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MA in Economics PhD in Economics Mathematics Preparation Course Graduate Course List Areas of Concentration MA in Economics The masters program provides a thorough grounding in modern economic analysis. The program blends theory, quantitative methods and policy analysis. Every masters student is required to take the equivalent of eight one-term courses. The courses begin in September and end in April, with the subsequent few months allocated to the completion of essays and projects. Students are expected to complete the requirements for their degrees by late July. The following courses are compulsory for masters students:
A student who has a particularly strong background in econometrics can elect to write the econometrics waiver exam. Students who pass this exam are allowed to replace the first term of economics 767 with an option. Such students take the second term of economics 767 and complete the econometrics project. Credit for economics 767 will appear on their transcripts. Click here for past econometrics waiver exams. Each student is allowed to take up to two one-term graduate courses offered by other departments. For example, a number of students have recently taken finance courses offered by the DeGroote School of Business. Other students have taken courses in health sciences and in statistics. Students wishing to take a course outside of the economics department must obtain the approval of the graduate chair (economics) and of the course instructor. PhD in Economics A student in the doctoral program must successfully complete three sets of requirements: coursework, comprehensive exams, and thesis. These stages should be completed in 4-5 years. A doctoral candidate must complete the theory sequence (consisting of 721, 722, 723 and 724), the econometrics course (767), and eight one-term electives. It is likely that a student promoted from our own masters program will already have completed the required courses and two electives; such a student would require six more electives. Students coming to McMaster to do their doctoral work are generally given credit for masters courses taken elsewhere, although most of these students are required to take the full theory sequence and the econometrics course. The electives must be chosen so that the student satisfies the coursework requirements of his chosen fields (see the list below). A doctoral candidate must also pass comprehensive exams in microeconomic theory, macroeconomic theory and two fields. The available fields are:
Students are given wide latitude in their choice of thesis topic, but each topic must be approved by a supervisory committee consisting of three faculty members. Students who have reached the thesis stage of their program must attend the graduate students’ workshop and give several presentations on their research. Once a thesis has been submitted, the student must defend his work at an oral examination. Mathematics Preparation Course All students registering in economics 721 or 723 are required to take the mathematics preparation course, an intensive four-day refresher course in mathematics. This course is given in early September, prior to the start of the regular graduate courses. After the completion of this course, students are required to write an exam testing their mathematics preparation. The score on this exam will count as 10% of each student’s final grade in economics 721 and in economics 723. Click here for the course website. Graduate Course List Some of the courses most frequently offered are described below. All courses except 767 are half courses. 703
Experimental economics 710
Population economics 711 Topics in population economics An advanced course in population economics, only available for PhD students choosing population economics as a field. 721 Microeconomic theory I This course covers basic graduate-level microeconomic theory, including constrained optimization, theory of the household and the firm and decisions under uncertainty. Other topics in applied and theoretical microeconomics may be covered as well. 722 Microeconomic theory II Topics may include dynamic optimization, general equilibrium analysis, the economics of information, mechanism design, applications of bargaining theory to the theory of markets, public goods, and applications of cooperative game theory to competitive economies. 723 Macroeconomic theory I This is a course in macroeconomic theory rather than macroeconomic issues. It will focus on the tools of dynamic general equilibrium theory and their application to various problems in modern macroeconomics. This course will deal primarily with real (as opposed to monetary) models and issues. 731 Public finance Topics covered may include positive and normative theories of taxation, an analysis of recent discussions of tax reform and the provision of public goods including voluntary contribution mechanisms, voting and the theory of bureaucracy. 733
Topics in public economics 736 Environmental and resource economics The course covers selected issues in the management of natural resources and the environment. Possible topics include the theory of externalities and policy instruments for remedying the associated market failure, management of renewable and nonrenewable common property resources, contingent valuation, ecological indicators and the measurement of natural resource and environmental variables in the national accounts. 741 Monetary economics Topics may include: demand for money, inventory, portfolio and monetarist approaches; money and wealth; money, neutrality and welfare in static and dynamic models; supply of money and welfare; money in overlapping-generations models; aggregation problems and the quantity of money; money in new classical economics; nature of money; term structure of interest rates. 745 Advanced macroeconomics The course covers stochastic dynamic general equilibrium models in different fields of macroeconomics. Topics may include business cycle theory, numerical methods, open-economy models (real and monetary), heterogenous-agent models, asset pricing and growth theory. 751 International trade, development and investment The neoclassical or real theory of international trade is presented in a general equilibrium format using geometrical and mathematical methods. A central application of these methods is to the trade problems of developing countries. Topics therefore may include North-South trade, export-led growth, commercial policy, elective protection, foreign investment, integration, savings, financial development and income distribution. 752 International finance The emphasis is on exchange rates and balance of payments theories. Topics include Mundell-Fleming open economy models, the asset approach to the balance of payments, theories of devaluation, and monetary and fiscal policies and international policy co-ordination. 753 Topics in international economics 766 Quantitative methods Topics include methods of seasonal adjustment, alternative forecasting techniques, price indexes, demographic modeling and projection, and input-output analysis. 767
Econometrics Term
1 and Term
2 Topics include linear regression, generalized least squares, simultaneous equations models and various selected topics. 768 Advanced econometrics This course builds on the material in 767. Topics include: asymptotic theory applied to M-estimation; other estimation methods such as GMM, minimum chi-square, and nonparametric; applications of these methods. 769 Applied microeconometrics The main topic of the course is the application of econometric techniques to the study of household behaviour. Topics may include expenditure systems, the relationship of consumption patterns, labour supply, and savings behaviour, aggregation, price indices and household production. There are extensive illustrations employing household microdata. 771 Analytical approaches to economic policy Half of the course will cover micro-oriented policy issues in the areas such as Health Economics, Environmental Economics, Labour Economics and Taxation. The other half will cover macro-oriented policy issues such as monetary policy, the exchange rate, inflation, social policy under globalization, aging populations and debt reduction, and tax reform and productivity. 781 Labour economics I A survey of basic labour economics. Topics include labour demand, labour supply, and the determination of equilibrium wages in competitive markets. Sources of wage differentials in competitive markets, such as human capital investment and compensating differentials, are examined, as are the effects on labour markets of government policies such as minimum wages, immigration restrictions, occupational health and safety regulations, and subsidies to education. 782
Labour economics II This course surveys state-of-the-art research in labour economics. Recently covered topics include asymmetric information models of strikes; estimation of duration models; recent trends in wage structure, firm size, unionization, and self employment; the impact of international competition and technological change on labour markets; and modeling dynamic family labour supply decisions. 788 Health economics The emphasis is on the economic analysis of the organization, financing and utilization of health services. Theory and empirical evidence relating to patterns of consumer and provider behaviour are examined, as are the functioning and regulation of markets for health services. Economic aspects of major public policy issues in the provision of health care in Canada are considered in detail. 789 Economic planning A review of methods and applications of planning models for economic development. Topics may include the theory of economic policy, input-output analysis, linear and non-linear programming, shadow prices, project evaluation and expert systems. 791 Topics in advanced health economics This
course
continues from 788 and further analyses major public policy
issues associated with health. Areas of Concentration The department has particular strengths in the following areas:
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