshops

We introduce the workshop tradition to undergraduates with Honors Research Workshops (Econ 198, 199 and Econ 201,202). We want to encourage the interchange of research ideas, problems, and strategies among undergraduates and faculty that is similar to the sort of interchange that occurs between graduate students and faculty. Resultant research projects may be written up as an honors thesis.

Key Field Courses

Recognizing that for this interchange to be productive, there has to be a certain amount of shared or common knowledge among participants, the initiative is also engaged in the creation of key field courses intended to deepen students' understanding of specialized topics that may have been only briefly mentioned in economics core courses.

Field courses build on the basic economic principles learned in the core sequence but emphasize studying existing work within a particular field, as well as learning the skills appropriate to particular types of research. Field courses are useful for students to gain deeper knowledge within topics that may have been only briefly mentioned in core courses. Field courses are also necessary preparation for anyone wishing to undertake future research as a junior or senior.

To help guide students, we provide a table grouping our non-core course offerings by general area of research. In this way students can educate themselves about topics and tools necessary to undertaking significant research on a topic that interests them. For example, a student who might be interested in doing research on job discrimination should take a course in Labor and Public Finance. These field courses will teach the student how to approach a particular topic and properly frame the questions that he/she wishes to answer. 

Each semester we will move toward providing the full spectrum of key field courses and research workshops. For Fall 2007 and Spring 2008, we are pleased to offer the following new courses. For a full listing of economics courses offered each term, see ACES.

Students considering pursuing an economics major are strongly encouraged to take these core economics courses as early as possible:

• 51/101
• 55D/201D
• 105D/205D
• 110D/210D
• 139D/208D

Mathematics and statistics prerequisites should also be taken as early as possible. Economics core courses will be offered Fall, Spring and Summer terms. Early completion will allow for the greatest flexibility in pursuing serious research in the junior and senior years.