Program Overview

Introduction to the Joint Ph.D. Program in Behavioral Economics

The Joint Ph.D. Program in Behavioral Economics is a pioneering program offered by Carnegie Mellon University's Tepper School of Business and the Department of Social and Decision Sciences. This program is designed to equip students with the technical, leadership, and business skills needed to drive innovation and advance their careers in the field of behavioral economics.

Program Overview

The Joint Ph.D. Program in Behavioral Economics builds on the world-renowned faculty from the Department of Social and Decision Sciences and the outstanding Economics faculty from the Tepper School of Business. Students in this joint program will have access to world-class experts in decision science, organizational behavior, statistics, marketing, and many other areas. Research facilities like the Center for Behavioral and Decision Research and the BEDR Policy Lab will also be key resources for students.

Program Requirements

The program is rather flexible, allowing students to redefine their educational goals as their interests grow and change. The design of this Ph.D. program is based on a full-time commitment, including summers, and on the completion of the activities listed below.

Course Work

• Twelve semester-length Ph.D. courses, with at least four of these courses being methodology courses.
• Students may use at most one independent study towards completion of the non-methodology coursework.
• Courses must be completed by the end of the 5th semester and only grades of B or better will be counted toward this requirement.
• Students must also attend the SDS Ph.D. seminar during their first year of residence in the program.

Pre-Candidacy Research Papers

• During their first two years of study, students are required to write summer papers on an original research topic that interests them.
• The papers will normally be completed during the summer of their first and second years of the program.
• Each paper needs to be approved by a three-person committee.
• The second paper needs to be successfully defended to a quorum of faculty (a quorum consists of more non-committee members than committee members in attendance).
• The papers must have co-chairs from Tepper and SDS (tenure-track or research-track).

Qualifying Exams

• On the SDS side, students must pass the SDS "Psychology of Decision Making" (Judgment) and "Behavioral Economics" (Choice) qualifiers.
• They are expected to do so at the end of their first summer, but they will have the option to retake a failed exam by the end of January in their second year.
• On the Tepper side, students will be required to pass the Microeconomics (Micro 1, 2, and 3) qualifiers and 2 out of the 3 Macroeconomics Qualifiers questions.
• They are also expected to pass the Tepper qualifying exam in econometrics, or they may take the Heinz quantitative requirements course sequence and take a qualifying examination based on that course sequence.

TA Requirements

• TA requirements depend on which program a student is admitted to.
• Students admitted (and funded) through SDS must TA a semester-length course for SDS in each semester they are enrolled.
• Students admitted and funded through Tepper must complete 14 units of TAing/Teaching for Tepper prior to graduation.
• TAing is permitted only with special approval prior to the 4th semester.
• Students admitted through Tepper must also teach one Tepper course, typically during their 4th summer.

Dissertation

• Students must successfully propose their dissertation by the end of the 7th semester.
• The proposal must meet the applicable rules of the admitting unit (Tepper or SDS).
• The dissertation committee must have co-chairs from Tepper and SDS (tenure-track or research-track).
• With approval of the student’s dissertation co-chairs, a student may petition the chair of the PhD committee at Tepper and/or the Graduate Education Committee at SDS for a one-semester extension to this deadline.
• Students must defend their dissertation by the end of the 7th year.

Review of Students

• Every spring semester, both SDS and Tepper will separately evaluate the students to determine their standing.
• Each unit can separately decide to keep or dismiss a student.
• Both Tepper and SDS must approve to retain a student to remain in the joint program.
• One department may decide to dismiss a student from the joint program.
• In this case, the other unit can agree to retain the student but the student will no longer be in the joint program.
• Both units may wish to dismiss the student, and in this case the student will be dismissed from CMU.