Doctor's degree in Economics at Harvard University

 

online students

Doctor's Degree in Economics at Harvard University

Harvard University
Doctor's degree
Economics

- Quick Request -

Request Information
from Harvard University
Now!
Email me this page.
Add to MyList
View MyList
-Degree Requirements-
The graduate program of the Department of Economics is addressed to students of high promise who wish to prepare themselves in teaching and research or for responsible positions in government, research organizations, or business enterprises. Admission to the program is limited to candidates for the PhD. Students are expected to devote themselves full-time to their program of study.

Students who seek the AM degree only cannot be admitted.

There are seven major requirements for the doctoral degree. They are (1) taking a written examination in economic theory, (2) satisfying course requirements in distribution and in quantitative methods, (3) writing a research paper in the second year, (4) taking a course entitled "Critical Perspectives in Economic Theory", (5) taking an oral examination on two special fields selected by the student, (6) presenting a seminar on the student's research, and (7) preparing a doctoral dissertation.

The student is expected to satisfy the first four requirements within two years of residence. The department does not assume that students will have completed their professional training by that time, but does expect them to have formed an appreciation of the discipline of economics, to have settled on their personal fields of interest, and to have learned to apply their discipline to those fields. The examinations are designed to verify that the candidate has attained a broad integration of this sort.

Several kinds of knowledge are required of a professional or academic economist. An economist must understand the nature of long-term changes in the economy (economic history); the best thinking about the ways in which economic units interact with each other and with their environment, respond to change, and develop over time (economic theory and its intellectual development); and the techniques by which economic data are assembled, evaluated, and analyzed (statistical method and its application). In addition an economist needs the discipline and versatility gained by detailed study of some economic problems and policy areas (the optional fields).

View more details on Harvard University.

Request Information
from Harvard University
Now!