PhD Program Details

Admissions:

*Attention: The application season for admission to the Ph.D. program for Fall 2007 is Aug. 1, 2006 through Dec. 31, 2006. Please submit applications and all relevant materials by Dec. 31, 2006 or the application may not be reviewed on the basis of incompletion.

To access the online application and review other application information, please go to: http://www.gradschool.duke.edu. The paper application is no longer offered. The Ph.D. program allows Fall admission only. There is not a Spring matriculation for the doctoral program.

For consideration for financial aid, completed applications must be postmarked by December 31, 2005, and received by the Graduate School no later than January 14, 2006. The GRE tests should therefore not be taken later than the preceding October test date. The GRE General Test (Verbal, Quantitative, Analytical) is required. The subject test is not required. The usual profile of a matriculant who receives financial aid from Duke for study in the first year would be: (1) an undergraduate record strong in economics, mathematics, or physical science; (2) a score on the quantitative section of the GRE in the 90th percentile; (3) mathematical skills including multi-variable calculus, linear algebra, and introductory statistics and probability; (4) a GPA of 3.5 or better; (5) letters from individuals which confirm the intellectual strength of the candidate. Prospective students not presenting qualifying credentials are discouraged from applying for the Ph.D. program. The Ph.D. program does not accept, nor will it review, the GRE subject test ot the GMAT in lieu of the GRE general test for admissions purposes.

When the candidate's admissions file is complete, the Graduate School sends the file to the Economics Department. It is reviewed by a committee chaired by the Director of Graduate Admissions. Aid offers are made on a rolling basis, as funds permit, beginning in mid-February. The Economics Department administers several endowed fellowship funds whose income supports, at present, fifteen first-year students. Of the approximately 20 new Ph.D. students each year, about 75% are supported by Duke, and the remainder are either supported by external funding sources or are self-supported. The Department attempts to develop partial aid programs for such self-supported students through hourly payment for grading papers or tutoring. Loans and work-study funds, in limited amounts, are available also. Students who are projected to be successful Ph.D. candidates are generally offered aid in the form of scholarships, teaching assistantships, or research assistantships for the second year and beyond.

Most graduate students remain in residence during the summer months to participate in departmental research projects or to take Qualifying Examinations. Current research grants provide opportunities for students to work in various field areas such as economic regulation, econometrics, labor markets, history of economic thought, health economics and general economic theory. Students with good research skills, which means computer programming or bibliographic capabilities, stand the best chance of receiving a summer assistantship. Students are therefore encouraged to acquire strong quantitative skills, including a working knowledge of statistical mathematical computer programs such as SAS, Gauss, or MATLAB, and computer programming languages such as FORTRAN or C.

1st YEAR PROGRAM

The regular track student will take, in the fall semester, Economics 301 (Microeconomics), Economics 320 (Macroeconomics), and Economics 341 (Econometrics I). In the spring, the student will take Economics 302 (Microeconomics II), Economics 322 (Macroeconomics II), and Economics 342 (Econometrics II). All of these courses are required by the Department. In rare circumstances, students may place out of one of these courses, but only with the approval of the Director of Graduate Studies. Students may choose additional courses in applied economics, statistics, business, mathematics, or in other fields of interest.

Grading and Expectations

Course grades range from A (high) to F (fail) as A, B, C, F. The faculty recognizes that students present different skills and weaknesses upon matriculation. First year grades, as a result, are criterion-referenced to the course material, not norm-referenced to the student cohort. Students should evaluate their own progress in "value-added" terms, and not compare their own performance in the first year with other students who may have entered the program with very different skills and training.

In the spring of the student's first year, the first year instructors meet and report to the Director of Graduate Studies on the progress of the first year students. Students who are projected as successful Ph.D. candidates in the program may receive full or partial financial support for their second year of study at Duke. This support frequently is in the form of a tuition scholarship and teaching assistantship package, requiring from 12 to 15 hours per week of service.

Qualifying Examinations

At the end of the first year of the Ph.D. program, students are required to take qualifying examinations in both macroeconomics and microeconomics. The test will be administered at the end of June, with retakes for those who do not pass both macro and micro taking place the weeks before Fall semester begins in August. If after the August retakes, a student has only passed one of the macro or the micro qualifying examination, their econometrics performance during the first year will be taken into account to determine if they should be allowed to continue their pursuit of the Ph.D. If, after August retakes, a student has not passed either of the qualifying examinations, they will not be allowed to continue Ph.D. studies; however, they will be allowed to obtain at Master’s degree. The majority of the requirements for the Master’s degree will be satisfied by their first year Ph.D. course regime, but additional classes can be taken to complete the M.A. in one semester. Students who revert for Ph.D. to terminal M.A. as a result of failing to pass the qualifying examination are encouraged to graduate with their M.A. in December.

