Doctoral Policies and Procedures

Course information

Students are required to complete a minimum of 16 graduate level courses, of which eight at most can be transferred from other programs, schools or universities. Up to four courses per semester may be counted toward the overall requirement of 16 courses. The eight courses taken in the first year usually consist of five required core courses in economics, finance, and econometrics courses (see below), two or three required accounting core courses (ACCT 9300, ACCT9400, ACCT9410, ACCT9420, ACCT9430 depending on which courses are being offered that year), and sometimes one elective. In the second year, students take the remaining required accounting core courses (from the above list), and additional elective courses in economics, statistics, finance, management, or law. In the third year, students take any remaining electives, one of which can be the workshop colloquium (ACCT9810). Some students also occasionally construct individualized independent studies with faculty (ACCT9990), but only one independent study is allowed to count toward the 16 required CUs.

Accounting Courses

Accounting Core (required):

ACCT 9300 – Empirical Design in Accounting Research (1 credit)
ACCT 9400 – Research in Accounting I (1 credit)
ACCT 9410 – Research in Accounting II (1 credit)
ACCT 9420– Research in Accounting III (1 credit)
ACCT 9430 – Research in Accounting IV (1 credit)

Economics Courses

Economics Core (required):

ECON 6100 – Microeconomic Theory (1 credit)
ECON 6110 – Game Theory and Applications (1 credit)
Students may, with prior approval of the Accounting PhD coordinator, satisfy this requirement by taking ECON 7300/7310.

Econometrics/Statistics Courses

Econometrics/Statistics Core (required)*

STAT 5150 – Advanced Statistical Inference I (1 credit)
STAT 5160 – Advanced Statistical Inference II (1 credit)
*In extraordinary cases, with approval of the Accounting PhD coordinator, a student may satisfy the Econometrics/Statistics requirement with other course sequences.

Finance (1 course)

FNCE 9110 – Financial Economics (required)

Six additional graduate level course electives commonly taken by accounting doctoral students include:

Accounting Electives:

ACCT 9810 – Workshop Colloquium (0.5 credit)
ACCT 9820 – Workshop Colloquium (0.5 credit)

Common Finance Electives:

BEPP 9110 – Empirical Public Policy
BEPP 9520 – Economics and Law
FNCE 9120 – Corporate Finance and Financial Institutions
FNCE 9210 – Introduction to Empirical Methods in Finance
FNCE 9230 – Financial Economics Under Imperfect Information
FNCE 9260 – Empirical Methods in Corporate Finance

Other Electives:

MGMT9700 – Applied Methods in Management Research
MLA 5410 – Academic Writing and Research Design
OIDD 9120 – Introduction to Optimization

Workshop colloquium elective course (ACCT 9810 and ACCT 9820) – Students attend workshops in departments outside of accounting to provide student exposure to theory, research designs and methods that are being explored outside of accounting to provide breadth of exposure to foster innovative research ideas For each course, students are required to attend 7 non-accounting workshops over one semester and write up a referee report before the workshop for 4 of those workshop papers. Students can take one or both ACCT 9810/9820 (0.5 CU each) courses during a single semester, split the two courses over two semesters, or take just one of the two courses.

Grades
In order to remain in good standing, a student must maintain at least a Grade Point Average of a “B” or better.

Students must pass all required courses with a grade of B- or better. A student that receives an “F” in any of the required courses can be asked to leave the program.

 

Requirements to move onto candidacy

Preliminary examination

The accounting preliminary examination is given once each year, usually in late May after the student’s second year in the program. All students enrolled in the Wharton PhD Program in Accounting must take the preliminary examination. If a student fails the examination, the student may retake the exam the following year. In some cases, and at the discretion of the accounting doctoral coordinator, alternative post-examination arrangements may be made for students that performed satisfactorily on some, but not all, portions of the exam. If a student fails the examination twice, the student will not normally be allowed to continue in the program as a PhD student.

