yale economics phd

Fields include microeconomics, macroeconomics, econometrics, labor, public finance, industrial organization, international trade and finance, financial economics, environmental economics, economic development, economic history, political economy, and behavioral economics.

• Programs of Study
• PhD - Doctor of Philosophy
• Department of Economics

Yuichi Kitamura

Director of Graduate Studies

• [email protected]

Bronwen MacArthur

Departmental Registrar

• [email protected]
• 203-432-0380

Admission Requirements

Standardized testing requirements.

GRE is required.

English Language Requirement

TOEFL iBT or IELTS Academic is required of most applicants whose native language is not English.

You may be exempt from this requirement if you have received (or will receive) an undergraduate degree from a college or university where English is the primary language of instruction, and if you have studied in residence at that institution for at least three years.

Academic Information

GSAS Advising Guidelines

Academic Resources

Academic calendar.

The Graduate School's academic calendar lists important dates and deadlines related to coursework, registration, financial processes, and milestone events such as graduation.

Featured Resource

Registration Information and Dates

https://registration.yale.edu/

Students must register every term in which they are enrolled in the Graduate School. Registration for a given term takes place the semester prior, and so it's important to stay on top of your academic plan. The University Registrar's Office oversees the systems that students use to register. Instructions about how to use those systems and the dates during which registration occurs can be found on their registration website.

Financial Information

Phd stipend & funding.

PhD students at Yale are normally full-funded for a minimum of five years. During that time, our students receive a twelve-month stipend to cover living expenses and a fellowship that covers the full cost of tuition and student healthcare.

• PhD Student Funding Overview
• Graduate Financial Aid Office
• PhD Stipends
• Health Award
• Tuition and Fees

Alumni Insights

Below you will find alumni placement data for our departments and programs.

Congratulations to the Economics PhD Class of 2024!

The Department of Economics would like to give a heartfelt congratulations to the Class of 2024! At this week’s Commencement ceremony, the Department awarded 20 new PhDs. Welcome to the Yale alumni community and we wish you the best in what comes next!

“We are celebrating the graduation of our remarkable class of 2024. Their impressive achievements, showcased by their cutting edge theses, resulted in fantastic job placements. As they embark on their new endeavors, the Economics Department congratulates them on a job well done. Class of 2024 we are very proud of you!” — Yuichi Kitamura, Director of Graduate Studies

The Class of 2024 with Department Chair Tony Smith and Director of Graduate Studies Yuichi Kitamura

Below we highlight the achievements and next steps of this diverse group of graduates. See here for the Economic Growth Center's article celebrating the Class of 2024, their achievements, and future plans. A full list of placement outcomes can be viewed here .

Pedro Casavilca Silva

Pedro is an economist with a policy-driven research agenda in Labor Economics and Macroeconomics. His current research seeks to enhance understanding of how labor market frictions and credit supply shocks affect informal employment prevalence, wage disparities, and firms' performance. His  job market paper (Job Ladder Consequences of Employment Protection: Theory and Evidence from Peru) examines how employment protection shapes the incentives for both workers and firms to demand and supply informal employment and different types of formal labor. In addition to his policy-driven research agenda, he is passionate about teaching and mentoring, and was awarded a Teaching Fellowship Prize in 2021-22 for contributing to courses taught by Professors William Nordhaus and Kaivan Munshi. In the Summer of 2024, he will join Davidson College as an Assistant Professor in the Economics Department.

Personal website Linkedin Profile

Fernando Cordeiro

Fernando's primary field of research is industrial organization, and much of his work has focused on higher education markets and productivity differences between public and private utilities. His job market paper, “College Quality and Tuition Subsidies in Equilibrium,” uses administrative data to gauge the quality of undergraduate programs in Brazil and studies how demand-side subsidies interact with the equilibrium level of price and quality in the Brazilian higher education sector. After graduation, Fernando will join Charles River Associates as a Senior Associate in its antitrust and competition practice.

Alvaro's research interests include economic growth and development. He focuses on the role of human capital in inducing firm growth and the aggregate implications of education policies aimed at reducing the cost of access to higher education. Alvaro’s job market paper, titled “ From Classroom to Prosperity: Fostering Development Through Higher Education ,” assesses the contribution to Brazilian economic growth of the reduction in access costs to higher education with a particular focus on the implications for firms' growth as a mechanism. After Yale, Alvaro will join the University of Oslo as a Full-Time Researcher for the academic year 2024-2025; later, he will join Universidad Carlos III de Madrid as an Assistant Professor.

Personal website @Alv_Cox

Hanxiao Cui

Hanxiao’s research interests include matching and sorting in the labor market and the marriage market, particularly matching and production in teams. Her job market paper studies the complementarity of multidimensional skills in innovation and the skill composition of inventor teams, using novel data linking social security data and patent records. Her dissertation also examines how childcare policies affect marital sorting and household allocation in the long run, as well as gender disparities among investors in terms of life-cycle productivity and teamwork dynamics. She will join Capital One as a principal quantitative analyst this summer.

Linkedin Profile

Mirco Dinelli

Mirco's research interests include macroeconomics, environmental economics, and political economy. His job market paper, titled “ The Political Economy of Climate Bonds ,” investigates the interplay between government debt and climate change policy in a setting where voters from different generations have different interests. The paper finds conditions under which debt instruments can help stimulate climate change policy as well as circumstances in which debt is a hindrance to climate policy. In the 2024-2025 academic year, Mirco will be joining the economics department at St. John Fisher University as an Assistant Professor.

Personal website

Tan Gan is a microeconomic theorist with broad interests in both theoretical and applied topics. Methodologically, he is interested in principal-agent frameworks, including mechanism design, information design, and contract theory, especially with robust objectives. Topicwise, he is interested in exploring the implication of digitalization on economic behaviors. Tan's job market paper, titled “ From Doubt to Devotion Trials and Learning-Based Pricing ,” studies the dynamic mechanism design problem of an informed seller of experience goods. In the fall of 2024, Tan will join LSE as an Assistant Professor in the Management Department.