2nd YEAR PROGRAM

In the second year students generally take field courses. Fields currently offered include:

1. Econometrics
2. Economic History
3. Economic Theory
4. Financial Economics
5. Health Economics
6. History of Economic Thought
7. Industrial Organization
8. International Economics
9. Labor Economics
10. Macro, Monetary, and International
11. Public Economics

In order to assist the student in deciding what fields to pursue, during the first year of the Ph.D. program a series of Field Days will be announced, in which the students will meet with the instructors who teach the courses relating to the above listed fields and learn what courses are offered, their content and structure, and what requirements must be met for each field. Students may also take courses outside the Department. In recent years students have taken outside courses in mathematics, statistics, public policy studies, demography, urban economics, resource economics, health economics, finance, marketing, philosophy of science, and regional economics.

Financial Assistance in Second and Subsequent Years

Typical financial assistance is in the form of tuition scholarship plus a teaching assistantship (TA). The TA duties require 12-15 hours of service per week by the student to the Department. Students are chosen for financial assistance at the end of the first year by the Director of Graduate Studies, based on recommendations by core instructors and other faculty. The key question on which recommendations are based is whether the student will be a successful Ph.D. candidate.

Only regular students in the Ph.D. track are eligible to receive financial support from the Department during their first year without a work obligation, but others are eligible for consideration in subsequent years. Here and in the following discussion, "years" are measured from the date the student first enters the Ph.D. program. Time spent, for example, in the M.A. program is not included.

Beginning in the second semester of the second year, financial assistance from the department requires regular workshop participation.

Fourth year support requires approval of the student's dissertation topic and admission to candidacy by the end of the spring semester of the third year. This approval involves the proposal seminar as outlined above.

Students may, alternatively, arrange support through their major professor's research grants or through outside funding. Full disclosure of such funding to the Director of Graduate Studies is a condition for any departmental awards.

3rd YEAR PROGRAM, CANIDACY FOR THE PH.D

A student becomes a Ph.D. candidate upon the completion of three steps:

1. Satisfactory performance on qualifying examinations in economic analysis:

The Qualifying Exam will consist of macro and micro parts and will be offered twice a year in June and August. Students must attempt both the macro and micro examinations no later than June of their first academic year. In order to continue in the program, students must pass both the macro and micro examinations no later than August at the beginning of their second academic year. The examinations, prepared and read by a faculty committee, are designed to see whether students understand economics at a level suitable to pursue the Ph.D. degree.

2. Certification of competence in two fields:

The Economics Department requires doctoral candidates to acquire certification in one major field and one minor field. (Students are welcome to acquire certification in more than one major and/or more than one minor field if they wish. Some programs require major certification in two fields; e.g., the Financial Econometrics Program requires major certification in both Finance and Econometrics.)

For all major fields other than Econometrics, a student must take at least 2 courses in the field beyond the first year series with no less than a B average and no single grade less than B-. In addition, a student wishing to acquire major certification must (depending on the field) either pass a written examination administered by faculty with expertise in the field or write a research paper that is judged as satisfactory by the expert faculty. Papers in applicable fields may be based on course work but should contain original research. Students are urged to discuss their paper topics with members of the relevant faculty committee at least three months prior to the field-paper due date. In all fields other than Econometrics, a student may obtain minor certification by taking 2 courses beyond the first year series with no less than a B average in the classes. No exam or paper is required for minor certification. For Econometrics, the requirements are as follows. For the major, students must pass the econometrics field examination and fulfill the requirements for the minor but with minimum grades of A- in the courses. For the minor, students must take Econometrics I, II, and III, plus two more econometrics courses; and they must earn a grade of B+ or higher in every econometrics course they complete.

A student who does not meet the relevant grade requirements will not be permitted to take a field exam or submit a paper for major certification. A student who has not met the certification requirements in one major field and one minor field will not be permitted to defend his dissertation prospectus unless he obtains written authorization from the DGS. There is some flexibility in the courses that can be used for minor certification, but exceptions must be authorized in writing by the DGS before (not after) the student has enrolled in the courses in question.