Annual paper requirements

To remain in good standing, students are required to write and present a research paper in each year of the program.

First-year paper

The first-year summer paper provides an opportunity to learn research skills outside of the classroom experience. Students interact with a faculty member in directed research in a field in which the student has an interest. All first-year students are required to submit a research proposal by June 15th that must be signed off by one accounting faculty advisor. The paper is written over the summer and must be turned in to the faculty advisor for sign off by September 5th of their second year (sign off forms are available from the department business administrator). The first-year paper must then be presented to the full faculty in a workshop (usually scheduled during September of the second year – the doctoral coordinator will assign workshop dates to all students).

Second-year paper

The second-year summer paper is intended to build a foundation for the dissertation. All second-year students are required to submit a research proposal by June 30th that must be signed off by two accounting faculty advisors. The paper is written over the summer and must be turned in to the faculty advisors for sign off by October 30th of their third year (sign off forms are available from the department business administrator). The second-year paper must then be presented to the full faculty in a workshop (usually scheduled during November or December of the third year – the doctoral coordinator will assign workshop dates to all students).

Third, fourth and fifth-year papers

Students are expected to present a research paper in the fall semester of each subsequent year in the program. No formal sign off procedures are required, but regular mentoring from faculty is highly advisable. The paper presented in the third year of the program is ideally an early draft of a dissertation chapter, but the student may present an alternative research paper if agreed upon by the doctoral coordinator. However, to remain in good standing in the program, the fourth- and fifth-year paper presentations must be a draft chapter of the dissertation.

Paper requirements

The Accounting Department sets a high standard for the papers, proposals, and dissertations we require to be written and presented. This is our main tool for assessing the progress of our students and their research potential, so we demand a high threshold for passing the requirements. Papers, presentations, proposals, and dissertations are evaluated as follows:

 

1. Pass – the paper successfully demonstrates the student’s ability to conduct and report on original and independent research.
2. Conditional Pass – the paper shows potential, and the student has done quite a lot already, but there is room for minor revisions. The doctoral coordinator and selected faculty will set conditions that must be met before the paper can be considered a “Pass.”
3. Major Revision Required – the paper shows potential, and the student has made some progress, but there is room for thorough revisions. The faculty may require that the student successfully revise the paper by a given date before being granted a passing grade on the paper requirement (the student may also be required to present the paper again at a later date).
4. Fail – the paper does not show a promising path forward. In some cases, this might trigger dismissal from the program. In other cases, the student will be asked to start identifying a new topic and will be given the date required to submit a new paper and present. The PhD Coordinator will provide detailed instructions and guidance based on the particular case. 

Pre-seminar discussions

The departmental workshop colloquium is a one-hour, faculty-led discussion for all Accounting doctoral students on days when an outside visitor presents a workshop. Second, third-, and fourth- year students are required to attend (first year students are strongly encouraged to attend if their course schedule permits). In most weeks, the discussion is centered on the research paper that an outside speaker is presenting to the department.

First-year research assistantship
First-year doctoral students are assigned to a faculty member as a research assistant in the spring semester (approximately ten hours per week). Faculty members propose possible projects to the PhD coordinator, and students are matched to those projects with the student’s interests and skill development needs in mind. The assistantship encourages working relationships between faculty and students and provides personal training in research skills outside of the classroom setting.

Employment while in the Wharton Accounting PhD Program

Students in the Wharton Accounting PhD Program are not allowed to accept employment without first receiving approval from the Wharton Accounting PhD Program Coordinator. Employment requiring approval includes all paid teaching assistant or significant grading positions within the department, paid research assistant projects within the department, and all forms of paid employment outside of the accounting department.

Residency Requirement

All Wharton Doctoral Programs students must be in residency during the entirety of their PhD fellowship. In residence means that you live close enough to Penn to participate readily and consistently in-person in the intellectual life of your department and Wharton Doctoral Programs and particularly in activities that your department requires such as classes, teaching and research obligations, meeting with advisors, attending workshops and seminars. Students may petition to their PhD coordinator for permission to work elsewhere for a specified period, but such petitions should be under extenuating circumstances. The petition will be reviewed by the PhD coordinator and Vice Dean and approval is not guaranteed. If you are an international student, you will also need approval from ISSS.

