Economic Capstone Paper Option, M.A.

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A program of study plan must be completed by the student in consultation with and approved by the department’s Faculty Program Director. The Program of Study plan lists the required and elective courses to be taken by the graduate student to meet the degree requirements of the master’s degree program. The student also must declare s/he will write an analytic capstone paper (program total 33 credit hours). The Program of Study must be approved by the department’s Faculty Program Director and submitted to Office of Academic Assistance by the end of the first year or after eighteen (18) semester credit hours of coursework have been completed.

The Program of Study form is available at:

Program of Study Form

Degree Requirements

To receive the M.A. Economics degree with the completion of an analytical capstone paper, a minimum of 33 credit hours of graduate coursework beyond the baccalaureate degree as approved by the Faculty Program Director through an approved Program of Study plan (described above) and an analytic capstone must be completed.

Required Courses (9 Credit Hours)

ECON 8100 - Applied Microeconomic Analysis 3 Credit Hours
ECON 8110 - Macroeconomic Analysis 3 Credit Hours

Choose:

Choose one of the following two courses:

ECON 8740 - Applied Statistics and Econometrics 3 Credit Hours
MATH 6751 - Mathematical Statistics I 3 Credit Hours

Research Skill Requirement (3 Credit Hours)

Select one of the following:

ECON 8840 - Applied Statistics and Econometrics II 3 Credit Hours
MATH 6752 - Mathematical Statistics II 3 Credit Hours
A course chosen in consultation with the Faculty Program Director

Elective Fields (6 Credit Hours)

A minimum of two courses in one of the following areas must be completed:

Environmental, Urban, and Regional Economics (EURE)
Experimental Economics
International Economics
Labor Economics
Public Finance
Program Evaluation
Quantitative Methods

The list of courses available for each of these fields is provided below. The list is not exhaustive as in many cases there may be several different courses that could satisfy the field requirement. Students should consult and obtain approval for the courses that will constitute their field from the Faculty Program Director as part of the Program of Study plan.

EURE

ECON 8300 - Urban Economics 3 Credit Hours
ECON 8320 - Environmental and Natural Resource Economics and Theory 3 Credit Hours
Other related courses with approval from the Faculty Program Director

Experimental Economics

ECON 8230 - Experimental Economics 3 Credit Hours
Other related courses with approval from the Faculty Program Director

International Economics

ECON 8470 - International Public Economics 3 Credit Hours
ECON 8600 - Economics of Development 3 Credit Hours
ECON 8850 - International Trade 3 Credit Hours
ECON 8860 - Economics of Global Finance 3 Credit Hours
Other related courses with approval from the Faculty Program Director

Labor Economics

ECON 8220 - Human Resources and Labor Markets 3 Credit Hours
ECON 8210 - Health Economics and Policy 3 Credit Hours
ECON 8899 - Causal Inference and Evidence-based Policy 3 Credit Hours
ECON 8310 - Economics of Educational Policy 3 Credit Hours
Other related courses with approval from the Faculty Program Director

Public Finance

ECON 8080 - Economics of the Public Sector 3 Credit Hours
ECON 8450 - Issues in Public Programs and Tax Policy 3 Credit Hours
ECON 8460 - Economics of the State and Local Public Sector 3 Credit Hours
ECON 8470 - International Public Economics 3 Credit Hours
Other related courses with approval from the Faculty Program Director

Program Evaluation

ECON 8899 - Causal Inference and Evidence-based Policy 3 Credit Hours
PMAP 8521 - Evaluation Research: Design and Practice 3 Credit Hours
ECON 8310 - Economics of Educational Policy 3 Credit Hours
Other related courses with approval from the Faculty Program Director

Quantitative Methods

ECON 8000 - Coding in R for Policy Analytics 3 Credit Hours
ECON 8720 - Introduction to Data Management and Analysis 3 Credit Hours
ECON 8780 - Financial Econometrics 3 Credit Hours
ECON 8899 - Causal Inference and Evidence-based Policy 3 Credit Hours
ECON 8980 - Research in Economics 3 Credit Hours
MGT 8040 - Data Mining 3 Credit Hours
MGT 8150 - Business Modeling 3 Credit Hours
PMAP 8101 - Data Analysis and Visualization 3 Credit Hours
Other related courses with approval from the Faculty Program Director

Five Economic Courses (15 Credit Hours)

Choose five economic courses chosen in consultation with the Faculty Program Director and approved on your Program of Study

Analytic Capstone Paper

A high-quality paper, approved by the student’s major professor and the department’s Faculty Program Director, demonstrating that the student has the ability to examine an economic problem at a level consistent with advanced graduate coursework in economics and data analytics.

Graduate Assistant Requirement

Please note, graduate assistants are required to enroll for a minimum of 12 credit hours each Fall and Spring semester and 9 credit hours each Summer semester. These credits hours consist of courses required for the prescribed 33 credit hours program of study, as well as additional hours of ECON 8999 Masters in Research Economics.