Personal website @TanGan96

Daniel Giraldo Paez

Daniel's research is in labor and public economics. His work explores the evolution in the last fifty years of labor supply among major demographic groups, with particular focus on the elderly and women. Daniel's job market paper, “ The Changing Nature of Work, Old-Age Labor Supply, and Social Security ,” evaluates the extent to which the increase in older Americans' employment rate can be attributed to changes in the nature of work and this phenomenon's implications for Social Security reforms. Daniel is joining the U.S. Department of Treasury's Office of Microeconomic Analysis as an Economist.

Personal website @WDanielGiraldoP Linkedin Profile

Rodrigo Guerrero

Rodrigo's research focuses on household behavior and education in low-income countries. In his job market paper, titled “ Parental Death and Schooling: Gendered Spheres of Production and Parental Preferences ,” he exploits variation in the timing of parental loss to estimate a structural model of household consumption and time allocation in India. He finds stark differences in the impact of parental death based on the gender of the child and the gender of the deceased parent. The strict gender division of labor in Indian households and the differences in preferences for education of mothers and fathers play a crucial role in explaining the observed effects. After graduation, Rodrigo will join Analysis Group as an Associate.

Nghiem Huynh

Nghiem's research interests lie at the intersection of development economics, international trade, and spatial economics. His job market paper, “ Place-based Policy, Migration Barriers, and Spatial Inequality ,” uses a dynamic model and data from Vietnam to analyze how place-based tax incentives and reducing migration barriers affect regional inequality. After graduation, Nghiem will join the Department of Economics at the University of Oklahoma as an Assistant Professor in July 2024.

Personal website @nghiemqhuynh Linkedin Profile

Sid Kankanala

Sid's primary field of research is Econometrics. His job market paper develops a quasi-Bayesian approach to estimate a large class of models in which observed economic behavior depends on several latent unobservables. Sid will join University of Chicago's Booth School of Business as an Assistant Professor in Econometrics and Statistics.

“This was an impressive cohort. Following Yale’s intellectual tradition of rigorous economic research, the graduating class produced rigorous and groundbreaking work across many economics topics. We look forward to seeing what they do next. Congratulations, class of 2024!” — Fabrizio Zilibotti, Tuntex Professor of International and Development Economics — John Eric Humphries, Assistant Professor of Economics

Jaewon’s research interests include Industrial Organization and Applied Econometrics. His current research focuses on proper inference in the context of demand estimation. His job market paper, titled “Computationally feasible identification-robust inference on discrete choice demand,” explores how to adapt a recent econometric method that is robust to weak identification to BLP-style demand models, in a computationally feasible way. After completing his studies at Yale, Jaewon will join Compass Lexecon as a Senior Economist.

Ryungha's research interests include macroeconomics, spatial economics, and labor economics. Her research investigates why economic activities are concentrated across space and the policy implications of this concentration. Her job market paper, titled “ Spatial Sorting of Workers and Firms ,” develops a new theory of two-sided sorting where heterogeneous workers and firms sort across space and shows that cities can become excessively congested. Ryungha will join Northwestern and Becker Friedman Institute as a post-doctoral fellow before joining the University of Chicago Booth School of Business as an Assistant Professor.

Bernardo Ribeiro

Bernardo’s research interests include economic growth and innovation. He currently focuses on the innovation life cycle of technologies and how society allocates research efforts across technologies of different maturities. In his Job Market paper, “ Embracing the Future or Building on the Past? Growth with New and Old Technologies ,” Bernardo shows that only a small fraction of innovative investment goes into new, cutting-edge technologies, compared to technologies that emerged half a century ago. He then explores the determinants of this pattern and whether policymakers should try to change it. In the academic year 2024-2025, Bernardo will join Princeton University as a Postdoctoral Associate in the Economics Department. In 2025, he will join the Einaudi Institute for Economics and Finance (EIEF) as an Assistant Professor of Economics.

Personal website @bernardo_scrib

Hiroki Saruya

Hiroki’s research interests include health economics and industrial organization, and his current research projects focus on the demand and supply of medical care and long-term care under capacity constraints. His job market paper “Congestion-Quality Tradeoff: Evidence from Japanese Long-Term Care Facilities” explores the tradeoff between nursing facilities' congestion and quality for producing desirable care outcomes, estimates users' preferences for these and other facility characteristics, and then discusses impacts of policies on outcomes and user welfare. After Yale, Hiroki will join the Economic and Social Research Institute of the Cabinet Office, Government of Japan, as a 3-year postdoc researcher.

Jihoon Sung

Jihoon’s research interests include macroeconomics, economic growth, data analysis, corporate structure, and international trade. His dissertation, titled “Business Conglomerates and Misallocation: Theory and Evidence from Chaebols” explores the role of business groups—collections of firms owned by a single family—in determining factor misallocation and aggregate productivity. After graduation, he will join Konektis Capital Management.

Anthony Tokman

Anthony uses tools from industrial organization to study the economics of cities and housing supply. His dissertation research quantifies the neighborhood-level stringency of housing density restrictions in over thirty U.S. metro areas and investigates the disparate effects of these restrictions on housing affordability and spatial mobility across the income distribution. After Yale, Anthony will join Charles River Associates as a senior associate in the antitrust and competition economics practice.

Allen’s research interests lie in economic theory, particularly game theory and its applications. His current research focuses on dynamic games and communication. His job market paper, “ Mediated Repeated Moral Hazard ,” shows how a manager uses dynamic communication with a worker, hidden from the clients, to improve this worker’s productivity in serving the clients. Allen will join the National University of Singapore as an Assistant Professor.

