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 .
Candidacy
Students apply for candidacy to the PhD program by the start of their third year in the program.
Orals
The University Orals Examination is typically taken in the final year of the program.
University's residency requirement
135 units of full-tuition residency are required for PhD students. After that, a student should have completed all course work and must request Terminal Graduate Registration (TGR) status.
Department degree requirements and student checklist
1. Core Course requirement
Required: Core Microeconomics (202-203-204) Core Macroeconomics (210-211-212) Econometrics (270-271-272)
2. Field Requirements
Required: Two of the Following Fields Chosen as Major Fields (click on link for field course requirements). Field sequences must be passed with an overall grade average of B or better. Individual courses require a letter grade of B- or better to pass.
Research fields and field requirements:
- Behavioral & Experimental
- Development Economics
- Econometrics
- Economic History
- Environmental, Resource and Energy Economics
- Finance
- Industrial Organization
- International Economics
- Labor Economics
- Market Design
- Microeconomic Theory
- Macroeconomics
- Public Economics
3. Distribution
Required: Four other graduate-level courses must be completed. One of these must be from the area of economic history (unless that field has already been selected above). These courses must be distributed in such a way that at least two fields not selected above are represented. Distribution courses must be passed with a grade of B or better.
4. Field Seminars/Workshops
Required: Three quarters of two different field seminars or six quarters of the same field seminar from the list below. Click on field links to view requirements for each field seminar.
| 391: Microeconomic Theory | Faculty Coordinator: Ilya Segal |
| 310: Macroeconomics | Faculty Coordinator: Pablo Kurlat |
| 370: Econometrics | Faculty Coordinator: Han Hong |
| 325: Economic History | Faculty Coordinator: Avner Greif |
| 355: Industrial Organization | Faculty Coordinator: Liran Einav |
| 315/345: Development/Applications | Faculty Coordinator: Melanie Morten |
| 365: International Economics |
Faculty Coordinator: Kyle Bagwell/Dave Donaldson |
| 341: Public/Environmental | Faculty Coordinator: Florian Scheuer/Larry Goulder |
General Timeline
- First year: core courses
- Second year: field and distribution requirements, candidacy paper
- Third year: third year seminar and field seminars, admission to candidacy, thesis advisor
- Fourth year: thesis committee, TGR status, oral exams
