Carnegie Mellon University

Requirements for the Ph.D. in Economics

PhD students in Economics must fulfill all of the general Tepper School Ph.D. requirements, in addition to any area specific requirements. 

Preliminaries:

  • Math for Economists
  • No Qualifying exam, but the course is highly recommended

Microeconomics sequence:

  • Microeconomics I
  • Microeconomics II
  • Microeconomics III
  • Qualifying exam, with a question based on each of these three courses

Macroeconomics sequence:

  • Macroeconomics I
  • Macroeconomics II
  • Macroeconomics III
  • Qualifying exam, with a question based on each of these three courses

Econometrics sequence:

  • Econometrics I
  • Econometrics II
  • Econometrics III
  • Qualifying exam, with a question based on each of these three courses

Advanced Economic Analysis (AEA) / Elective sequence – a subset of 6 classes from the following list will be offered every year:

  • Structural Models in Microeconomics
  • Industrial Organization
  • Advanced Econometrics
  • Market Design
  • Mechanism Design
  • Information Economics
  • Economics of Networks
  • Dynamic Competitive Analysis
  • Computational Methods
  • Macro Finance
  • Public Economics
  • Qualifying exam based on four questions out of the six.

Minor area:

3 mini-semester courses (18 units) outside of Economics, either in any of the functional areas within Tepper School of Business, or typically in Ph.D. programs of Math or Statistics departments at Carnegie Mellon, subject to approval of the PhD Head. 

The second-year paper concludes the requirements for year two. At this time, students begin formulating a thesis topic and preparing for a formal thesis proposal.