If a student fails a field exam/paper, then he may retake/resubmit it _once_ at the next available opportunity. Students are required to sign up for field exams/papers with the Assistant DGS by the posted date. All field papers must be submitted _directly_ to the Assistant DGS who will record the submission and distribute the paper to the relevant field committee for evaluation.

3. Preliminary examination and thesis proposal seminar:

By the last day of graduate classes in the spring semester of the third year, the student must successfully present a thesis proposal to his or her supervisory committee. This presentation, which is often given at a departmental workshop, is the preliminary examination as specified in the Graduate Bulletin. The committee is nominated by the Director of Graduate Studies in consultation with the candidate's thesis supervisor; it is comprised of five faculty members who help the student define the program of research and administer the seminar. One of the committee members must be from either outside the department or from a field within the department that is clearly differentiated from that of the candidate. The student must submit the list of his/her committee members to the Director of Graduate Studies for approval by the last day of graduate classes in the fall semester of the student's third year. In the event of failure, the student may request that the thesis prospectus and preliminary examination be retaken one additional time as indicated in the Graduate School Bulletin.

PH.D. DISSERTATION

Students should select a topic and a dissertation advisor as early as possible in their graduate program.

Once the student and the advisor are in agreement about the topic and the proposed methodology, additional faculty members should be asked by the student's advisor to form a committee to review and evaluate the student's work.

By the last day of graduate classes in the spring semester of the third year, students must present their dissertation proposal to their committee and other interested faculty. At the end of the presentation, the committee will examine the student orally on the proposal and any related material pertinent to successful completion of the project. The dissertation chairperson shall notify the Director of Graduate Studies of approval or failure of the proposed study and make additional recommendations regarding deficiencies. Again, as with other requirements, students with deficiencies who must take remedial courses are required to meet this deadline but with a one year lag from matriculation.

When the dissertation is completed, it must be submitted to the Graduate School for a format check a minimum of one week before the scheduled defense examination, and the Chairman of the student's advisory committee should schedule an examination for the student based on the dissertation. This examination usually lasts two hours and is an oral examination. The entire graduate faculty of the Department of Economics is invited to attend this examination. In actual practice, this examination is usually attended only by the members of the committee.

SPECIAL PH.D. PROGRAMS

Various concentrations of work in internal and outside fields have been formalized as "Programs" with identifiable student cohorts among the Ph.D. and M.A. students in Economics:

Program in Financial Econometrics

1st year: Core courses.

2nd year: Fieldwork in econometrics, mathematics, and statistics, together with coursework in finance at the Fuqua School of Business.

3rd year: Participation in workshops and seminars offered in the department and the Fuqua School together with a thesis prospectus.

(Associated Faculty--Economics: Professors Burmeister, Gallant, Tauchen; Business: Professors Bansal, Harvey, Hsieh.)

Program in Political Economy

1st year: Core courses.

2nd year: Courses in Political Economy in the Department of Political Science. Two fields in economics.

3rd year: Thesis prospectus seminar.

(Associated Faculty--Economics: Professor De Marchi; Political Science: Professor Lange.)

Program in Public Economics

1st year: Core courses.

2nd year: Field courses in public economic theory and empirical public economics, field exam.

3rd year: Thesis prospectus, participation in public economics workshops, presentation of own research in applied microeconomics lunch group.

During the first three years students need to decide whether to specialize in public economic theory or in empirical public economics. Those who specialize in theory are required to pass the field exam in micro economic theory. Students who prefer empirical public economics must pass the field exam in econometrics.

(Associated Faculty--Economics: Nechyba, Sloan, Yildirim; Sanford Institute: Clotfelter, Cook, Ladd, Vigdor).

Program in Public Policy

1st year: Core courses.

2nd year: One field taken in a field area defined by the Sanford Institute of Public Policy (e.g., health policy or public expenditure and budgeting). Two fields in Economics.

3rd year: Thesis prospectus seminar.

Interested students can also earn a Master's of Public Policy to be awarded jointly with the Ph.D. in Economics. This option requires additional academic work for the Public Policy component. Further details are available from the Director of Graduate Studies of the Sanford Institute of Public Policy.

(Associated Faculty--Professors Clotfelter, Conrad, Cook, Hamilton, and Ladd hold joint appointments in the two departments.)