The primary objective of the graduate group in applied economics is to provide a training program for students interested in the application of economic analysis to the study of markets and non-market organizations. In addition, students in other graduate groups at Wharton may benefit from courses that have a more focused approach to the use of economic analysis.

ADMISSIONS AND FINANCIAL AID

Students will apply for admission to the Wharton Program in Applied Economics, and may, if they wish, indicate a preferred field of study in their application. All else equal, the admissions committee may consider field choice in determining admission. Fellowship support will be in accordance with usual Wharton and University guidelines.

COURSE CURRICULUM

The course of study for the PhD in Applied Economics requires the completion of 15 graduate course units. The common core consists of 3 theory courses and 3 statistics/econometrics courses. Students are also expected to master two field areas by passing two courses in each (total of 4 courses units). The remaining course units necessary to achieve 15 are split between the mandatory graduate student research seminars and other electives.

CORE REQUIREMENTS

Students will be required to master core materials in economic theory covering the topics of household decision-making, production theory, theory of markets and market failure, game theory, decision-making under uncertainty, and resource allocation in dynamic economies. The following courses will satisfy the three-course economic theory requirement:

Microeconomic Theory I: ECON 7100
Microeconomic Theory II: ECON 7110
Macroeconomic Theory: ECON 7200 or 7210 or FNCE 9240

Students will be required to master core materials in applied econometrics covering the topics of statistical inference, linear regression analysis, panel regression analysis, and estimation of models using discrete dependent variables. The following courses will satisfy the three-course econometric/statistics requirement:

Econometrics: ECON 7300, FNCE 9260, ECON 8310 or ECON 7310, BEPP 9110, BEPP 9310

FIELD REQUIREMENTS

In addition to the core theory and econometrics materials, students will be required to master two applied fields by passing two courses in each field. Students will be free to offer their own field as a substitute with approval of the graduate group chair and (when relevant) an appropriate advisor from another Wharton graduate group.

• Development Economics

BEPP 9410: Development Economics

• Industrial Economics and Business Regulation:

BEPP 9870: Industrial Organization and Competition Policy
HCMG 9020: Special Topics of Health Services Research: Industrial Organization of Health Care
ECON 8450: Empirical Methods in Industrial Organization

• Market Design

BEPP 9710: Market Design

• Public Economics and Political Economy:

BEPP 9330: Public Economics: Social Insurance & Government Expenditures
HCMG 9030: Health Care Policy
ECON 8410: Public Economics I
ECON 8411: Public Economics II

•   Urban Economics and Real Estate:

REAL 9440: Quantitative Spatial Models for Urban Economics
REAL 9450: Urban Real Estate Economics
REAL 9460: Advanced Topics in Urban Economics
REAL 9470: Advanced Real Estate and Urban Economics
REAL 9480: Household Real Estate Decision-Making
REAL 9490: Cities in Developing Countries

BEPP 9040: Experimental Economics: Methods and Applications
OIDD 9000: Foundation of Decision Processes
OIDD 9040: Experimental Economics

In addition, all students must take elective courses to achieve the necessary 15 Course Credits to be eligible for Dissertation Status.

During the second and third year of the program students will be required to attend and actively participate in the graduate student research seminar. Students will also be responsible for presenting a paper of original research to the seminar before entering dissertation status. All students will also be required to attend the faculty Applied Economics Workshop during the 2nd and 3rd years.

