Economics (Graduate Program)

For information regarding the UNDERGRADUATE PROGRAM, click here.  

Program Overview

The Department of Economics has 15 full-time faculty members actively engaged in research, nine of whom have been awarded named professorships in recognition of their excellence in research and teaching. In addition, the Journal of Labor Research is edited within the department. The Department of Economics also houses the Economics and Policy Research Group, which among other functions publishes the annual Louisiana Economic Outlook.

The graduate program in economics provides students with a strong foundation in microeconomic and macroeconomic theory and econometrics. To complement the general theory sequence, the department offers areas for specialization that include econometrics, advanced macroeconomics, and applied microeconomics. The advanced macroeconomics field consists of courses selected from economic growth, advanced macroeconomic topics, international macroeconomics, and monetary economics. The applied microeconomics field consists of courses selected from health economics, labor economics, public economics, and game theory.

Administration

Admission

Applicants for graduate studies in Economics must meet the requirements for admission to the Graduate School and be accepted by the Department of Economics. Detailed information can be found at the Graduate School website, under the Prospective Students link. Note that the LSU Graduate School Requirements, in addition to the ones specific to the Department of Economics described in the next paragraph, are only for consideration and do not guarantee admission.

In addition to the Graduate School requirements, students should have completed undergraduate courses in calculus, statistics, and intermediate microeconomics and macroeconomics before entering either the MS or PhD programs. It would be preferable for students interested in pursuing the PhD degree to take at least a year of calculus, a linear algebra course, probability, and statistics.

Non-economic majors with strong academic records and the requisite math and statistics background are encouraged to apply. However, individuals with these qualifications will be required to work through intermediate macroeconomics and microeconomics textbooks on their own by the end of the summer preceding entry into the PhD program. A list of suitable textbooks will be supplied by the department.

The department also requires three letters of recommendation. We do not require writing samples.

Financial Assistance

All PhD students, both domestic and international, including entering graduate students, are eligible to apply for assistantships. A full-time graduate student assistant currently receives a stipend, and is also provided a full tuition waiver. Students holding assistantships are expected to assist the faculty in their research and teaching for a maximum of 20 hours per week. Teaching assistantships, which involve teaching an entire section, are available to those advanced graduate students who have successfully passed the PhD qualifying exams.

Graduate School Supplemental Awards are sometimes available to outstanding graduate students entering the PhD program. These awards range from $1,000 to $3,000 per year and are generally renewable for a maximum of four years. A minimum GPA of 3.0 every semester is required to retain the award. Summer stipends for teaching or research have been available in the past and will be available in the future, but their number varies from summer to summer.

Graduate Faculty

(check current listings by department by clicking this link)

Selected Faculty Publications

Jeffery V. Butler, “Trust and Cheating,” Economic Journal, 2016, with L. Guiso and P. Giuliano.

Programs

• Economics, Ph.D.

• Economics, M.S.

• Econometrics