Siu Yuat Wong

Siu Yuat’s research interests in development economics focus on migration, both temporary and permanent, and its intersection with child development and climate change. Siu Yuat’s job market paper, titled “ Maternal and Paternal Migration and Children’s Human Capital ,” explores how maternal and paternal migration will impact a child’s human capital development, which in turn will affect future parental migration decisions. After graduating, Siu Yuat will begin a postdoctoral research position at Stanford University.

Wei’s research interests include trade, growth, and the environment. His current research investigates how globalization affects growth and the environment through technology diffusion and innovation. His job market paper, titled “ Clean Growth and Environmental Policies in the Global Economy ,” provides a dynamic framework to evaluate environmental policies in the global economy. Wei will join the Department of Economics at University of Michigan as an Assistant Professor.

Qianyao's research interests include Labor Economics and Applied Microeconomics. Her current research focuses on human capital development, particularly the determinants of the development process. Qianyao's job market paper, titled “ Child Development, Parental Investments, and Social Capital ,” explores the impacts of social capital and parental investments on child skill development. After Yale, Qianyao will join Xiamen University as an Assistant Professor.

• Skip to Content
• Catalog Home
• Institution Home

Graduate School of Arts and Sciences Programs and Policies 2023–2024

• Yale University Publications /
• Graduate School of Arts and Sciences /
• Degree-Granting Departments and Programs /

Current Edition: Graduate Archive . Click to change.

28 Hillhouse Avenue, 203.432.3575 http://economics.yale.edu M.A., M.Phil., Ph.D.

Chair Tony Smith

Director of Graduate Studies Yuichi Kitamura (30 Hillhouse Ave., 203.432.3699, [email protected] )

Professors Joseph Altonji, Donald Andrews, Konstantinos Arkolakis, Orazio Attanasio, Dirk Bergemann, Steven Berry, Xiaohong Chen, Ray Fair, Howard Forman ( Public Health ), John Geanakoplos, Pinelopi Goldberg, Philip Haile, Marina Halac, Gerald Jaynes, Amit Khandelwal, Yuichi Kitamura, Alvin Klevorick, Samuel Kortum, Giovanni Maggi, Costas Meghir, Robert Mendelsohn ( School of the Environment ), A. Mushfiq Mobarak ( Management ), Giuseppe Moscarini, Kaivan Munshi, William Nordhaus, Gerard Padró i Miquel, Rohini Pande, Benjamin Polak, Mark Rosenzweig, Larry Samuelson, Katja Seim ( Management ), Tony Smith, Philipp Strack, Aleh Tsyvinski, Edward Vytlacil, Fabrizio Zilibotti  

Associate Professors , José-Antonio Espín-Sánchez , Mira Frick, Zhen Huo, Mitsuru Igami, Ryota Iijima, Ilse Lindenlaub, Michael Peters, Nicholas Ryan 

Assistant Professors Lauren Bergquist, Max Cytrynbaum, Eduardo Davila, Charles Hodgson, John Eric Humphries, Yusuke Narita, Cormac O’Dea, Winnie van Dijk  

Fields of Study

Fields include microeconomics, macroeconomics, econometrics, labor, public finance, industrial organization, international trade and finance, financial economics, environmental economics, economic development, economic history, political economy, and behavioral economics.

Special Requirements for the Ph.D. Degree

Exceptions to the requirements described below may be obtained only by vote of the Economics faculty and will be granted only in recognition of extenuating circumstances.

Prior to Registration for the Second Year

(1.1) Students must have taken for credit and passed at least six economics graduate courses. With the permission of the director of graduate studies (DGS), courses in related fields can be used to fulfill this requirement. (Courses in the International and Development Economics master’s program do not satisfy this requirement.) (1.2) Students who earn a grade of HP- or better in each of the four first-year courses in microeconomics and macroeconomics may proceed directly to the second year. In June and August of each year, the department will give waiver exams in micro and macro, written and graded to the extent possible by a committee of faculty who have taught the first-year courses in the previous year. First-year students who do not earn a grade of HP- or better in each of the first-year micro or macro courses must either take and pass the corresponding exam in June or take the exam in June and then (in the event of failure) take and pass the exam in August in order to continue in the program. A student who obtains an HP- or better in one term of a sequence, but not the other, must take (and retake, if necessary) only the waiver exam corresponding to the term in which they failed to obtain an HP- or better. Students who have not passed all the required examinations prior to the second year of study may register as master’s candidates for the following fall term for the purpose of completing enough courses to be eligible for the Master of Arts degree.

Exceptionally well prepared incoming students may petition the DGS and the faculty in the field to take the waiver exam before their first year, with an eye toward placing out of either one or both terms of either of the first-year micro or macro courses. Incoming students taking the waiver exam will be exempt from the corresponding course only if their performance is an exemplary (rather than marginal) pass.

Prior to Registration for the Third Year

(2.1) Students must have met the Graduate School’s requirement of Honors in two courses. (2.2) Students must have taken at least fourteen term courses in economics and have received a grade of at least a P- in each of them. With the permission of the DGS, courses in related fields and independent reading courses can be used to fulfill this requirement. Workshops may not be used to satisfy it. (2.3) 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 fourteen-course requirement, (2.2). Grades within the Economics department include pluses and minuses. The grade 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. (2.4) All students must have submitted a draft of their empirical paper, discussed in (3.3) below. (2.5) All students must make their first attempt at each of two qualifying examinations by June 30 of their second year in the program. The examinations test a student’s general analytic ability in economics and knowledge of two fields chosen by the student. Fields are typically drawn from microeconomics, macroeconomics, econometrics, labor, public finance, industrial organization, international trade and finance, financial economics, environmental economics, economic development, economic history, political economy, and behavioral economics. Students may request examination in a special field designed in consultation with Economics department faculty. The choice of fields must be approved by the DGS. Students may list two preferred examiners in each field. The DGS’s office strives to satisfy these preferences subject to faculty availability and the number of students making similar requests. The nature and content of the field qualifying exams will be determined by the faculty in the field (i.e. these exams might require written work, depending on the field).  If a student fails a field qualifying exam in the spring of the second year, the student must either retake the exam in that field or may take an exam in a different field. In either case, the student must pass this second attempt, whether in the same field or not, in the fall of the third year to remain in the program.