WORKSHOPS

BEPP 9000: Research Seminar
BEPP 9620: Applied Economics Seminar

Program Template for Years 1-2

(Unless noted otherwise, all courses give 1 full credit)

Year 1		Year 2
Fall	Spring	Fall	Spring
Micro Theory I	Macro Theory	Field Course	Field Course/Elective
Micro Theory II	Econometrics II	Field Course/Elective	Field Course/Elective
Econometrics I	Econometrics III	Field Course/Elective	Field Course/Elective
	Field Course	Graduate Student Research Seminar (0.5 CU)	Graduate Student Research Seminar (0.5 CU)
		AEW/Field Seminar (0.5 CU)	AEW/Field Seminar (0.5 CU)
3 CU’s	4 CU’s	4 CU’s	4 CU’s

Qualifying Exam

At the end of first year (usually in last week of May or first week of June), students are expected to take and pass the qualifying exam for Microeconomic Theory and the qualifying exam for Econometrics. These exams are written and graded by the Wharton Applied Economics PhD Committee. If a student fails in one qualifying exam, another opportunity to take that exam will be given at the end of the second year.

Students can also request a waiver for one or both exams if they perform well in the courses associated with each exam.  A satisfactory performance for Microeconomic Theory, for example, corresponds to having an average of B or better in the Micro courses

Faculty Advisors

Students are required to select or are assigned two faculty advisors in the beginning of the second year in the program. Because the student will not have had all of the major field courses at that time, it is possible that a student will later decide to change advisors; such an eventuality will be considered a normal outcome. In addition, since students will not have had all of the major field course work by June of their first year, they should “read ahead” in their chosen fields to begin identifying a research topic for the Second Year Paper. Students are expected to initiate meetings with faculty members to discuss possible research topics, and these meetings should begin as early as possible after the student enters the program and are part of the process of getting to know the faculty and learning about the field.

Candidacy Paper

The Applied Economics program provides students with several opportunities to conduct research. All students are required to write a candidacy paper in their second year to be submitted in the summer of the second year in the program. This paper should demonstrate the student’s ability to conduct PhD quality research. This is often used as the Master’s Thesis submission- and, as the title implies, it is one of the requirements for admission to Doctoral candidacy.

The deadline for submission of the Candidacy Paper is strictly enforced, and failure to complete and submit the paper by the deadline (July 15 of the end of the student’s second year in the program) is grounds for dismissal from the program. The paper must be submitted to the faculty members who are the student’s principal advisors for the project, as well as to the Doctoral Coordinator. A copy of the candidacy paper, together with letters from two faculty members noting approval of it, must be in each student’s file in the Program office prior to the start of the student’s fifth term (typically the start of the third year). Failure to fulfill this requirement may result in the student being dropped from the program.

The main objective of the candidacy paper is to demonstrate the student’s ability to do original research.

Often the Candidacy Paper is submitted for publication, and it can also serve as the foundation for PhD research, possibly as a dissertation essay. The Candidacy Paper must be solely authored by the student, not co-authored with the faculty advisor.

Milestones on the road to the candidacy paper are as follows:

September of 2nd year in the program              Faculty advisors selected

Fall semester, 2nd year                                       Candidacy Paper proposal

Spring semester, 2nd year                                   Work on Candidacy paper
Submit final version of Candidacy Paper

Oral Field Exam

Students are required to complete an Oral Field Exam in one or two fields of their choice at the end of their second year.  Students will need to pick the field(s) and two faculty (at least one must be from the BEPP or Real Estate Department) who will provide the reading list of papers and conduct the oral field exam. The faculty selected can be the same or different from their second-year paper advisors.

Milestones for the Oral Field Exam:

• Pick one or two fields and two faculty for your oral exam by March 1^st. Let the PhD Administrator know your field and committee.
• The faculty members provide a reading list for the oral exam by June 1st.
• Schedule your oral exam any time up to September 15th. The oral exam is expected to be 1 hour in length.

Admission to Candidacy

Before admission to candidacy, the student is required to:

• Complete all required coursework, including all core courses, with at least a B+ or better in each course and with an average GPA of B or better. (For some courses, a passing grade on a qualifying exam can substitute for a grade below B-.)
• Pass both qualifying exams or request exam waivers.
• Submit a satisfactory candidacy paper.
• Successfully complete the Oral Field Exam.

