Course Sequence for PhD in Applied Economics
Year 1: Foundations: Theory & Tools
| Fall | Spring |
Year 2: Application & Advanced Methods
| Fall |
Spring
|
Year 3: Fields & Research
Fall
|
Spring
|
Year 4: Research & Writing
Fall
|
Spring
|
* Note: Indicates a “required” course or examination. Technically, students can take courses out of sequence or pass exams without having taken all courses in the subject. However, failure to make normal progress while avoiding the normal sequence of courses risks dismissal from the program.
** Note: Either one of advanced cross section or time series econometrics is required.
Note: For students on the PhD track and continuing beyond the first year, an MA degree is earned by completing 30 hours, with passing grades in the PhD core classes: Econ 801, Econ 802, Econ 805, Econ 807, Econ 808 (or 909), Econ 901 and Econ 905.
Course Descriptions:
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ECON 605 Introduction to Econometrics 4(3,3) Introduction to the methods of quantitative analysis of economic data. Reviews basic statistical methods and probability distribution. Topics include data management using professional statistical software applications; multiple regression analysis; hypothesis testing under conditions of multicollinearity, heteroscedasticity, and serial correlation. Preq: ECON 211 and 212; MTHSC 108 or 207; EX ST 301 or MTHSC 301 or 309.
- Professor Wilson: Personal Webpage
- Professor Warner: Personal Webpage
ECON 606 Advanced Econometrics 3(3,0) Reviews statistical inference using multiple regression (OLS) analysis and model specification. Topics include multicollinearity; heteroscedasticity and serial correlation; two-stage least squares and instrumental variables models; simultaneous equations models; limited dependent variable models using maximum likelihood estimation and time-series analysis; and presentation of results in technical writing. Preq: ECON 405 or consent of instructor.
- Professor Wilson: Personal Webpage
- Professor Warner: Personal Webpage
- Professor Mroz: Personal Webpage
ECON 610 Economic Development 3(3,0) Consideration and analysis of economic and related problems of underdeveloped countries. Attention is given to national and international programs designed to accelerate solution of these problems. Preq: ECON 314 or consent of instructor.
ECON 611 Economics of Education 3(3,0) Analysis of economic issues related to education. The decision to invest in education, elementary and secondary school markets and reform, the market for college education, teacher labor markets, and education’s effects on economic growth and income distribution. Preq: ECON 314 or consent of instructor.
ECON 625 Antitrust Economics 3(3,0) Analysis of economic and legal issues created by the exercise of market power. The motivation and execution of government policy toward mergers, predatory conduct, and various restraints of trade are extensively examined. Preq: ECON 309 or 314 or consent of instructor.
ECON 626 Seminar in Sports Economics 3(3,0) Economic analysis of sports teams, leagues, and institutions. Topics include antitrust issues, public funding of sports venues, labor relations, wagering markets, athlete compensation, and application of economic principles to sports settings. Empirical research project is cornerstone of course. Preq: ECON 314 and 405 or consent of instructor.
ECON 640 Game Theory 3(3,0) Introduction to the formal analysis of strategic interaction among rational, self-interested rivals. Basic theoretical aspects of games are discussed and applied to such topics as bargaining, voting, auctions, and oligopoly. Preq: ECON 314 and MTHSC 106, or ECON 430, or consent of instructor.
ECON 751 Selected Topics for Teachers 3(3,0) Current economic policy issues such as inflation, regulation, protectionism, and energy policy. Emphasis is on the presentation of these topics to secondary school students. Topics vary from year to year. May be repeated for credit. Preq: ECON 200, 211.
ECON (AP EC) 800 History of Economic Thought 3(3,0) Development of economic thought from early Greek to Keynesian economics; writings of major economists such as Smith, Ricardo, Marx, Marshall, and Keynes; development of major economic theories.
ECON (AP EC) 801 Microeconomic Theory 3(3,0) Microeconomic theory and its use to analyze and predict the behavior of industries, firms, and consumers under various market conditions. Offered fall semester only.
- Professor Benjamin: Personal Webpage
- Professor Benjamin: Course Syllabus (pdf)
ECON (AP EC) 802 Advanced Economic Concepts and Applications 3(3,0) Rigorous development of price theory under alternative product and resource market structures. Preq: Consent of instructor.
- Professor Dougan: Personal Webpage
- Professor Dougan: Course Syllabus (html)
ECON (AP EC) 804 Applied Mathematical Economics 3(3,0) See AP EC 804.
