Economics (PhD)

What is A Economics (PhD) Degree?

Economics is the science of compiling and analyzing how markets work.  That involves not only a critical look at statistical measures but also at basic human behavior and how the two affect each other.  Economics answers the basic question of how people and companies decide how to use their limited resources, resources like time and money, to produce the most value.  It involves taking a broad view of what’s happening in the world to figure out how value is exchanged.

You will need to have an MS degree in Economics or a strong record in math in your Bachelor’s degree work to be accepted into most PhD programs in Economics.  If you’re working on your Masters now and are seriously considering going for the PhD, you will need to choose course options that are heavy in quantitative economics—that’s the math part!  Your core work will cover advanced microeconomics, macroeconomics, and econometrics, and then you’ll have some flexibility to choose one or more major fields for further study, fields like Economic History, Industrial Organization, Labor Economics, Finance, and many more.  You’ll probably take a sequence of courses in the majors you choose, participate in graduate seminars, and do research in those areas, arriving at conclusions that you’ll need to be able to defend before being awarded the PhD.