The PhD Dissertation

The best ways to find a dissertation topic is to talk to the program faculty and read the literature. Discussions with faculty can range from “cold calls,” where the student asks the faculty member for topic suggestions, to more proactive visits where the student discusses potential topic ideas that have come up in course work or research seminars. Students should also take a close look at recent dissertations written by students in their major field as well as dissertations written by students from other Wharton departments.

There are two primary models for the organization of dissertations. The “single study” traditional dissertation, and the essay approach. In the latter approach, two or three essays are generally found acceptable by the student’s dissertation committee, depending on length and quality. Dissertation essays are more prevalent for a number of reasons, including most importantly,

(a) the Candidacy Paper may be permitted to constitute a substantial part of one essay,

(b) an essay can be used as an interview paper (see discussion below), and

(c) if properly structured, an essay can often be converted into a paper to be submitted to a journal. Whether two or three essays are appropriate depends on the length and complexity of the research undertaken and is determined by the student’s dissertation committee.

Dissertation essays may be co-authored, although the extent to which this is appropriate will depend on each student’s topic, doctoral committee, and faculty advisor. A circumstance where a co -authored essay might be appropriate could arise from a joint research project with a faculty member. However, the student’s dissertation must include at least one essay that is solely authored by the student.

The dissertation process must begin with the selection of a principal advisor or co-advisors. Each student is responsible for this selection, and then the student works with the advisor(s) to select the dissertation topic and begin exploratory research. The student and advisor then work together to select committee members. Committee members can be approached to join the committee by either the student or the principal advisor(s). The student should work with the advisor(s) to arrange a mutually agreeable procedure. The student should review the Wharton Doctoral Programs Policies and Procedures, to be sure that the committee structure satisfies the overall requirements of the Wharton Doctoral Program.

Important: the PhD Dissertation proposal must be defended before the end of the fourth year in the program.  Failure to defend can result in dismissal from the program.

Going on the Job Market

The ultimate objective of the Wharton Doctoral Program is to prepare our students for a teaching and research career, ideally at a college or university. Because the placement process for academic jobs is lengthy, students should become familiar with it well in advance of the “job market year.” The program provides full support for students going on the job market, and a series of meetings and timelines are provided to the students during the fourth and fifth years in the program.

Program Administration

The program will be administered by the graduate group in Applied Economics. Primary appointments in the Departments of Business Economics and Public Policy and Real Estate will be automatic members of the graduate group and comprise the initial membership of the graduate group. The graduate group can extend membership to other Wharton and University faculty as they consider appropriate.

The graduate group will decide on its preferred administrative structure. Currently, the chairs of the departments of Real Estate and Business Economics and Public Policy are responsible for jointly appointing a PhD Coordinator that will serve a two-year term, with the option to renew it for another two years.  The PhD Coordinator is also the representative for the group to the Doctoral Executive Committee.

Student Involvement

Students are expected to spend full-time on their coursework and research during the first two years of the program. In subsequent years, students are expected to work with faculty, preferably as research assistants or co-authors, thereby gaining the experience required to be successful researchers. Students are also required to TA a core course (any alternatives will need to be approved by the PhD Coordinator in each semester in their 3rd year and 4th year of the program as a funding requirement. Other activities that further the student’s research careers are encouraged, subject to the approval of the doctoral coordinator (this includes teaching assistant positions).  Failure to communicate with the doctoral coordinator about a research assistance or teaching job may result in cancellation of your scholarship.

CURRICULUM

The course of study for the PhD requires completing sixteen graduate course units, comprising a four-course unit core in the Legal Studies and Business Ethics Department, two courses in statistics, a course in economics, a five-course major disciplinary cluster, two courses in ethical theory, and two electives. Students may enroll in courses beyond these sixteen graduate courses.