ECON 805 Macroeconomic Theory 3(3,0) Macroeconomic theory involving static and dynamic models and their use in analysis of economic problems and policies.
- Professor Baier: Personal Webpage
- Professor Jerzmanowski: Personal Webpage
ECON (AP EC) 806 Econometrics I 3(3,0) See AP EC 806.
ECON (AP EC) 807 Econometrics II 3(3,0) Economic models expressed as systems of equations; problems of identification, parameter estimation, measurement errors, and statistical inference; techniques of simulation, forecasting, model validation, and interpretation. Offered fall semester only.
- Professor Warner: Personal Webpage
- Professor Warner: Course Syllabus (pdf)
- Professor Mroz: Personal Webpage
- Professor Wilson: Personal Webpage
- Professor Wilson: Course Syllabus (pdf)
ECON (AP EC) 808 Econometrics III 3(3,0) Continuation of ECON (AP EC) 807; current economic models and estimation procedures. Offered spring semester only. Preq: ECON (AP EC) 807.
- Professor Warner: Personal Webpage
- Professor Warner: Course Syllabus (pdf)
- Professor Wilson: Personal Webpage
- Professor Wilson: Course Syllabus (pdf)
ECON (AP EC) 809 Advanced Natural Resource Economics 3(3,0) See AP EC 809.
ECON (AP EC) 810 Natural Resources Management and Policy 3(3,0) See AP EC 810.
ECON (AP EC) 811 Economics of Environmental Quality 3(3,0) Pricing and distribution emphasizing effects upon economic welfare; goods allocated by government purchase for joint consumption and those distributed by rationing; alternate plans for allocating public goods. Offered fall semester of even-numbered years only. Preq: ECON 314 or equivalent.
ECON (AP EC) 816 Labor Economics 3(3,0) Wage and employment theory; labor markets; labor history; current problems in labor and manpower economics.
ECON (AP EC) 817 Advanced Production Economics 3(3,0) See AP EC 817.
ECON (AP EC) 820 Public Finance 3(3,0) Impact of government on resource allocation, income distribution and stability; role of regulation; principles of taxation.
- Professor Zhang: Personal Webpage
- Professor Zhang: Course Syllabus (doc)
- Professor Dougan: Personal Webpage
- Professor Dougan: Course Syllabus (pdf)
ECON 821 Public Choice 3(3,0) Economic theory to analyze collective decisions. Topics include the pure theory of collective choice and applied analyses of democratic governments and their policy processes.
ECON (AP EC) 822 Contemporary Public Policy 3(3,0) See AP EC 822.
ECON 823 Microeconomics for Public Policy 3(3,0) Economic aspects of public policy making; individual behavior as governed by the market and other incentive mechanisms. Equips students with methodological tools for evaluating public policies. Preq: Admission to the Policy Studies program or consent of instructor.
ECON (AP EC) 824 Organization of Industry 3(3,0) The structure of markets and firms; forces that determine the size of firms and the boundaries of markets; the behavior of firms, both singly and in concert, to exploit market positions.
- Professor Lindsay: Vita (pdf)
ECON 825 Antitrust Economics 3(3,0) Theoretical analysis of monopoly, monopolizing practices, and the exercise of market power. Study of government policy towards mergers, predation, and restraints of trade. Preq: ECON (AP EC) 801.
ECON (AP EC) 826 Economic Theory of Government Regulation 3(3,0) The scope of governmental regulation in the economy of the United States, its evolution and development; the application of the tools of economic analysis to the issues of regulated enterprise. Preq: ECON 314 or equivalent.
ECON (AP EC) 827 Economics of Property Rights 3(3,0) Analyzes the evolution and impact of various property rights institutions on individual behavior and the subsequent use of resources. Particular attention is paid to the importance of property rights structures in the organization of business and in managerial decision making. Preq: ECON 801.
- Professor Maloney: Personal Webpage
- Professor Maloney: Course Syllabus (pdf)
ECON (AP EC) 828 Market Structure in Agricultural Industries 3(3,0) See AP EC 828.
ECON (AP EC) 831 Economic Development 3(3,0) Economic analysis of development of urban areas within the system of cities; central place theory and general equilibrium models of interregional economic activity emphasizing central place systems, spatial interaction and stochastic processes; internal development of the city focusing on housing and land use patterns, transportation, and urban form.
ECON (AP EC) 832 Community and Regional Economics 3(3,0) See AP EC 832.
