IU School of Liberal Arts

Ph.D. in Economics Offers New Opportunity for Indiana Students

News Categories: Economics | Opportunities

A new Ph.D. program in economics has recently been approved and will provide a new option for advanced study, enhance student retention and elevate the recruitment of Economics faculty to the next level.

 "In the past, some talented students settled for the M.A. [in economics] because that was all that was available locally; now they have a choice," said Paul Carlin, Professor and Chair, Department of Economics. "Other students left Indianapolis to study for a Ph.D. in economics because there was no local option; now there is."

When the department added an M.A. degree in the early 1990s, Carlin explained, it provided an opportunity to recruit a higher level of faculty.

"Adding a Ph.D. program will enable us to elevate our faculty recruitment to the next level," Carlin said. "All students benefit when the faculty is knowledgeable in their fields and are of the highest quality."

The program, which is the culmination of a process that began many years ago, will offer health economics and philanthropy/nonprofits economics as primary fields of study.

"The Ph.D. program is ideally suited to IUPUI," added William Blomquist, Dean of the Indiana University School of Liberal Arts at IUPUI, which is home to the Department of Economics and the new degree program. "It complements and strengthens the health focus of the IUPUI campus and Indiana University’s recognized leadership in the study of philanthropy and nonprofit organizations."

The program is designed to take a minimum of four years to complete but students likely will take five years to finish, as is usual with most American Ph.D. programs in economics. The first year will focus on core topics in microeconomic theory and econometrics (the advanced statistical techniques which are specialized to economics). The second year will focus on field courses (primarily health economics and nonprofit/philanthropic economics) and on empirical research methods. The third year includes a minor in a related field like demography, epidemiology or biostatistics and seminars which help to prepare the student for the thesis. In an ideal case, the thesis is written and completed by the end of the fourth year.

"The central concentration, health economics, fits perfectly at IUPUI given the campus’ strength in the health and life sciences," Carlin says. The economics curriculum in health economics has been designed to be the best in the country. Students will have strong technical training and an abundance of interdisciplinary exposure. Graduate students will be able to take courses in public health and will be able to work on funded research projects as a part of their course of study.

The other main field is philanthropy/nonprofit economics, making this economics Ph.D. the first to offer a concentration in nonprofit organizations and philanthropic behavior. "This also utilizes IUPUI’s resources because of the presence of the IU Center on Philanthropy, widely recognized as the leader in the field of philanthropic studies," Carlin said. Students selecting this emphasis will have the opportunity to work on research funded through the Center on Philanthropy and will benefit from the opportunity to take a doctoral minor in Philanthropic Studies.

The program is now accepting students to make up the first Ph.D. class with the first classes being offered fall 2010. The application deadline is January 15, 2010, and interested students can apply online at www.iupui.edu/~gradoff/admissions. For further information, please contact:  econphd@iupui.edu.

Published on: October 12, 2009