Admission to Candidacy

The Economics department adheres strictly to the Graduate School requirement 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 the Department of Economics faculty after having completed requirements (2.1), (2.2), and (2.3) above, the Graduate School’s prospectus requirement, and the following additional requirements. (3.1) Students must have completed two one-term prospectus workshops, one in each term of the third year. All prospectus workshops have the word “prospectus” in their title. If students can find no prospectus workshop corresponding to their interests, they may substitute other workshops to meet this requirement. In order for two workshops to count toward the prospectus 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 not labeled as a prospectus workshop. If students can find no workshop whatsoever in their area of interest, they may substitute an independent study course guided by a faculty member, provided the independent study leads to a dissertation prospectus that is accepted. (3.2) Students must receive a grade of HP- or better in ECON 551 (Econometrics II) or ECON 552 (Econometrics III). More advanced courses may be substituted for these with permission of the DGS. (3.3) Students must receive a grade of Satisfactory on an empirical paper, which is evaluated by a faculty adviser or an instructor of ECON 556 . 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. The department’s posted description of the empirical paper requirement should answer any questions about it. The paper may be written in the course ECON 556 or independently with the help of a faculty adviser, the standards for a satisfactory paper being the same in both cases. The paper is not expected to be of publishable or nearly publishable quality but should demonstrate facility in the application of econometric methods to an economic question. Note: Jointly authored papers will not be accepted. (3.4) Students must complete with a grade of at least HP- a term of economic history, drawn from a list of courses approved by the DGS and the economic history instructors. (3.5) Students must pass two field qualifying examinations given by committees of faculty members. These exams are discussed in (2.5) above.

Additional Requirements

(1) All students must give a dissertation prospectus to their advisory committee by the second Friday in May of their third year. (2) Students must provide, via email,  the names of their advisory committee consisting of two members to the DGS’s office by February 1 of the third year.  The student should indicate which faculty member is the main advisor for the purpose of reviewing their annual DPR (Dissertation Progress Report). (3) In each academic year after the second, all students must regularly attend at least two workshops. At least one of them must be an “informal” prospectus workshop lunch or reading group, and at least one must be a “formal” research workshop. Each student must present at least once a year in one or other of the workshops that they regularly attend in the third and fourth years. (4) Third-year students who have not yet satisfied the empirical paper requirement must submit an empirical paper by February 1.

The Dissertation

The dissertation should make an original contribution to economics that demonstrates the student’s mastery of relevant resources and methods. Although the dissertation may cover several related topics, it should have a unifying theme. The dissertation may consist of one or more than one essay. The dissertation is guided by a committee of two advisers, at least one of whom must be a member of the Economics department. The second adviser need not be from the Economics department or even from Yale University. Second advisers from outside the Yale Economics department must be approved by the DGS. The two advisers serve as readers. After the student has completed a first draft of the dissertation, the DGS appoints a third reader. The student and the committee may recommend third readers, but the choice remains with the DGS, since the third reader serves as an independent referee.

Collaborative Work in the Dissertation

The Economics department’s objective regarding collaboration is to achieve a reasonable compromise between two goals. While the department wishes to encourage collaborative research among students and between students and faculty, a dissertation should demonstrate the student’s ability to do independent research. The dissertation committee and the DGS must approve the inclusion of collaborative work in the dissertation, and students must acknowledge and describe any collaboration in the preface to the dissertation.

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.

Normal Sequence of Studies

What follows in the next three paragraphs are recommendations, not requirements.

During the fall term of the first year, students usually take ECON 500 (General Economic Theory: Microeconomics), ECON 510 (General Economic Theory: Macroeconomics), ECON 550 (Econometrics I). In the following spring, they usually take ECON 501 (General Economic Theory: Microeconomics), ECON 511 (General Economic Theory: Macroeconomics), ECON 551 (Econometrics II). Students who are well prepared in econometrics may take an advanced econometrics course instead of ECON 550 in the fall of the first year after consulting the DGS and an appropriate econometrics faculty member.

Students typically also take a course in economic history in either the fall or spring term, that would satisfy the economic history requirement, (3.4) above, if a grade of at least HP- were obtained. Taking the history course in the spring may be more appropriate for students concerned about making the transition to graduate school in the fall.

During the second year, students normally take ECON 556 and satisfy the empirical paper requirement. Students also take economics courses in specialized fields, such as economic theory, macroeconomics, econometrics, labor, public finance, industrial organization, international trade and finance, financial economics, environmental economics, economic development, economic history, political economy, and behavioral economics. These courses serve as preparation for the qualifying examinations and allow students to identify potential areas of study for dissertation research. As they identify an area, students should locate a faculty adviser to advise them about their studies. Students may also take courses related to economics from other departments.

The third year is normally devoted to finding a dissertation topic and to beginning research on it. In this year, students are expected to make the transition from being a taker of classes to a participant in research. Important elements in achieving this transition are thinking critically about material learned, reading widely, choosing research topics that are feasible and of interest to the student, and gaining contact with faculty. Students should expect to take the initiative in making such contact.

Combined Ph.D. Degrees

A combined degree results in the award of one Ph.D. with two departments named. It is not two separate degrees, and the student is not expected to fulfill all the requirements of both departments.

Purpose Combined degrees are intended to provide a sufficiently broad training program for a student wishing to complete an interdisciplinary dissertation.

Who designs a combined degree program Combined degree programs are designed on an ad hoc basis by the student, the DGSs of the two departments, and the appropriate associate dean of the Graduate School.

Timing Most combined degrees are proposed by students during the summer after the first year of study. Students are not given extra time or funding to complete combined degrees. In particular, students must advance to candidacy by the end of their third year of study.

