Master's Degree
To receive an MA, students must be in residence for at least two semesters, and all work must be completed within seven years of admission.
Requirements
MA students must earn a minimum of 30 credit hours, of which 21 or more must be in graduate-level courses (600-level and above). The credit-hour requirements may be met through some combination of the following:
- Required four-course core (ECON 606, 607, 627, 628)
- Area of concentration courses consisting of at least two 600-level courses selected in consultation with the Graduate Chair
- Required individual research project (ECON 732)
Graduate credit will not be granted for 300-level courses. Students who complete the PhD core may substitute a pass on any PhD qualifying or field exam for the individual research project requirement for a master's degree.
Doctoral Degree
A PhD student must be in residence for at least three semesters and complete all requirements within seven years of admission to the doctoral program.
Requirements
Seven core courses (ECON 606, 607, 608, 609, 627, 628, and 629) must each be completed with a grade of B or better by doctoral students. After completing the core requirements, students must complete six additional field courses in economics, two of which must be completed in a major field and two in a minor. Fields offered by the department are as follows:
1. Economic Development (ECON 610 and 611)
2. Health and Population Economics (ECON 672 and 674)
3. Labor Economics (ECON 670 and 671)
4. International Economics (ECON 660 and 662)
5. Macroeconomic Policy and Modeling (ECON 640 and 641)
6. Public Economics (ECON 650 and 651)
7. Resource and Environmental Economics (ECON 637 and 638)
PhD students must receive passing grades on the two qualifying exams in micro- and macroeconomic theory and on a qualifying exam in their major field. Students failing a qualifying examination may retake it only once. With prior approval of the graduate committee, the minor field can be outside of economics.
After passing the three qualifying examinations, PhD candidates will complete a research project leading to a dissertation proposal. This will be done under the supervision of the graduate chair and one or more faculty members approved by the graduate chair. Concurrently, the student must enroll in one or more of the workshops offered each semester (ECON 730). With advance approval of the graduate chair, field research over a period of one semester or more may be used in lieu of ECON 730 to satisfy the research project requirement.
The comprehensive examination-of which the written qualifying examinations are a part-will include a broad probing of the candidate's general economic knowledge. The oral part of the PhD comprehensive examination will be administered jointly with the defense of the dissertation proposal, before a dissertation committee chosen by the student and approved by the graduate chair and the Graduate Division of the University. A student who fails the comprehensive examination may repeat it once. A student who fails a second time is dropped from the program.
The final examination, which is oral, covers the candidate's defense of the final dissertation draft. It is administered orally and is open to the public. Candidates failing the final examination may be allowed to repeat it once upon petition approved by the graduate faculty concerned and the dean of the Graduate Division. Those failing it twice are dropped from the program. The final dissertation must also conform to University standards in content and format. |