REQUIREMENTS & RECOMMENDATIONS

GRADUATE SCHOOL REQUIREMENTS

Registration. Students must register with the Graduate School for the fall and spring semesters of six years or until the dissertation is submitted. The registration must be continuous unless a formal leave of absence is obtained. During the six-year period, failure to register without a leave of absence is the same as withdrawal from the program. The Graduate School may refuse to register a student who has not met either the School’s requirements or those of the Economics Department for adequate progress. Refusal to register students removes them from the program.

Fees. Students are required to pay full tuition for the first eight terms or until the dissertation is submitted and approved. For the succeeding four semesters, students must pay a continuous registration fee, which is currently $305.00 per semester. Students who have not paid tuition may be denied registration.

Residence Requirement. Students are required to reside in the New Haven area for at least three years while studying for their Ph.D.

Advancement to Candidacy. A student is advanced to candidacy after having completed all requirements but the dissertation. These requirements are described below. Important graduate school regulations regarding advancement to candidacy are the following:

1. Students must advance to candidacy prior to registration for the seventh semester. That is, they are dropped from the program if they are not advanced to candidacy by that time.
2. Students who have advanced to candidacy must continue to register for the required number of semesters. Those who have not done so cannot receive a Ph.D. after submitting their dissertation unless they pay the fees for the semesters they have missed.

Registration Limit. Students may not register for more than six years (i.e., 12 semesters), unless they receive a waiver of this rule from the Graduate School. Waivers are granted for students whose dissertation research requires, for instance, extensive fieldwork or learning a foreign language. Students may, however, submit dissertations after the six-year limit, provided they have advanced to candidacy. Students who are not registered are not eligible for financial aid and may not earn money as teaching assistants or part-time acting instructors.

Two Honors. Before registering for the third year of study, students must receive a grade of honors in at least one year long graduate course or two semester graduate courses in economics. As the Graduate School does not distinguish the grades of H+, H, and H–, this requirement may be met by receiving at least an H– in two graduate courses in economics.

Qualifying Examination. Students must pass a general examination separate from course examinations. In the Economics Department, the oral examination, described below, serves as the qualifying examination.

Prospectus. A dissertation prospectus must be submitted to at least two department faculty members, signed by them, and then approved by the Director of Graduate Studies. The prospectus should describe the topic of research, and contain an explanation of its importance, a quick review of what has been done by other researchers on the subject, a description of the dissertation’s contribution and of the methods and source material to be used, a tentative outline of the dissertation, and a provisional timetable for the feasibility of completing it within two or three years.

ECONOMICS DEPARTMENT REQUIREMENTS

Exceptions to these requirements may be obtained only by vote of the Economics faculty. Exceptions are granted in recognition of extenuating circumstances.

Prior to Registration for the Second Year

1. Students must have taken for credit and passed at least six economics graduate courses.
2. Students must pass written comprehensive examinations in micro and macro economics. These are given in May and late August of each year. They may be taken in August prior to the first year of study with permission of the Director of Graduate Studies. They must be taken in the spring term of the first year of study and in the event of failure in August of the same year. Students may take the comprehensive examinations no more than two times. Students who have not passed the exam prior to their second year of study will be permitted to register as a Masters candidate for the following fall semester for the purpose of completing enough courses to be eligible for the degree. The microeconomics and macroeconomics exams will be given on two different days for three hours. The exams scheduled in the spring term will occur several weeks after the end of course exams. The questions on the comp exams will be on topics listed in the micro and macro course syllabi from the immediately proceeding year. Each exam will be graded separately and in the event of failure, students will retake only the part of the exam they do not pass. Note: Comprehensive Exams taken by students prior to their first year will be graded as a pass only if they are a "solid" pass, rather than a "minimal" pass.

Prior to Registration for the Third Year

1. Students must have met the two honors requirement specified by the Graduate School.
2. Students must have taken at least 14 semester courses in economics and have received a grade of at least P- in each of them. With the permission of the Director of Graduate Studies, courses in related fields and independent reading courses can be used to fulfill this requirement. Workshops may not be used to satisfy it.
3. Students must have received an average of at least HP in the courses they have taken. The admissibility of courses for this requirement is the same as for the 14 course requirement mentioned above. The average is computed as follows. A failure counts as a zero, a P– as a 1, a P as a 2, a P+ as a 3, an HP– as a 4, and so on up to a 9 for an H+. The arithmetic average of these numbers must be at least 4.5.

Admission to Candidacy. Recall that the Graduate School requires that students be admitted to candidacy prior to registration for the fourth year of study. Students are recommended to the Graduate School for admission to candidacy by vote of Department faculty after having completed Department requirements (1) and (2) above, the Graduate School’s prospectus requirement, and the following additional requirements:

