School of Economics

First Year Core

Our curriculum features 27 credit hours of first year core courses, at least 21 credit hours of fields, electives and workshop, at least 18 credit hours of departmental seminars and at least 33 credit hours of dissertation research. Thus, the minimum number of credit hours to be fulfilled is 99.

As in every distinguished Ph.D. program in Economics in the US, students receive rigorous training in microeconomic theory and quantitative methods during their first year of study. But, unlike any other Ph.D. program in Economics, our first year core coursework also features a two-course sequence in the economics of innovation. This cluster is designed to teach students the key microeconomic and macroeconomic foundations of innovation.

Microeconomics of Innovation: students are taught the microeconomic theoretical concepts, techniques and reasoning that underlie innovation processes. The course starts by introducing students to the historical evolution of institutions that promote innovation. Following this historical introduction, students learn that knowledge is a public good and to see prizes and intellectual property rights as incentive mechanisms designed to spur research and development. Students later examine several models of cumulative innovation, and study patent and copyright enforcement and litigation, private versus public funding, and the effects introduced by network externalities and globalization issues.

Macroeconomics of Innovation: students learn the macroeconomic factors that lead to technological change, the roles played by technological innovation and knowledge spillovers as promoters of economic growth, and the scope for fiscal and monetary policies to foment research and development and hence economic growth. With the exception of the two-course sequence in the economics of innovation, our core courses are standard.

Mathematics for Economists: an intensive three-week course, offered to students during July-August, ending in the week before the start of the fall semester. The main goal of this course is to provide students with the necessary quantitative skills to perform well in the subsequent core coursework. The 14 course covers matrix algebra, limits and open sets, implicit functions and their derivatives, quadratic forms and definite matrices, unconstrained and constrained static optimization and dynamic optimization.

Microeconomic Theory I: the students learn the axiomatic theory of consumer behavior, consumer choice, classical demand theory, aggregate demand, choice under uncertainty, producer theory and partial equilibrium analysis.

Microeconomic Theory II: covers topics in externalities and public goods, general equilibrium, economics of information and inter-temporal dynamic analysis.

Game Theory: complements the knowledge in microeconomics and examines static and dynamic games of complete and incomplete information.

In addition to Mathematics for Economists, students take three courses in quantitative methods, a two-course sequence in statistics and econometrics, and a course in empirical research methods.

Quantitative Methods: a three-course sequence consisting of a two-course sequence in statistics and econometrics and a course in empirical research methods.

Statistics and Econometrics: a two-course sequence consisting of Econometrics I and Econometrics II. In Econometrics I, students receive a comprehensive introduction to mathematical statistics principles underlying statistical analyses in economics. In Econometrics II, students learn linear and nonlinear regression analyses, hypothesis testing, ordinary and generalized least squares, instrumental variables estimation, the generalized method of moments, the method of maximum likelihood, methods for stationary time series, unit roots and cointegration, and specification testing.

Empirical Research Methods: a course that complements the two-course sequence in statistics and econometrics by providing students with up-to-date theory in panel data modeling and analysis.

Curriculum and Sample Schedule for the Ph.D. Program – All courses 3 credit hours