Degree of integration A combined program should synthesize the knowledge and methods of the two departments into a single study. Ideally the dissertation should be equally strong in both fields. For example, a dissertation with the first half focused on economics and the second half focused on political science would not be acceptable.

Administrative requirements An ad hoc combined degree program is established in the following steps.

• A program is initiated by writing of a pre-prospectus by the student. This document describes how and why the two fields are to be integrated.
• The student recruits a faculty dissertation adviser from each department and obtains their approval of the pre-prospectus, perhaps modified in response to their advice.
• The student recruits two other faculty members to serve on the dissertation committee, one from each department.
• The student discusses the requirements for a combined degree with both departmental DGSs.
• The student prepares a comprehensive study plan that contains a list of courses and examinations agreed on by both DGSs and approved by both departments. The goals of the course selection are to give some breadth of knowledge of both fields and prepare the student to complete the dissertation. A key to success in combined programs is not to require too many courses and to focus on preparation for dissertation research. Requirements include successful completion of ECON 500 , ECON 501 , ECON 510 , and ECON 511 with grades of at least HP-; please see (1.2) for a complete description of the requirement. Normally the two departments administer qualifying examinations. This procedure may require the production of examinations that both departments evaluate simultaneously. The plan of study should contain the following: (a) a cover sheet for approvals by both dissertation advisers, both DGSs, and the appropriate associate dean of the Graduate School, (b) an introduction where the student explains the rational for proposing the ad hoc combined degree, and (c) a term-by-term timeline listing all classes, teaching, and required examinations.
• Both departments must accept the dissertation prospectus.
• The plan of study is a contract, and the student must receive written permission in advance from both DGSs and the appropriate associate dean of the Graduate School for any changes to the plan.
• Once everyone agrees and the plan of study is approved, the combined program is recorded in Banner.

Funding and teaching The department that first admitted the student is the “primary department.” The student’s funding is from the primary department, as is the teaching expectation. Ideally students should obtain teaching experience from both departments.

Master’s Degrees

M.Phil. The M.Phil. degree is awarded to students in the Ph.D. program upon completion of all the requirements for advancement to candidacy for a doctorate in economics except the prospectus and prospectus workshop requirements.

M.A. Students who withdraw from the Ph.D. program may be eligible to receive the M.A. degree if they have met the requirements and have not already received the M.Phil. degree. For the M.A., students must successfully complete at least eight term graduate courses in the Department of Economics. At least six of these courses must be Ph.D. courses in the Department of Economics (not courses from the International and Development Economics master’s program). The average grade of all the graduate courses taken that are listed or cross-listed by the Department of Economics must be at least a High Pass, and at least two of these grades must be Honors. Students must complete at least two of the three first-year two-course sequences in microeconomics, macroeconomics, or econometrics. In computing the grade average, the relevant grades are those reported to the registrar and so do not include pluses or minuses. A Fail counts as a zero, a Pass counts as a 1, a High Pass counts as a 2, and an Honors counts as a 3. To say that the average grade must be High Pass means that the arithmetic average of these numbers must be at least 2. Candidates in combined programs will be awarded the M.A. only when the master’s degree requirements for both programs have been met.

J.D./M.A. Degree Program Students working toward a J.D. in the Law School may earn an M.A. degree in Economics. The degree requirements that apply to these students are the same as those described above. Students wishing to join this J.D./M.A. joint-degree program must apply for separate admission to the Economics graduate program; applicants should submit scores from the GRE General Test. Students admitted to this program pay three years of tuition to the Law School and one year of tuition to the Graduate School. The Graduate School does not offer fellowship support to J.D./M.A. candidates.

The M.A. in International and Development Economics is described under International and Development Economics .

ECON 500a and ECON 501b, General Economic Theory: Microeconomics   Staff

Introduction to optimization methods and partial equilibrium. Theories of utility and consumer behavior production and firm behavior. Introduction to uncertainty and the economics of information, and to noncompetitive market structures. MW 10am-11:20am

ECON 510a and ECON 511b, General Economic Theory: Macroeconomics   Staff

Analysis of short-run determination of aggregate employment, income, prices, and interest rates in closed and open economies. Stabilization policies. TTh 10am-11:15am

ECON 520a, Advanced Microeconomic Theory I   Ernesto Rivera Mora and Di Pei

A formal introduction to game theory and information economics. Alternative non-cooperative solution concepts are studied and applied to problems in oligopoly, bargaining, auctions, strategic social choice, and repeated games. TTh 1pm-2:15pm

ECON 521b, Advanced Microeconomic Theory II   Marina Halac and Kai Hao Yang

Contracts and the economics of organization. Topics may include dynamic contracts (both explicit and implicit), career concerns, hierarchies, Bayesian mechanism design, renegotiation, and corporate control. TTh 8:45am-10am

ECON 522a, Microeconomic Theory Lunch   Staff

A forum for advanced students to critically examine recent papers in the literature and present their own work. HTBA

ECON 525a, Advanced Macroeconomics I   Zhen Huo and Ilse Lindenlaub

Heterogeneous agent economics, investment, scrapping and firing, nonquadratic adjustment costs, financial constraints, financial intermediation, psychology of decision making under risk, optimal risk management, financial markets, consumption behavior, monetary policy, term structure of interest rates. TTh 1pm-2:15pm

ECON 526b, Advanced Macroeconomics II   Michael Peters

Macroeconomic equilibrium in the presence of uninsurable labor income risk. Implications for savings, asset prices, unemployment. TTh 1pm-2:15pm

ECON 530a, General Equilibrium Foundations of Finance and Macroeconomics

The course gives a careful mathematical description of the general equilibrium underpinnings of the main models of finance and the new macroeconomics of collateral and default. Part I is a review of Walrasian general equilibrium, including the mathematical techniques of fixed points and genericity, both taught from an elementary point of view. Part II covers general equilibrium with incomplete markets (GEI). Part III focuses on the special case of the capital asset pricing model (CAPM), including extensions to multi-commodity CAPM and multifactor CAPM. Part IV focuses on the Modigliani-Miller theorem and generic constrained inefficiency. Part V describes collateral equilibrium and the leverage cycle. Part VI covers default and punishment and adverse selection and moral hazard in general equilibrium. Part VII describes monetary equilibrium. HTBA