Each semester, each student must have their choice of courses approved in writing by both their Advisor and the Doctoral Coordinator. Any subsequent changes to a course schedule must also be approved in writing by both Advisor and Coordinator.
PhD students must take the two LGST proseminars, LGST 9200 and LGST 9210 (described in further detail below). Students must pass a preliminary exam described below. The preliminary exams consist of a written and oral portion. In addition, students must write and defend a dissertation proposal, and write and defend a dissertation.
The course requirements are as follows:

Area	Course Units
Ethics and Law in Business Courses	4
Statistics	2
Economics	1
Major Disciplinary Cluster	5
Ethical Theory	2
Elective	2
Dissertation	–
Total	16

Students may apply for credit for graduate-level work done at other institutions.

Ethics and Law in Business Courses
Students must take four LGST courses, including these two core course seminars:

1) Ethics in Business and Economics (LGST 9200)
2) Foundations of Business Law (LGST 9210)
Students must take two additional LGST courses from a list of approved courses held by the Doctoral Coordinator. Students without strong training in moral philosophy will be required to take LGST 1000 prior to taking LGST 9200. Students without basic law work will be required to take LGST 1010 prior to taking LGST 9210. The PhD versions of 1000 and 1010 should involve assignments suitable for doctoral students (typically, a term paper as the major assignment), to be determined by the course instructor. Students will take LGST courses, other than PhD seminars, under an independent study number, meet with the instructor periodically outside class, and write a paper. Independent study courses should be taught by members of the LGST standing faculty, though exceptions will be made in special circumstances. The requirements may be adjusted for students with law degrees.

Major Disciplinary Cluster
The purpose of the cluster is to ground students in a single academic specialty other than Business Ethics.
Clusters include the following: Management, Law, and Philosophy. Students must choose a disciplinary cluster during the first year, in consultation with a faculty advisor. Required courses may not be double counted. For example, a student choosing Philosophy as the cluster may not use the two required courses in ethical theory as part of the five-course cluster requirement.

Statistics and Economics
Students must satisfy the Wharton requirement of two courses in statistics. The economics requirements can be met with Economic Foundations of Research in Management, Managerial Economics and other courses approved by the Doctoral Coordinator.

Preliminary Examinations
The Ethics & Legal Studies preliminary examination is given after students have completed LGST 9200 and LGST 9210. Each student will choose three topics that will be the focus of the exam, and a faculty advisor for each topic. In consultation with the faculty advisor, students will develop a reading list on each topic, which will constitute the material for which the student is responsible on the exam. If a student fails the examination, the student may retake the exam within a designated time span. If a student fails the examination twice, the student will not normally be allowed to continue in the program as a PhD student. The student may at the discretion of the examination committee, however, continue to complete the requirements for the Master’s Degree in Ethics & Legal Studies.

Evaluation Guidelines
All doctoral students in the Legal Studies & Business Ethics department will be evaluated by the doctoral coordinator for good standing at a meeting in early June of each academic year. The evaluation process should serve as an opportunity to offer constructive advice. However, students that are found not to be in good standing are at risk of loss of funding and dismissal from the program.

TA Training
All Ethics and Legal Studies PhD students will be required to complete the TA training through the Center for Teaching and Learning prior to becoming a TA.

Teaching
Doctoral students are expected to teach at least one LGST course prior to graduation, typically in their fourth year. The nature of the course will be decided in consultation with the Doctoral Coordinator and Department Administrator.

Student Involvement and Requirements in the Department
In addition to formal coursework, the student is expected to participate in the informal intellectual life of the Legal Studies & Business Ethics Department. This includes attendance at the department’s weekly seminar series, where visiting speakers describe current research; attendance at the monthly gatherings of the Zicklin Center’s Normative Business Ethics Workshop, plus participation in informal seminars investigating current topics of interest in a non-course setting. Students are expected to be in residence throughout their time in the program.
During their second through their fourth years, students are expected to work with faculty, as teaching assistants or research assistants, for 5 of the 6 semesters. Students will teach as sole instructor during the remaining semester (again, typically in the student’s fourth year). The Doctoral Coordinator, acting in consultation with the Chair, will make assistantship assignments. There is a presumption of rotating assignment, and students will be expected to serve as teaching assistants during at least three semesters.
Each student is required to present a research paper to the Department each academic year prior to the student’s successful proposal defense. Faculty are encouraged to attend the presentations.

