Graduate

Ph.D. in Economics Overview

Colorado State University’s doctoral program in economics has a national and international reputation of excellence in the fields of environmental economics, political economy, and regional economics. Our faculty and students are pluralists who specialize in a wide range of economic thought, including neoclassical, Keynesian, institutional, Marxian, and feminist economics.

Our Ph.D. program prepares students for academic careers in the U.S. and around the world, as well as advanced assignments in government agencies and the private sector.

Program Requirements

Our faculty members are caring teachers and prolific scholars who have active research agendas, providing many opportunities for both undergraduate and graduate students to collaborate. Our goal is to prepare our students to be critical thinkers who understand the debates about economic methodology and policy, as well as the techniques of economic analysis.

Core Courses (30 Credits)

ECON 501 Quantitative Methods for Economists
ECON 505 History of Economic Thought
ECON/AREC 535 Applied Econometrics
ECON 604 Macroeconomic Analysis I
ECON/AREC 606 Microeconomic Analysis I
ECON/AREC 635 Econometric Theory I
ECON 704 Macroeconomic Analysis II
ECON 705 Heterodox Approaches to Economics
ECON 706 Microeconomic Analysis II
ECON/AREC 735 Econometric Theory II (2 credits)
ECON/AREC 736 Quantitative Analysis (1 credit)

Research (24 Credits)

ECON 698 Research Replication
ECON 793 Seminar – General
ECON 799 Dissertation (18 credits)

Advanced Courses

Development Economics Environmental Economics International Economics Political Economy Public Economics Regional Economics

Development Economics

Nearly half of CSU faculty have active research agendas that contribute to development economics. Our inquiries draw on methods of promoting economic development, economic growth, and structural change, as well as improving health, education, and workplace conditions.

A cohort of our faculty and current graduate students contribute to the Poverty Action Center (PAC@REDI), an interdisciplinary enterprise that uses development economic tools to answer questions around poverty, inequality, education, and microfinance.

Courses

ECON 760 Theories of Economic Development
ECON 792E Seminar: Development

Environmental Economics

Environmental Economics is a vibrant strength of the department, benefitting from world-renowned faculty and a collaboration with the Department of Resource and Agricultural Economics. University Distinguished Professor Edward Barbier is currently the top-ranked science researcher for career-long citations in the subfield of Agricultural Economics and Policy and a regular contributor to United Nations conversations on rebuilding a green, sustainable global economy.

We also benefit from The Center for Disaster and Risk Analysis, co-directed by Professor Sammy Zahran, which conducts environmental assessment and modeling as part of research in a variety of disaster management areas.

Recent research topics include theoretical work discounting future outcomes in the economics of climate change, empirical work tracking the health consequences of legacy lead pollution, and contingent valuation studies of rare cultural resources. Additionally, our environmental faculty are working with regional economists to develop a computable general equilibrium model to analyze state-level policy questions related to the deployment of renewable energy sources in Colorado.

Courses

ECON/AREC 740 Advanced Natural Resource Economics
ECON/AREC 741 Advanced Environmental Economics
ECON 792A Seminar: Ecological and Resource Economics

International Economics

Our program in international economics gives students a foundation in both neoclassical and heterodox theories, empirical analyses and debates in international trade and finance, with particular focus on the policy or applied aspects of the field. In addition, international field course content and related faculty research are fundamentally centered on development policy issues, including topics such as the sustainability of global imbalances, foreign direct investment and development, and trade, growth and inequality based on class or gender.

Courses

ECON 640 International Trade Theory and Policy
ECON 742 International Production and Monetary Theory

Political Economy

CSU is one of few U.S. universities with a robust research program in political economy drawing on feminist, Marxist, and broader heterodox traditions. Our research spans the investigation of the interaction between economic growth and income distribution, the development of gendered theoretical frameworks and empirical analyses of the causes and consequences of economic growth and development, and the political economy of money and international finance.

The journal Feminist Economics is housed at CSU and edited by department chair Elissa Braunstein, and CSU faculty play leading editorial roles in political economy journals, including Review of Political Economy.

Courses

ECON 771 Political Economy of Race and Gender
ECON 772 Marxian Political Economy

Public Economics

CSU scholars in public economics are engaged in dynamic research related to health, immigration, education, tax policy, and the welfare state. We often provide advice to policymakers at various levels of government. Courses and research often share commonalities and complementarities with other applied fields such as regional economics, environmental economics, and economic development.

