Economics Ph.D. Core Curriculum

Economics Ph.D. Core Curriculum

The Economics Ph.D. core curriculum consists of the first-year program and Econometrics II, taken in the fall of the second year. Course descriptions of the core courses are presented below. "F" and "S" refer to fall and spring, respectively; the number in parentheses is the number of credit hours for that course.

A schematic of the first-year program:


EC 730 Mathematics for Economists (F: 6)
Topics covered in the first half of this course include the Kuhn-Tucker conditions, the implicit function theorem, the envelope theorem, and differential and difference equations. The second half of the course consists of two concurrent modules. One covers probability theory, the other dynamic optimization.
Chong-en Bai/Bruce E. Hansen/Marvin Kraus

EC 740 Microeconomic Theory I (F: 3)
This course consists of two modules. In the first, consumer and producer theory are treated diagrammatically and at an introductory mathematical level. The second gives a more formal treatment of consumer and producer theory, while covering special topics.
The Department

EC 741 Microeconomic Theory II (S: 4)
This course comprises three modules. The first treats pure and applied aspects of general equilibrium theory. The second is an introduction to non-cooperative game theory. The third covers topics in information economics.
Richard Arnott/Chong-en Bai/Bentley MacLeod

EC 750 Macroeconomic Theory I (F: 3)
The first half of the course presents Keynesian and classical models, rational expectations and its implications for aggregate supply and economic policy. The second half covers the Solow growth model, infinite horizon and overlapping generation models, the new growth theory, real business cycle theory, and traditional Keynesian theories of fluctuations.
Joe Peek/Robert Murphy

EC 751 Macroeconomic Theory (S: 4)
Microeconomic foundations of nominal rigidities, real rigidities and the labor market, consumption and investment under uncertainty, theories of asset prices, the demand for money and the effect of monetary policy, and dynamic consistency and economic policy.
Robert Murphy/Fabio Schiantarelli/Christopher Canavan

EC 760 Econometrics I (S: 3)
The first module of this course covers mathematical statistics, including moment estimation, hypothesis testing, asymptotic theory and maximum likelihood estimation. The second module presents ordinary least squares regression analysis, linear restrictions and hypothesis testing in a regression context, and issues of functional form and specification analysis.
Bruce E. Hansen/Christopher F. Baum

EC 761 Econometrics II (F: 3)
This course covers generalized least squares and simultaneous equations estimators, and provides an introduction to several tools used in applied econometrics. These include time series models, estimators for panel data, and models with limited dependent variables. Exercises are drawn from several large data sets, utilizing a variety of econometric computer software. An empirical research paper is required.
Christopher F. Baum


Original file name:EC.Grad.core.AY96

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