ECON 538a, Microeconomic Theory Workshop   Staff

Presentations by research scholars and participating students. HTBA

ECON 540a, Student Workshop in Macroeconomics   Staff

A course that gives third- and fourth-year students doing research in macroeconomics an opportunity to prepare their prospectuses and to present their dissertation work. Each student is required to make at least two presentations per term. For third-year students and beyond, at least one of the presentations in the first term should be a mock job talk. HTBA

ECON 542a, Macroeconomics Workshop   Staff

A forum for presentation and discussion of state-of-the-art research in macroeconomics. Presentations by research scholars and participating students of papers in closed economy and open economy macroeconomics and monetary economics. HTBA

ECON 545a, Microeconomics   Michael Boozer

A survey of the main features of current economic analysis and of the application of the theory to a number of important economic questions, covering microeconomics and demand theory, the theory of the firm, and market structures. For IDE students. MW 2:30pm-3:45pm

ECON 546a, Growth and Macroeconomics   Ana Fieler

This course presents a basic framework to understand macroeconomic behavior and the effects of macroeconomic policies. Topics include consumption and investment, labor market, short-run income determinations, unemployment, inflation, growth, and the effects of monetary and fiscal policies. The emphasis is on the relation between the underlying assumptions of macroeconomic framework and policy implications derived from it. TTh 9am-10:15am

ECON 547b, Social Networks and Economic Development   Kaivan Munshi

The objective of this course is to study the emerging literature on social networks and economic development. Both theoretical and empirical research papers are covered, at a level that is suitable for the advanced undergraduate or graduate student. The course is divided into three sections: (1) Labor Markets and Migration: how community networks support their members in the labor market and how they support their spatial and occupational mobility during the process of development; (2) Commitment: how communities use social ties to solve commitment problems in developing economics, both in theory and in practice; (3) Inter-Group Interactions: community networks do not operate independently, and a nascent literature is starting to investigate the nature of these group interactions. Time permitting, we examine the role played by networks in the diffusion of information at the end of the course. Prerequisites: intermediate microeconomics, introductory econometrics, and data analysis. Students are expected to be familiar with calculus, basic microeconomics, and basic econometrics. MW 4pm-5:15pm

ECON 548b / PLSC 721b, Political Economy of Development   Rohini Pande and Gerard Padro

This course analyzes empirically and theoretically the political, institutional, and social underpinnings of economic development. We cover an array of topics ranging from power structures to corruption, state capacity, social capital, conflict, democratization, and democratic backsliding. We focus on recent advances to identify open areas for further research. W 1pm-3:30pm

ECON 549b, Economic Development Policy in the Twenty-First Century   Pinelopi Goldberg and Amit Khandelwal

The twenty-first century presents new challenges for the global economy including rising global and within-country inequalities, slowing globalization, the deployment of new technologies, and climate change. This course examines the design of economic policy to meet these challenges. Some of the questions we analyze include: What is the future role of manufacturing versus services in economic development? How large are the distortions caused by unequal access in labor markets for women? Why do firms in developing economies remain small, and what are their constraints on growth? Which policies distort and which improve the allocation of a country's resources? Although these topics appear disparate, the course provides a unifying framework to tackle them. Specifically, we adopt a markets-based approach that views economic development through the functioning of markets. Emphasis is placed on learning how to draw implications for economic policy from state-of-the-art research in economics. F 9am-11:30am

ECON 550a, Econometrics I   Donald Andrews

Probability: concepts and axiomatic development. Data: tools of descriptive statistics and data reduction. Random variables and probability distributions; univariate distributions (continuous and discrete); multivariate distributions; functions of random variables and transformations; the notion of statistical inference; sampling concepts and distributions; asymptotic theory; point and interval estimation; hypothesis testing. MW 8:30am-9:50am

ECON 551b, Econometrics II   Staff

Provides a basic knowledge of econometric theory, and an ability to carry out empirical work in economics. Topics include linear regression and extensions, including regression diagnostics, generalized least squares, statistical inference, dynamic models, instrumental variables and maximum likelihood procedures, simultaneous equations, nonlinear and qualitative-choice models. Examples from cross-section, time series, and panel data applications. MW 8:30am-9:45am

ECON 552b, Econometrics III   Yuichi Kitamura

The treatment of the subject is rigorous, attentive to modern developments, and proceeds to research level in several areas. Linear models from core curriculum. Topics include linear estimation theory, multiple and multivariate regressions, Kruskal’s theorem and its applications, classical statistical testing by likelihood ratio, Lagrange multiplier and Wald procedures, bootstrap methods, specification tests, Stein-like estimation, instrumental variables, and an introduction to inferential methods in simultaneous stochastic equations. TTh 1:15pm-2:30pm

ECON 553a, Econometrics IV: Time Series Econometrics   Staff

A sequel to ECON 552 , the course proceeds to research level in time series econometrics. Topics include an introduction to ergodic theory, Wold decomposition, spectral theory, martingales, martingale convergence theory, mixing processes, strong laws, and central limit theory for weak dependent sequences with applications to econometric models and model determination. ThF 2:30pm-5:30pm

ECON 554b, Econometrics V   Xiaohong Chen

The first half of this course is about nonlinear parametric models. Specification, estimation, and testing within the Likelihood and Generalized Method of Moments frameworks. First-order asymptotics for both smooth and non-smooth objective functions. Efficiency and robustness. A short account of high-order asymptotics for smooth problems. The second part is on nonparametric and semiparametric methods. Nonparametric estimation by kernels, series, splines, and other methods. Bias reduction and bandwidth selection. The course of dimensionality and additive models. Specification and estimation of semiparametric models. U-statistics and asymptotic properties. Efficiency and adaptation. Th 3pm-5:30pm

