Ph.D. course planning recommendations
for students working on FSRG projects

The PhD program in the AAE is essentially designed around a 2.5 year course training platform with 1.5 years to complete any elective course training and meet the department's dissertation requirements. Most students with a MS degree in (ag) economics or considerable advanced undergraduate training can begin on the advanced track. Students transitioning from foreign destinations or with limited training in microeconomics should start on the standard track.

Students that receive a B or higher in both Econ711 and Econ713 are not required to take the micro-theory preliminary exam (i.e. Automatic Advance Option). Students with a grade of BC or lower in either Econ711 or Econ713 are required to sit for the microeconomics preliminary exam given in the summer after completing the course sequence. Retakes of failed preliminary exams are possible with a successful petition to the AAE graduate committee.

The accelerated track is only for students with a very strong microeconomics background. This track allows for one additional elective course in an 18-course planning sequence because the student does not take AAE635. Students should carefully weigh the risks of taking Econ711 and Econ713 too early against the benefit of more flexibility in their 2.5-year course training.

Though there are no departmental or university requirements, students on FSRG funding are urged to:

A) receive complete training in industrial organization topics and methods by taking the following courses:

• AAE747 Applied Industrial Organization of the Food System
• Econ761 Industrial Organization Theory
• Econ762 Empirical Analysis-Industrial Organization & Public Policy

B) try to publish a first-year paper. The first year course sequence AAE635, AAE636, AAE637, AAE705 is designed to prepare students for basic applied microeconomics, econometric analysis, writing, and publishing papers for peer reviewed journals. Student on FSRG funding are expected to work with a faculty member to prepare a proposal for AAE636, complete an article for AAE636, and complete the process with peer review submission during the summer of their first year or during their second year at the UW.

C) choose from the following areas of additional emphasis in their minor field course or in their elective courses:

Finance

• AAE706 Risk
• FIN920 Theory of Finance I
• FIN921 Theory of Finance II

Trade

• Econ871 International Economics I
• Econ872 International Economics II

Operations Research (programming)

• CompSci525 Linear Programming Methods
• CompSci635 Tools and Environments for Optimization
• CompSci726 Nonlinear Programming Theory and Applications
• CompSci727 Nonsmooth Optimization
• CompSci730 Nonlinear Programming Algorithms
  

Econometrics/Statistics

• Econ715 Econometrics
• Econ718 Econometrics
• Econ719 Econometrics

Students in the AAE are required to select a field of emphasis: Economics of Agriculture (EA), Development (DV), Natural Resource Economics (NR) or Community Economics (CE). Most students on FSRG funding choose the Economics of Agriculture. Students in the EA must take three of the following four courses:

• AAE 740 Advanced Production/Technology
• AAE 743 Advanced Consumption Analysis
• AAE 747 Advanced Industrial Organization
• AAE 741 Advanced Policy Analysis

Each student is required pass an AAE field preliminary exam. This exam is offered by each field typically in August and January. See the AAE graduate handbook for more details.