School of Economics

Fields in distinguished Ph.D. programs in Economics in the US share a common set of core economic concepts and techniques – i.e., microeconomic, game-theoretic, macroeconomic and econometric models taught in the first year of the program – but are typically designed to expose students to specialized bodies of economic literature. We offer three specialization fields, Environmental Economics, Industrial Organization and International Economics. Our fields build on our set of core courses, providing students with opportunities to explore research topics within three distinct but related areas while simultaneously preserving and enhancing our program’s focus on globalization and innovation. Each field shares globalization and innovation as a “common language,” since a substantial share of its content pertains to the importance played by globalization and innovation within the field. Each field provides an equal mix of theory and practice, consisting of two three-hour courses, as described below:

Environmental Economics

Industrial Organization

International Economics

Environmental Economics I: a theoretical course, which provides students with knowledge of three kinds of environmental economics topics: (i) standard; (ii) related to innovation; and (iii) related to the international environment and global economy. Among the standard topics, the course covers negative externalities, property rights, incentive design, emission taxes and tradable emission permits. As for topics related to innovation, the course focuses on innovation incentives originating with environmental regulations and globalization. The third area of the course explores the problems caused by trans-boundary pollutants (e.g., carbon dioxide and sulfur dioxide emissions) within and across nations, international environmental agreements, and the globalization impacts on the environment.

Environmental Economics II: an empirical course, built upon the theoretical topics covered in Environmental Economics I. Students are given an in-depth coverage of key empirical papers in environmental economics, either papers that have tested several hypotheses derived from theoretical models or papers that are advancing knowledge in the field, generating empirical results for which no theory yet exists. The empirical papers studied are divided into the three categories of topics investigated in Environmental Economics I.

Industrial Organization I: a theoretical course. It studies the strategic behavior of firms, market structures and their interactions, technological innovation and diffusion and regulation and procurement. The first part of the course covers issues related to market structures and the strategic behavior of firms: (i) monopoly – pricing behavior, quality choice, price discrimination, vertical control; and (ii) oligopoly – strategic interaction, short run and dynamic pricing competition, product differentiation, entry and exit. The second part of the course examines research and development and the adoption of new technologies. The topics discussed here are the value of innovation, patent races, strategic adoption of new technologies, network externalities, patent licensing and research joint ventures. The third part of the course studies issues related to regulations and procurement. Some of the topics examined in this part are incentive regulations, antitrust law and competition policy.

Industrial Organization II: an empirical course. Students are trained to examine the theoretical issues arising in Industrial Organization I. Students are taught about how to use existing data, collect and compile their own datasets and use frontier methods in empirical Industrial Organization to test hypotheses that originate from the theories related to pricing, product and process innovation, among others. Part of this course also focuses on the study of issues arising in specific industries, consistent, for example, with the Sloan Industry Studies Program.

International Economics I: a theoretical course. It covers all basic material in international trade, such as the Ricardian and Hecksher-Ohlin models, extensions to many goods and factors, trade in intermediate inputs and wages, increasing returns, gains from trade and regional agreements, import tariffs and dumping, import quotas and export subsidies, political economy of trade policy and trade and endogenous growth. It also examines the relationship between international trade, foreign direct investment and technological innovation and diffusion.

International Economics II: an empirical extension of International Economics I. It surveys the empirical literature and presents the key empirical results related to the topics discussed in the theoretical course. It also discusses frontier empirical work in the field, empirical studies that go beyond the testable hypotheses originated with theory.