1. Students must have completed two one-semester prospectus workshops (one per semester). Prospectus workshops have the word "prospectus" in their title. There are other workshops. If students can find no prospectus workshop corresponding to their interests, they may substitute for this requirement other workshops. In order for workshops to count toward the prospectus workshop requirement, students must make a presentation in each workshop and present original work in one of them. This stipulation applies even if a workshop is labeled as a prospectus workshop. If students can find no workshop whatsoever in their area of interest, they may substitute an independent study guided by a faculty member, provided the independent study leads to a dissertation prospectus that is accepted.
2. Students must receive a grade of HP- or better in Economics 551 (Econometrics II) or 552 (Econometrics III). More advanced courses may be substituted for these with special permission.
3. Students must receive a grade of Satisfactory on an applied econometrics paper, which is evaluated by the faculty advisor of the paper and another faculty member. In the paper, the student should:
      a. specify an economic model useful for the investigation of an interesting economic problem,
      b. select data and econometric methods appropriate to the question,
      c. conduct proper statistical analysis, and
      d. interpret the results in an intelligent way.
4. Students must complete with a grade of at least HP- a term of economic history, drawn from a list of courses approved by the Director of Graduate Studies and economic history instructors.
5. Pass an oral examination given by a committee of faculty members. The examination tests a student’s general analytic ability in economics and knowledge of two sub-fields chosen by the student. At least one of the fields must have substantial empirical and institutional content. Such fields are drawn from a departmental list that includes labor economics, market organization, macroeconomics, financial economics, economics of the public sector and the environment, international trade and finance, economic development, demography, and comparative economic systems. Students may also choose as one of their fields mathematical economics, advanced micro and macroeconomic theory, history of economic thought, economic history, or econometrics. Students may request examination in a special field designed in consultation with faculty members. The choice of fields must be approved by the Director of Graduate Studies. Students may take the oral examination no more than twice. The oral examination must be taken for the first time no later than the fall semester of the third year. It may be taken in the fall or spring of the second year.

Submitting the Dissertation. A student’s dissertation research is guided by a committee of two Graduate School faculty members, at least one of whom must be a member of the Economics Department. One of the committee members is designated as chairman. When a first draft of the dissertation is completed, the Director of Graduate Studies appoints, on request of the committee chairman, a third reader.

Expiration of Admission to Candidacy. Advancement to candidacy expires ten years after the date it is granted, if no dissertation has been submitted and approved in the intervening period.

Collaborative Work in the Dissertation. Students may, with the advice and consent of two members of their dissertation committee, collaborate with another student or faculty member on one of three essays.  In unusual cases, they may petition their committee to collaborate with a student, but not with a faculty member, on another essay. Under no circumstances will a student be allowed to submit three joint essays as their dissertation. Students must acknowledge any collaboration in the preface of their dissertation. Committees who supervise joint work are obligated in their dissertation report to describe in detail each student's contributions. Faculty members are not obligated to supervise dissertations that contain collaborative research.  The standard of approval will be higher for dissertations containing collaborative work than for those done independently. For example, it cannot be the case that the two collaborative dissertations in effect contain in total only five essays. A student must have the consent of the DGS to submit a dissertation that with collaborative work is less than three essays.

RECOMMENDATIONS

These recommendations are NOT requirements.

Normal Sequence of Courses. During the fall semester of the first year, students usually take Economics 500a (microeconomic theory), 510a (macroeconomic theory), 550a (econometrics I), and an economic history class which would satisfy the economic history requirement if a grade of at least HP– were obtained. In the following spring, they usually take Economics 501b (microeconomic theory), 511b (macroeconomic theory), 551b (econometrics II), and a fourth course in economics or related subjects, such as probability theory, mathematics, or finance. Some students who are well prepared in econometrics may take an advanced econometrics course instead of Economics 550a in the fall of their first year after consulting with the DGS and appropriate econometrics faculty. Students take the comprehensive examination in theory in May of the spring semester of their first year. If they fail the exam, then they take it again in the following August.

During the second year, students normally take economics courses in specialized fields, such as industrial organization, mathematical economics, international trade, public finance, and so on. They may also take courses related to economics from other departments. It is a good idea to work on the econometrics paper in the fall of the second year. It is wise to take the oral examinations in the spring of the second year, though some prefer to delay the exam until the following fall, studying for it during the summer. By the end of the second year, students should normally have accumulated at least 14 courses with an HP average. During the fall of the second year, students should locate a faculty adviser, who will advise them about their studies.

The third year should normally be devoted to finding a dissertation topic and beginning research on it. Third year students typically take one prospectus workshop or seminar each semester.

Econometrics Paper. Approval of the econometrics paper is a condition for advancement to candidacy, and the Graduate School insists that students advance to candidacy before registering for their fourth year. Therefore, it is highly advisable for students to submit a finished version of the econometrics paper during their second year of study. The readers of the papers often ask for revision. If put it off until the third year, there may not be time to revise the paper and have it be read and accepted if it has been rejected. The paper submitted to satisfy this requirement may also be presented for credit in a course or seminar, with the permission of the instructor. A detailed description of the econometrics paper requirement is available at the DGS Office.

As of September 1, 2006, there will be fixed submission dates for the econometrics paper on October 1 and February 1. Third year students must submit an econometrics paper by October 1. A revision, including a memo describing the response to readers' suggestions and criticisms, must be submitted by February 1. Any further revisions must be submitted within a month after the paper has been read and returned to the author with comments.  It is expected that the econometrics paper be approved by May 1 of the third year. Note: Jointly authored papers will NOT be accepted.

Advisers and Dissertation Topics. An important task of the student is to make the transition from being a taker of classes to a participant in research. Important elements in making this transition are thinking critically about material learned, reading widely, choosing topics that are feasible and of interest to the student, and gaining contact with faculty. Students must take the initiative in making such contact.