ECON 556a, Topics in Empirical Economics and Public Policy   Charles Hodgson, Yusuke Narita, and Joseph Altonji

Methods and approaches to empirical economic analysis are reviewed, illustrated, and discussed with reference to specific empirical studies. The emphasis is on learning to use methods and on understanding how specific empirical questions determine the empirical approach to be used. We review a broad range of approaches including program evaluation methods and structural modeling, including estimation approaches, computational issues, and problems with inference. Open only to doctoral students in the Department of Economics. Exceptionally, doctoral students from other departments may take the course for credit if a faculty member, normally from their department, can supervise and grade their term paper. MW 10:30am-11:50am

ECON 558a, Econometrics   Michael Boozer

Application of statistical analysis to economic data. Basic probability theory, linear regression, specification and estimation of economic models, time series analysis, and forecasting. The computer is used. For IDE students. TTh 2:30pm-3:45pm

ECON 559b, Development Econometrics (IDE)   Michael Boozer

MW 2:30pm-3:45pm

ECON 565b / CPSC 563b, Algorithms for Convex Optimization   Nisheeth Vishnoi

Convex optimization has played a major role in the recent development of fast algorithms for problems arising in areas such as theoretical computer science, discrete optimization, and machine learning. The approach is to first formulate the problem as a continuous (convex) optimization problem, even if the problem may be over a discrete domain, adapt or develop deterministic or randomized continuous-time dynamical systems to solve it, and then design algorithms for the problem via appropriate discretizations. The goal of this course is to design state-of-the-art algorithms for various classical discrete problems through the use of continuous optimization/sampling. The algorithmic applications include maximum flow in graphs, maximum matching in bipartite graphs, linear programming, submodular function minimization, and counting problems involving discrete objects such as matroids. We present approaches gradient descent, mirror descent, interior-point methods, and cutting plane methods. Prerequisite: CPSC 365 or permission of the instructor. S&DS 630 and a solid background in calculus, linear algebra, probability, and algorithms are recommended. T 9:25am-11:15am

ECON 568a, Econometrics Workshop   Staff

A forum for state-of-the-art research in econometrics. Its primary purpose is to disseminate the results and the technical machinery of ongoing research in theoretical and applied fields. HTBA

ECON 570a, Prospectus Workshop in Econometrics   Staff

A course for third- and fourth-year students doing research in econometrics to prepare their prospectus and present dissertation work. HTBA

ECON 581b, American Economic History   Jose-Antonio Espin-Sanchez

This course examines both the long-term factors (such as industrialization and the development of markets) and the epochal events (such as the Revolution, Civil War, and Great Depression) that have shaped the development of the American economy. The objectives of this course are to familiarize students with the major topics and debates in American economic history. Prerequisites: concurrent enrollment in or successful completion of ECON 501 and ECON 510 . TTh 8:30am-9:45am

ECON 588a and ECON 589a, Economic History Workshop   Staff

A forum for discussion and criticism of research in progress. Presenters include graduate students, Yale faculty, and visitors. Topics concerned with long-run trends in economic organization are suitable for the seminar. Special emphasis given to the use of statistics and of economic theory in historical research. HTBA

ECON 600a, Industrial Organization I   Charles Hodgson and Steven Berry

Begins by locating the study of industrial organization within the broader research traditions of economics and related social sciences. Alternative theories of decision making, of organizational behavior, and of market evolution are sketched and contrasted with standard neoclassical theories. Detailed examination of the determinants and consequences of industrial market structure. TTh 10:30am-11:50am

ECON 601b, Industrial Organization II   Philip Haile and Katja Seim

Examination of alternative modes of public control of economic sectors with primary emphasis on antitrust and public utility regulation in the U.S. economy. Public policy issues in sectors of major detailed governmental involvement. MW 1:15pm-2:30pm

ECON 606a, Prospectus Workshop in Industrial Organization   Staff

For third-year students in microeconomics, intended to guide students in the early stages of theoretical and empirical dissertation research. Emphasis on regular writing assignments and oral presentations. HTBA

ECON 608a, Industrial Organization Seminar   Staff

For advanced graduate students in applied microeconomics, serving as a forum for presentation and discussion of work in progress of students, Yale faculty members, and invited speakers. HTBA

ECON 630a and ECON 631b, Labor Economics   Staff

Topics include static and dynamic approaches to demand, human capital and wage determination, wage income inequality, unemployment and minimum wages, matching and job turnover, immigration and international trade, unions, implicit contract theory, and efficiency wage hypothesis. TTh 9am-10:15am, M 1:15pm-2:15pm

ECON 638a, Labor and Population Workshop   Staff

A forum primarily for graduate students to present their research plans and findings. Discussions encompass empirical microeconomic research relating to both high- and low-income countries. HTBA

ECON 640a, Prospectus Workshop in Labor Economics and Public Finance   Staff

Workshop for students doing research in labor economics and public finance. HTBA

ECON 670a / MGMT 740a, Financial Economics I   Stefano Giglio

Current issues in theoretical financial economics are addressed through the study of current papers. Focuses on the development of the problem-solving skills essential for research in this area. W 4pm-7pm

ECON 674a, Financial Crises   Gary Gorton

An elective doctoral course covering theoretical and empirical research on financial crises. The first half of the course focuses on general models of financial crises and historical episodes from the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. The second half of the course focuses on the recent financial crisis. Prerequisites: MGMT 740 and 741 (doctoral students in Economics may substitute the core microeconomics sequence), and permission of the instructor. HTBA

ECON 678a / MGMT 762a, Macro Finance   Alp Simsek

T 4:10pm-7:10pm

ECON 679a, Financial Economics Student Lunch   Staff

This workshop is for third-year and other advanced students in financial economics. It is intended to guide students in the early stages of dissertation research. The emphasis is on presentation and discussion of materials presented by students that will eventually lead to dissertation topics. Open to third-year and advanced Ph.D. students only. HTBA

