The Academic Program
Department of Economics
Graduate Program
An Overview
First Year
Progress Through the Program
The Job Market
Length of the Program
M.A. in Economics
Ph.D.s Academic Year 2006-2007
The First Year
To help students prepare for their first year economic theory courses, the Department of Economics offers a math refresher course. It meets daily for four weeks starting in late July, prior to the start of the fall semester. This is a no-credit course for which the department pays the fee. Throughout the years in which this course has been offered, students entering the program have found this course to be quite valuable. Students who have not had a course in real analysis or are unfamiliar with necessary and sufficient conditions for maximization subject to inequality constraints find this course particularly helpful.
The first year is normally devoted entirely to course work with the exception of attendance at departmental seminars whenever possible.
How many courses?
A first-year student with a 50%-time assistantship should take 3 courses per term. A first-year student with full fellowship support may be able to take 4. For a student with a combination of an assistantship and a fellowship, the appropriate number of courses may be either 3 or 4, depending on circumstances. Note: an assistantship-fellowship mix normally provides a tuition scholarship for 14 credits per semester; 3 of the courses generally taken by first-year students total 12 credits per semester. At this pace, you can complete the minimum requirements to satisfy Graduate School course requirements and prepare for preliminary exams in two to three years.
A Note on "Mini-Courses"
As part of the move from a quarter-based system to a semester-based system in 1999, the Economics Department divided each semester course into two "mini-courses" of about 7 weeks each. While this will give you exposure to more members of the faculty during your first two years, it does complicate the calculation of how many courses you need to complete. This means each mini-course lasts for 7 weeks and is counted as 2 credits of work. One four-credit course is counted as 2 mini-courses. When we refer to taking "3 courses" we are referring to 3 four-credit courses or 6 mini-courses.
Which Courses?
The University of Minnesota uses a numbering scheme in which courses numbered 3xxx or below are for undergraduates, 4xxx courses are mainly for undergraduates but open to graduates, 5xxx courses are mainly for graduates but open to undergraduates, and 8xxx courses are open to graduate students only. Economics courses at the 4xxx or 5xxx level may not be taken by an economics Ph.D. student as part of your Ph.D. program, but courses outside the department at the 4xxx or 5xxx level may be included with adviser's approval. In fact, you can register for courses at any level, but courses below 8xxx in economics and below 4xxx in other areas cannot be counted as part of your doctoral program. 5xxx courses in statistics and mathematics will generally be approved unless it appears that you are duplicating work taken earlier.
Eventually you will need to have your adviser and the DGS approve a degree program form that specifies the courses that you will use for your Ph.D. program but for now, consider just the first year. The conclusion of the following discussion is that you are likely to register for the following:
|
Fall I |
Fall II |
Spring I |
Spring II |
|
Econ 8101 |
Econ 8102 |
Econ 8103 |
Econ 8104 |
|
Econ 8105 |
Econ 8106 |
Econ 8107 |
Econ 8108 |
|
Math 5615, Stat 5101, |
Math 5616, Stat 5102, Econ 8207/8208 or ? |
||
Economic Theory
Almost everybody starts with the full-year sequences in Microeconomic Theory (Econ 8101, 8102, 8103, 8104) and Macroeconomic Theory (Econ 8105, 8106, 8107, 8108). These courses serve as the basis for the preliminary written exams in economic theory. First-year students are required to take the Microeconomic theory and Macroeconomic theory course sequences unless they have permission from the Director of Graduate Studies. All other 8xxx economics courses except for a few listed below have parts of these sequences as prerequisites, so additional economics courses are normally left to the second year.
Additional Courses
Mathematics: For a student who has not taken a full-year course in real analysis or a rigorous course in advanced calculus, the most popular third course is Math 5615, 5616: Introduction to Analysis. The course description is:
"Theory, construction, and models of the real numbers. Elements of topology. Theory and practice of differentiation and integration. Sequences and series of functions, and uniform convergence. Additional topics at instructor's discretion."
The course teaches you how to prove a theorem. It also provides a careful discussion of concepts that are used routinely in economic theory. It is designed for graduate students outside mathematics (especially those in economics, engineering, physics and statistics) and for mathematics seniors who intend to do graduate work in mathematics. Many of our students take more advanced, 8000-level mathematics courses drawn from the mathematics Ph.D. program.
Statistics: There are two introductory sequences in mathematical statistics, Stat 4101, 4102 and Stat 5101, 5102, both titled Theory of Statistics. If you have not completed such a course, take the Stat 5101 sequence; it uses more mathematics (multivariate calculus), and covers a broader area. It is a co-requisite for Applied Econometrics (that is, you can enroll in them simultaneously rather than completing the statistics first), and a prerequisite to the Econometrics (theory) course.
Stat 8111, 8112: Mathematical Statistics, is typically the next step for those who seek a stronger grounding in statistics.
Econometrics: There is no specific econometrics requirement for graduation, but most economists confront issues of extracting information from data throughout their careers, and the course sequence in applied econometrics will introduce you to the most important issues in doing so. Moreover, faculty are unsympathetic to students who skip the course but then seek help with econometric issues in writing a thesis. In other words, take this course sequence.
The Applied Econometrics sequence (8205, 8206, 8207, 8208) is not a prerequisite to the theory sequence, Econometrics, (8211, 8212, 8213, 8214), but in practice many students with a professional interest in econometrics take the applied course followed by the theory course.
Game Theory: There is a two mini-course sequence in non-cooperative game theory (Econ 8117, 8118) and one mini-course in cooperative game theory (Econ 8119). Econ 8117 has Math 5616 as a prerequisite, but has no economics prerequisites. It is open to first year economics students with the appropriate mathematics background. The cooperative game theory course must be deferred until the second year or later, because it has Econ 8104 as a prerequisite.
Mathematical Economics: A three mini-course sequence, Introduction to Mathematical Economics (Econ 8111, 8112, 8113) is the normal first step for students planning to take a preliminary exam in mathematical economics. It requires either co-registration or previous registration in the microeconomic sequence (Econ 8101, 8102, 8103, 8104) and Introduction to Analysis (Math 5615, 5616). First year students may, but rarely do, register for this sequence.
Other Courses: Someone with specialized interests might also look to other graduate programs including the Carlson School of Management's Finance or Accounting Departments, to the Department of Applied Economics for courses in resource economics, consumer economics, agricultural development and other areas, or to Health Services Research, or to Political Science.
