The course requirements consist of a first-year core curriculum and eight electives. The second year is devoted to electives. In addition to the Department's own electives, students may take courses in the Carroll School of Management's Ph.D. program in finance , and in other departments of Boston College. Requests for transfer of credits earned at other institutions or for acceptance of courses taken in other departments of Boston College are handled on an individual basis. Our general policy is to accept course work taken outside the Department only if the work is judged to be comparable in quality to our own and appropriate for a Ph.D. in economics.
Students select seven elective courses primarily from the list of electives below.
Each exam is based on a two-course sequence on the subject matter. The micro and macro comprehensives are offered twice a year in late May and late August. Students generally take them immediately after the first year and begin to write field comprehensives at the end of the second year. The third year of study is devoted to the formulation and development of a thesis topic, with attendance at the weekly dissertation seminar. The thesis is approved when it is successfully defended before the committee in an oral examination.