ECON 680a, Public Finance I   Orazio Attanasio

Major topics in public finance including externalities, public goods, benefit/cost analysis, fiscal federalism, social insurance, retirement savings, poverty and inequality, taxation, and others. Applications are provided to crime, education, environment and energy, health and health insurance, housing, and other markets and domains. The course covers a variety of applied methods including sufficient statistics, randomized control trials, hedonic models, regression discontinuity, discrete choice, spatial equilibrium, dynamic growth models, differences-in-differences, integrated assessment models, applied general equilibrium, event studies, firm production functions, learning models, general method of moments, and propensity-score reweighting estimators. MW 9am-10:15am

ECON 706a, Prospectus Workshop in International and Spatial Economics   Staff

This workshop is for third-year and other advanced students in international economic fields. It is intended to guide students in the early stages of dissertation research. The emphasis is on students’ presentation and discussion of material that will eventually lead to the prospectus. HTBA

ECON 720a, International Trade I   Costas Arkolakis and Lorenzo Caliendo

The first part of this course covers the basic theory of international trade, from neoclassical theory where trade is the result of comparative advantage (Ricardo, Heckscher-Ohlin) to the “New Trade Theory” where trade is generated by imperfect competition and increasing returns to scale. Particular emphasis is placed on the implications of the different theories concerning the aggregate gains or losses from trade and the distributional implications of trade liberalization. The second part of the course explores new advances in the field. It covers the Eaton-Kortum (2002) and Melitz (2003) models; extensions of these models with many countries, multiproduct firms, and sectors; methods of quantitative trade analysis to revisit classic questions (gains from trade, distributional effects of trade, trade policy); and new advances in dynamic trade theory. MW 1pm-2:15pm

ECON 721b, International Trade II   Amit Khandelwal and Samuel Kortum

The course covers empirical topics in international trade with particular emphasis on current research areas. Topics include tests of international trade theories; studies of the relationship between international trade, labor markets, and income distribution; recent trade liberalization episodes in developing countries; empirical assessment of various trade policies, such as VERs and Anti-Dumping; productivity (and its relation to international trade liberalization); and exchange rates, market integration, and international trade. Methodologically, the course draws heavily on empirical models used in the fields of industrial organization and to a lesser degree labor economics; taking these courses is thus recommended though not required. Th 2:30pm-5pm

ECON 724a, International Finance   Staff

A study of how consumers and firms are affected by the globalization of the world economy. Topics include trade costs, the current account, exchange rate pass-through, international macroeconomic co-movement, multinational production, and gains from globalization.  Prerequisite: intermediate macroeconomics or equivalent. M 4pm-7pm

ECON 728a / MGMT 521a, Workshop: International Trade   Staff

Workshop/seminar for presentations and discussion on topics in the field of international trade. HTBA

ECON 730a, Economic Development I   Mark Rosenzweig and Kaivan Munshi

Development theory at both aggregate and sectoral levels; analysis of growth, employment, poverty, and distribution of income in both closed and open developing economy contexts. MW 4pm-5:30pm

ECON 731b, Economic Development II   Lauren Bergquist

Analysis of development experiences since World War II. Planning and policy making across countries and time. Models of development, growth, foreign trade, and investment. Trade, capital, and technology flows and increasing interdependence. The political economy of policy making and policy reform. MW 9am-10:15am

ECON 732b, Advanced Economic Development   Michael Boozer

Examines the models of classical and modern economists to explain the transition of developing economies into modern economic growth, as well as their relevance to income distribution, poverty alleviation, and human development. TTh 2:30pm-3:45pm

ECON 733a, Urban and Environmental Economics   Mushfiq Mobarak and Costas Arkolakis

A Ph.D. field course covering latest research topics in urban economics and in environmental and energy economics. Topics include the links between urban planning and city productivity and livability, infrastructure investments in electrification and water management, managing externalities, environmental regulation, and the effects of climate change in cities and in rural areas. Prerequisites: First-year Ph.D. economics courses in microeconomics, macroeconomics, and econometrics (or equivalent), or instructor permission. MW 9am-10:20am

ECON 750a, Trade and Development Workshop   Staff

A forum for graduate students and faculty with an interest in the economic problems of developing countries. Faculty, students, and a limited number of outside speakers discuss research in progress. HTBA

ECON 756a, Prospectus Workshop in Development   Staff

Workshop for students doing research in development to present and discuss work. HTBA

ECON 794b, International Trade Policy   Giovanni Maggi

Theoretical and empirical research in international trade policy. The course focuses on welfare analysis of trade policies under perfect completion and under oligopoly; the political economy of trade policy; and the economics and political economy of international trade agreements. Prerequisites: ECON 500 and 501 . TTh 1:15pm-2:30pm

ECON 899a or b, Individual Reading and Research   Staff

By arrangement with faculty. HTBA

Print Options

Send Page to Printer

Print this page.

Download Page (PDF)

The PDF will include all information unique to this page.

Download 2022-2023 Graduate PDF

• Doctoral Programs

Financial economics encompasses a broad area of topics and issues, including corporate investments and financing policy, security valuation, portfolio management, the behavior of prices in speculative markets, financial institutions, and intermediation.

The PhD specialization in finance is designed to give the student a strong background for study and research in both theoretical and empirical work in finance and related areas. Emphasis is placed on understanding the important concepts and models. Students normally take several graduate courses in the Department of Economics, particularly in microeconomics and macroeconomic theory, the economics of uncertainty, and econometrics.

The program offers two courses specifically in financial theory and its applications. In addition, the faculty and doctoral students attend a seminar that features speakers from around the country. However, the specialization is built primarily around individual study and research under the guidance of the faculty.

Examples of potential areas of research for the financial economics dissertation:

• Principal-agent relationships
• Financial intermediation
• Efficiency of markets
• Portfolio selection