Program Requirements
Formal credit requirements
Candidates have two options for completion of degree requirements:
- The Doctoral Preparation Option
- The Economic Data Analytics Option
Both options require 30 credits of course work. Satisfactory academic progress will require that students who have attempted 12 or fewer credits have earned a GPA of at least 2.5; those who have attempted 13 or more credits must have earned a GPA of at least 3.0. No more than 9 credits of coursework bearing grades of C or C+ may be used to meet degree requirements. More than one grade of "U" in courses that are graded S/U also constitutes a failure to maintain satisfactory academic progress.
Each course in the program lasts one semester and carries three credits. The required 18 credits of core course work consists of one course in mathematical methods (Introduction to Mathematical Economics), one course in computational methods (Computational Methods for Economics), two courses in economic theory (Advanced Microeconomic Theory and Advanced Macroeconomic Theory), and two courses in quantitative economics (Introduction to Econometrics plus either: Econometrics II, Applied Econometrics for Microeconomics, or Applied Econometrics for Macroeconomics).
Three (3) upper level undergraduate courses (with appropriately different workload) can be substituted for a Master's level course, as long as the Master's student does extra Master's-level work for each undergraduate class. Master's students, at the discretion of the Graduate Program Director, may be allowed to take PhD level courses (course numbers 600 and above).
Doctoral Program Preparation Option: In addition to the 18 credits of core coursework, this option requires 12 credits of first-semester Ph.D. courses, taken in the student's third semester: Economics 600, 601, 604, and 606 (606 may be optional in some cases, especially if a student does not wish to continue into the Rutgers Ph.D. program). In addition, the student must write an expository essay as described in the Economic Data Analytics option below.
Economic Data Analytics Option: In addition to the 18 credits of core coursework, this option requires 12 elective credits chosen from the data analytics elective offerings. In addition, the student must write an expository essay in a field of economics that was covered in the student's course work. It may be a paper written as part of a course in economics, or it may be based on such a course. No extra credit is given for the preparation of the essay. The essay must be approved by a member of the graduate faculty of economics.
First Semester Required Core Courses
- Economics 551: Introduction to Mathematical Economics
- Economics 552: Introduction to Econometrics
- Economics 560: Computational Methods for Economics
- Economics 585: Advanced Microeconomic Theory
Second Semester Courses (required and elective)
- Economics 586: Advanced Macroeconomic Theory (required)
- Econ 608: Econometrics II OR Econ 609: Econometrics for Micro OR Econ 610: Econometrics for Macro (one required)
- One or two elective courses
Third Semester Courses
- Doctoral Prep option: Economics 600, 601, 604, and 606 (all required*)
- Data Analytics option: two or three elective courses
Recommended Doctoral Prep elective courses include:
- Economics 620: Economics of the Labor Market
- Economics 624: Public Finance I
- Economics 628: International Economics I
- Economics 641: Uncertainty and Imperfect Information
- Economics 642: Topics in Game Theory
- Economics 644: Networks and Complexity in Economics
Recommended Data Analytics elective courses include:
- Economics 570: Economic Data Science: Elements of Machine Learning Methods
- Economics 571: Economic Forecasting and Big Data
- Economics 607: Econometrics I
- Economics 608: Econometrics II
- Economics 630: Financial Economics I
- Economics 631: Financial Economics II
- Economics 716: Seminar in Applied Econometrics
- Economics 422: Advanced Cross-Sectional and Panel Econometrics
- Economics 423: Advanced Time Series and Financial Economics
- Economics 424: Advanced Analytics for Economic Data
- Economics 644: Networks and Complexity in Economics
- Other courses in computational methods in economics and econometrics will be added.
- Other electives from the doctoral prep electives listed above.
Academic Standing
The minimum cumulative grade point average required for graduation is 3.0 for all courses taken at Rutgers after admission to the MA program. In addition, no more than 9 of the required 30 semester hours of approved graduate credits (i.e., no more than 3 of the 10 required courses) may receive grades of "C" or lower. If a student takes a course a second time, both the original grade and the repeated grade contribute to the grade-point average in the standard way (that is, a poor course grade cannot be replaced in the calculation of cumulative GPA by a better grade if the course is retaken).
Transfer of Credits
Up to 9 credits of acceptable graduate credits not used to satisfy the requirements of another graduate degree may be permitted to be applied towards meeting the requirements of the Economics Masters degree. This is subject to individual consideration and approval. Credit transfers are not effective until a student's second semester in the MA program.