Courses

ECON 520 Public Economics I
ECON 720 Public Economics II

Regional Economics

CSU has nationally recognized strengths in regional economics, an applied field analyzing why economic activity takes place where it does. Our scholars in this field benefit from collaborations in the Regional Economic Development Institute (REDI@CSU), which is an engaged research enterprise that aims to understand, analyze, and inform economic development strategies in struggling rural and urban areas, particularly in Colorado.

Courses

ECON/AREC 563 Regional Economics – Theory, Methods, and Issues
ECON 663 Urban and Regional Modeling

Program Timeline

Year 1 – Establishing a Program of Study

Year 2 – Replication Exercise

Year 2 - Fall

ECON 635, ECON 704, ECON 706

Prior to spring registration, you select a permanent advisor and the rest of your graduate committee. Together you set out the courses that will constitute your Program of Study for the degree.

Year 2 - Spring

ECON 698, ECON 735, ECON 736, one Advanced Course

As part of ECON 698, you also complete a Replication Exercise in which you write a paper replicating research from a published article and add your own modification or extension. You will present this paper in a special seminar in order to satisfy the MA Plan B. This is required of all students.

Year 3 – Dissertation Proposal

Year 4 – Dissertation In Progress

Year 4 - Fall

Dissertation work.

You present your preliminary dissertation defense for your advisory committee. The content of this exam will be determined by the committee but will ordinarily include a presentation of your prospectus on the proposed dissertation research. Material covering economic theory or your chosen fields may also be included at the discretion of your committee.

Year 4 - Spring

You complete a substantial part of your dissertation under the guidance of your advisor, which becomes your “job market paper.”

Year 5 – Dissertation Defense and Graduation

Year 5 - Fall

If seeking an academic job, you enter the job market and complete the final pieces of your dissertation research.

Year 5 - Spring

You apply to graduate.

You present your final dissertation defense to your advisory committee, and make any final revisions as directed. You submit a final copy of your dissertation upon successfully passing your defense.

Many students will complete the Ph.D. in five years, but it is not uncommon for some to continue for a sixth year, as long as they are making satisfactory progress toward completing the dissertation.

Students who have not completed their Ph.D. by the end of the sixth year will be contacted to discuss their plan of completion. If a clear plan for dissertation completion and funding is available, it is possible they may continue to be employed as an instructor. Students not making satisfactory progress who do not have a clear plan of completion will typically not be funded after the sixth year.

The Graduate School requires that courses applied toward fulfilling the Ph.D. be completed within 10 years preceding the date of Ph.D. completion.

Master’s Plan B

If a student does not make satisfactory progress, or decides they do not wish to continue the Ph.D. program after the completion of the second year, they may graduate CSU with a Master of Arts in economics (Plan B). The Plan B degree does not require a thesis; instead, either a scholarly paper, exam, portfolio, or similar project is required, as well as a final exam/defense. The Replication Exercise completed in ECON 698 satisfies this requirement.

Dissertation

Each Ph.D. candidate. must submit an acceptable dissertation, embodying publishable original research on a topic approved in advance by the student’s committee. A dissertation is the scholar’s own contribution to knowledge and reflects the ability to conduct and communicate independent research of such caliber and expertise that it adds significantly to the field of knowledge.

1. Preliminary Oral Comprehensive Examination (Preliminary Defense)

At least two semesters before the student intends to graduate, they must pass an oral comprehensive exam administered by their advisory committee. The content of this exam ordinarily includes a presentation of a prospectus on the proposed dissertation research, plus any additional material covering economic theory or the student’s fields where the committee determines that such coverage is warranted.

2. Final Oral Examination (Dissertation Defense)

The final examination is an oral dissertation defense in which the student is examined on the contents and methods of their dissertation research, as well as related areas of economics.

3. Final Submission

The dissertation format must comply with the standards specified in the Graduate School’s Thesis Manual and be approved by the department prior to binding. A hardbound copy of the dissertation must be submitted to the department chair. It is also customary that a hard-bound copy of the dissertation be presented to the student’s dissertation advisor.

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Graduate

Ph.D. in Economics Overview

Program Requirements

Core Courses (30 Credits)

Research (24 Credits)

Advanced Courses

Development Economics

Environmental Economics

International Economics

Political Economy

Public Economics

Regional Economics

Program Timeline

Year 1 - Fall

Year 1 - Spring

Year 2 - Fall

Year 2 - Spring

Year 3 - Fall

Year 3 - Spring

Year 4 - Fall

Year 4 - Spring

Year 5 - Fall

Year 5 - Spring

Master’s Plan B

Dissertation

1. Preliminary Oral Comprehensive Examination (Preliminary Defense)

2. Final Oral Examination (Dissertation Defense)

3. Final Submission

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