BPP Course Requirements

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• This page is in the BPP category

This page lays out the informal course requirements for new BPP PhD students. Although we take no responsibility for your choices, this guide should also help you to meet all of the formal requirements as painlessly as possible.

You must take the following courses in your first year unless you have a waiver (try to get one for 297B if you can as it is particularly pointless - generally waivers are hard to get, though at least one student has historically waived 201B, and Ed waived 297B):

First Year Classes

Summer:

• ECON204 (Math Camp)

Fall:

• ECON201A (Micro - Consumer Choice and Game Theory)
• BPP Class #1 (See below)
• PHDBA297B (Research Methods)
• and a metrics class, which should probably be ECON240A (Econometrics 1) but see the note below

Spring:

• ECON201B (Micro - Mechanism Design and Agency Theory, and General Equilibrium)
• BPP Class #2 (See below)
• PHDBA300 (Teaching Business)
• and a metrics class, which should possibly be ECON240B (Econometrics II).

If you get a waiver for a class you must still take 12 credits in the Fall and Spring terms, but if you didn't waive Math Camp you can count those credits in the Fall if you waive Research Methods.

Second Year Classes

Fall:

• BPP Class #3
• PHDBA279S (Student Seminar)

Spring:

• BPP Class #4
• PHDBA279S (Student Seminar)

You should also take the OEW Seminar in your second year and beyond.

BPP Classes

The more observant of you will have noticed that I included four BPP classes:

• BPP Class #1
• BPP Class #2
• BPP Class #3
• BPP Class #4

• Historically they have been taught in the following pairs, which order you will get the pair in depends on whether your are the even/odd cycle (with 2010 students being an even cycle):
• PHDBA279C (Innovation/Corporate Strategy)
• ECON224 (Institutions - this is effectively PHDBA279D)

and

• PHDBA279A (Political Science)
• PHDBA279B (Contracts)

(Note that the links take you to the historic pages - and there is *a guide to CCNs here)

Econometrics Classes

I took the ECON240A and ECON240B econometrics sequence. These, particularly 240B, are quite hard courses and certainly harder than their ARE equivalents. That said, if you put in the work you'll pass with flying colours. ARE210, ARE211, ARE212, and ARE213 are the courses that might in some combination replace ECON240A and ECON240B. I don't know what the correct combination is. You could ask Neil Thompson - he won't mind an emailand is likely to know.

I heard indirectly that Ernesto Dal Bo (the field advisor for 2010) is requiring students to take the ECON sequence. I also understand that many new second years are opting to take ARE213 to further their education. Perhaps this should be discussed on the discussion page?

Seminars in the first year

You do NOT have to, and should not, register for PHDBA279S (the student seminar) or PHDBA297T (Economics of Innovation seminar, cross listed as ECON222) or PHDBAC270 (the Oliver Williamson Seminar, cross listed as IDS270 and perhaps another number) in the first year.

Credit Issues and a Specialization

You are required to have a certain number of credits (six I think) beyond your "core" in an underlying discipline. This is generally economics (though theoretically poli sci, psychology and sociology are possible, I don't think this has been done in a long while). ECON240B is outside of your core. So if you take one more econ class in the second year (ECON222 - the Economics of Innovation seminar counts and will give you an A for showing up) you have fullfilled this requirement.

Asking for Clarification

Also, don't hesitate to ask Pablo (the BPP peer advisor) for clarification, to ask me (Ed), or Orie or Neil, or anyone you can grab in a hallway, for help, or to ask Ernesto who is the field advisor this year.