ECON 836 Research in Economics of Education 3(3,0) Theoretical and econometric analysis of education including such topics as human capital theory, pricing and competition in higher education, public financing and provision of education, cost/benefit analyses of education reforms such as accountability, school finance equalization, and school choice. Includes discussion and research on current topics in the economics of education. Preq: AP EC (ECON) 806 or consent of instructor.
ECON (AP EC) 840 International Trade Theory 3(3,0) Theory of free trade from Ricardo to the present; theory and application of optimal and second-best tariffs; recent empirical testing of trade and tariff theory. Preq: ECON 314 and (AP EC) 802 or consent of instructor.
ECON (AP EC) 841 International Finance 3(3,0) Financial economics of decision making in a multinational environment featuring autonomous governments and multiple currencies. Typical topics include the macroeconomic problems of unemployment and inflation in an international economy, management of exchange rate risk, credit risk, political risk, and taxation Preq: ECON 315 or equivalent.
ECON (AP EC) 855 Financial Economics 3(3,0) Modern theory of corporate finance; basic theories of efficient markets, portfolio selection, capital asset pricing, option pricing, and agency costs. Preq: ECON (AP EC) 801 or consent of instructor.
- Professor Maloney: Personal Webpage
- Professor Maloney: Course Syllabus
- Professor Kirby: Personal Webpage
ECON (AP EC) 888 Directed Reading in Economics 1-3(1-3,0) Directed reading and research in the student’s field of interest. May be repeated for a maximum of three credit.
ECON 891 Master’s Thesis Research 1-12
ECON (AP EC) 899 Selected Topics 1-3(1-3,0) See AP EC 899.
ECON 900 Selected Topics in Economics 3(3,0) Current topics in economic theory and empirical research. May be repeated for credit, but only if different topics are covered.
ECON (AP EC) 901 Price Theory 3(3,0) Neoclassical paradigm of market price and quantity; rigorous consideration of consumer behavior, the theory of the firm and market equilibrium, production and resource demands, and the supply of resources. Preq: ECON (AP EC) 801 or equivalent.
- Professor Maloney: Personal Webpage
ECON (AP EC) 903 General Equilibrium and Welfare Theory 3(3,0) See AP EC 903.
- Professor Tamura: Personal Webpage
ECON (AP EC) 904 Seminar in Resource Economics 3(3,0) See AP EC 904.
ECON (AP EC) 905 Advanced Macroeconomic Issues 3(3,0) Current unsettled issues in macroeconomic analysis. Topics include disequilibrium macro models, macro models of open economies, rational expectations and its critics, government stabilization policies and the controversy surrounding the concept of Ricardian equivalence. Preq: ECON 805 or equivalent.
- Professor Gordon: Personal Webpage
ECON (AP EC) 906 Seminar in Area Economic Development 3(3,0) See AP EC 906.
ECON 911 Problems in Price Theory 3(3,0) Price theory problems and exercises in preparation for standing the comprehensive examination preliminary to admission to candidacy to the PhD degree in Applied Economics. May be repeated up to three times.
ECON 915 General Equilibrium and Economic Growth 3(3,0) Review of problems and exercises in macroeconomic theory to help integrate formal theory from advanced courses. Preq: ECON (AP EC) 905 or permission to stand PhD preliminary examination in the next semester.
- Professor Tamura: Personal Webpage
- Professor Tamura: Course Syllabus (pdf)
ECON (AP EC) 917 Advanced Seminar in Labor Economics 3(3,0) Continuation of ECON 816, bridging the gap between theory and modern empirical research in labor economics. Emphasizes reading recent empirical research papers to understand the techniques of modern research in labor economics. Preq: ECON (AP EC) 816.
ECON 920 Empirical Public Economics 3(3,0) Studies the effects of taxation on household and firm behavior, public goods, income transfer, and welfare policies. Considers fiscal federalism, public policy, and economic growth. Includes selected topics on effects of legislation and institutions on economic outcome. Preq: ECON (AP EC) 801, (AP EC) 807, (AP EC) 820.
ECON (AP EC) 950 Monetary Economics 3(3,0) Economic analysis of money in our economy and effects of monetary policy on prices, interest rates, output, and employment.
- Professor Gordon: Personal Webpage
ECON 980 Workshop in Applied Economics 3(3,0) Forum for presentation and critical evaluation of ongoing research by candidates for the PhD degree in Applied Economics. May be repeated for a maximum of nine credits. Preq: Consent of instructor.
ECON (AP EC) 991 Doctoral Dissertation Research 1-12 See AP EC 991.