MASTER OF SCIENCE IN STATISTICS

The Department has a cooperative arrangement with the Institute of Statistics and Decision Sciences (ISDS) through which a student can earn an M.S. in Statistics jointly with the Ph.D. in Economics. This option would normally be considered by students majoring in either econometrics or economic theory with a concentration in the economics of uncertainty. The course of study must be approved and agreed upon between ISDS and the Department.

Candidates for the Master of Science in Statistics must complete 30 units of Graduate credit, including at least 24 (the equivalent of eight courses) units in graded graduate courses. At least 18 of these units must be from approved ISDS courses. Twelve of these 18 units are required to be core statistics courses as prescribed in the ISDS web page for the MA in statistics; alternate courses may be substituted with approval of the student's supervisory committee. Six of these 18 units may be Economics courses approved for this purpose by ISDS; currently, Economics 347, 348, 349, 314, and 315 are cross-listed courses approved by ISDS. At least 6 additional units must be in courses outside ISDS.

A completion exercise is required for the M.S. degree. The student may choose either a thesis or a final examination as a completion exercise. M.S. candidates have typically chosen to write a Masters thesis based on statistical work they are doing for their dissertation research.

WORKSHOPS

The graduate faculty of the Department has organized a number of faculty-student workshops. For students in the second semester of their second year and beyond, regular workshop attendance is a condition attached to offers of financial assistance made through the department or the graduate office. The purpose of these workshops is to encourage an exchange of ideas among those students and faculty members who share similar interests. The workshops that are currently active are:

• Econometrics (Joint with UNC, N.C. State, and RTI)
• Microeconomic Theory (Joint with UNC)
• Industrial Organization
• Macroeconomics
• Public Economics
• Applied Micro
• International Economics
• History of Political Economy

PLACEMENT

The Department of Economics has a placement program that helps its Ph.D. students find the best available positions in academia, government, and industry. The Department also assists students in finding summer jobs in government and industry to help them finance their graduate studies.

Placements from the Ph.D. program in recent years have included faculty appointments at University of Adelaide, Carnegie-Mellon, University of Chicago, Clemson, Colgate, Columbia, Drexel, Emory, Georgetown, Johns Hopkins, the University of Massachusetts, the University of Maryland, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, N.C. State University, Miami University, Miami University of Ohio, University of Minnesota-Minneapolis, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Queen's University, San Diego State University, University of Seattle, Vanderbilt, Virginia Polytechnic Institute, Wellesley University, William and Mary, and Williams College. Students have also been placed in research positions at the IMF, American Medical Association, National Economics Research Association, Environmental Law Institute, and the World Bank. Placements in government have included the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve Bank, the Center for Disease Control, the Environmental Protection Agency, the Federal Trade Commission's Bureau of Economics, the U.S. Treasury, the U.S. Social Security Administration, the Canadian Government, Brookings Institution, and the U.S. International Trade Commission. Industrial placements have been made at Wharton Econometrics, Bankers Trust, Data Resources, Charles River Associates, Rand Corporation, Salomon Brothers, General Motors, and Price Waterhouse.

Required Courses: A student may petition the Director of Graduate Studies for permission to substitute coursework taken elsewhere for courses required by the department. Only in very rare and unusual circumstances are such substitutions allowed.

Qualifying and Field Examinations: A student may petition the full faculty for an additional attempt beyond the allowed number for either a qualifying or field examination. Such a request is initiated by a written request to the Director of Graduate Studies, who will then present the appeal to the faculty. In the summer months of May through August, if it becomes impossible to form a quorum of the full faculty, the executive committee of the faculty can hear and act upon the appeal.

The Thesis Prospectus/Preliminary Examination: This examination is subject to Graduate School rules, specified in the Bulletin, regarding both the requirement that it be taken within three years of matriculation and the procedure for a petition for a second attempt in case of failure on the first.

Appeals and grievances on other matters can be made by written appeal to the full faculty, either through the Director of Graduate Studies or the Chairman of the Department. For further grievance procedures, see the Bulletin.

News

10/08/08 Professor Charles Becker given the Duke Diversity Award for 2008

10/03/08 PROFESSORS RESPOND TO THE ECONOMIC CRISIS OF 2008

10/03/08 Professor Craufurd Goodwin's keynote address at Duke's Founders Day on reinventing universities:

09/11/08 Professor Craufurd Goodwin as he speaks about the Year of the Bloomsbury Group

09/08/08 Professors Joe Hotz and Seth Sanders featured on Freakonomics blog:

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