Doctoral Program

The Ph.D. program is a full-time program leading to a Doctoral Degree in Economics. 

Students specialize in various fields within Economics by enrolling in field courses and attending field-specific lunches and seminars. Students gain economic breadth by taking additional distribution courses outside of their selected fields of interest.

General Requirements

Teaching

Students are required to complete 1 quarter of teaching experience. Teaching experience includes teaching assistantships within the Economics department or another department.

University Residency Requirement

135 units of full-tuition residency are required for PhD students. After that, a student should have completed all coursework and must request Terminal Graduate Registration (TGR) status.

Department Degree Requirements and Student Checklist

1. Core Course Requirements

All of the following course sequences are required.

Core Microeconomics (202-203-204)

The Core Microeconomics sequence (ECON 202, 204, 204) is required.

The Business School graduate microeconomics class series may be substituted for the Econ Micro Core. Must have prior approval from the DGS.

Core Macroeconomics (210-211-212)

The Core Macroeconomics sequence (ECON 210, 211, 212) is required.

Econometrics (270-271-272)

The Core Econometrics sequence (ECON 270, 271, 272) is required.

Waivers

Students wishing to waive out of any of the first-year core, based on previous coverage of at least 90% of the material, must submit a waiver request to the DGS at least two weeks before the start of the quarter. A separate waiver request must be submitted for each course you request to waive. The waiver request must include a transcript and a syllabus from the prior course(s) taken.  

 

2.  Field Requirements

Students must choose two of the following fields as their Major Fields. More information about field requirements.

Research Field Options

Choose 2 of the following:

  • Behavioral & Experimental
  • Development Economics
  • Econometric Methods with Causal Inference
  • Econometrics
  • Economic History
  • Environmental, Resource and Energy Economics
  • Finance
  • Industrial Organization
  • International Trade & Finance
  • Labor Economics
  • Market Design
  • Microeconomic Theory
  • Macroeconomics
  • Political Economy
  • Public Economics

 

3.  Distribution

Four additional graduate-level courses must be completed. They must be passed with a grade of B or better.

  • Of these, one must be from the area of Economic History (unless that field was already selected above).
  • These courses must be distributed such that at least two fields not selected from the above list are represented.

 

4.  Field Seminars/Workshops

Students must take either: 

  • 3 quarters of seminars in two different fields (6 courses total) OR
  • 6 quarters of seminars in the same field. 

Courses must be selected from the list below.

Field Seminar/Workshop Courses
  • ECON 310: Macroeconomics
  • ECON 315: Development
  • ECON 325: Economic History
  • ECON 335: Experimental/Behavioral
  • ECON 341: Public/Environmental
  • ECON 341: Labor
  • ECON 355: Industrial Organization
  • ECON 365: International Trade & Finance
  • ECON 370: Econometrics
  • ECON 391: Microeconomic Theory