The Ph.D. program in applied economics includes faculty from the College of Agriculture as well as the colleges of Liberal Arts and Forestry, Wildlife and Environment. The program prepares students for leadership careers in government, private industry and education. Completion of the Ph.D. includes an oral exam in the field of specialization and proposed dissertation topics plus a final oral dissertation defense.
Areas of specialization
- Applied market analysis
- Applied production economics
- International economics
- Natural resource and environmental economics
- Consumer and demand analysis
Curriculum and requirements
Requirements for a Ph.D. include a minimum of 60 semester hours of graduate credit beyond the baccalaureate. In the first year, students take two semesters of microeconomics and econometrics, one semester of macroeconomics, mathematical economics, and research methods, and a special topics course on writing for scholarly journals that serves as the basis for the Ph.D. research paper that is due at the beginning of the second year of coursework.
In the second year, students take two semesters of advanced micro-econometrics along with other core courses and complete their Ph.D. research paper. Upon completion of the paper, the student schedules an oral preliminary examination, which lays the groundwork for the dissertation.
The third year is devoted to completing required core courses and the dissertation. The dissertation typically consists of the Ph.D. research paper and two essays. The dissertation is defended at the final oral examination, which constitutes the final requirement for the Ph.D.