Dissertation
Selecting a Dissertation Committee
By the fall of their fourth year, each student will form a dissertation committee. Membership on the committee must be approved by the PhD Coordinator. In addition, by the end of the fall of their fourth year, students will submit a preliminary draft of a dissertation proposal to the committee.
Timing of Dissertation Proposal
By the end of their fourth year, each student will submit the final draft of a dissertation proposal, and defend it. Each student is expected to complete and defend a dissertation no later than the end of the fifth year in the program.
Candidacy
A student becomes a doctoral candidate once they have successfully completed all of their coursework; passed the preliminary exam; and successfully defended their dissertation proposal. At that point, the student may denominate their status as “ABD” (all but dissertation).

Job Market
The program provides full support for students going on the job market, and a series of meetings and timelines are provided to the students during the fourth and fifth years in the program. The ultimate objective of our program is to prepare students for a teaching and research career, ideally at a college or university. Because the placement process for academic jobs is lengthy, students should become familiar with it well in advance of the “job market year.”

Evaluation
Papers, presentations, proposals, and dissertations are evaluated as follows:

1. Pass – the paper successfully demonstrates the student’s ability to conduct and report on original and independent research.
2. Conditional Pass – the paper shows potential and the student has done quite a lot already, but there is room for minor revisions. Students will be given the required date for revision submission.
3. Major Revision Required– the paper shows potential and the student has made some progress, but there is room for thorough revisions. Students will be given the date required for revision submission and to present again.

Employment While in the Wharton Ethics & Legal Studies PhD Program
Students in the Wharton Ethics & Legal Studies PhD Program are not allowed to accept employment without first receiving approval from the Wharton Ethics & Legal Studies PhD Program Coordinator. The implications of not requesting and receiving approval can be severe. The student could lose their good standing status in the program and this could result in their being asked to leave the program immediately.

Time Limitations
Students must complete all course work, the preliminary examination, and the dissertation requirement within 16 semesters, (excluding summer) from the date of their matriculation, excluding leaves of absence. Except in unusual circumstances, students will be expected to gain admission to candidacy status prior to the end of their fourth year in the program (excluding leaves of absence).

If a student has not completed all requirements for the PhD (including deposit of the dissertation) at the end of the fifth year after, they must submit to the full dissertation committee, within two months of completing that fifth year, a copy of all written work completed to date on the dissertation. If the student is unable to construct such a committee, they may be dropped from the doctoral program. If the committee deems that the submitted work is inadequate, the student may be dropped from the doctoral program. Funding is guaranteed for only the first five years of doctoral studies, and the guarantee depends on the student’s remaining in good standing throughout those five years.

PHD IN FINANCE – PROGRAM OF STUDY

Please visit :  https://fnce.wharton.upenn.edu/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/2024-2025-Finance-PhD-Program-of-Study.pdf

The Health Care Management and Economics PhD Program combines intensive training in health care management and economics, coupled with advanced training in a traditional business discipline.

Our program provides thought leadership and policy development in the following areas of distinction:

• Value of technology and innovation
• Health insurance design and reform
• Design and impact of incentives in numerous health industry contexts
• Competition and collaboration across the value chain
• The broad interprofessional/multidisciplinary work of the Leonard Davis Institute of Health Economics

Wharton’s doctoral program is unique among similar programs because it provides a strong background in microeconomic theory,
an advanced teaching of econometric and statistical techniques, a comprehensive analysis of both health economics and health care services research, and grounding in management/strategy theory and research. The doctoral program complements the course work with numerous opportunities to collaborate with faculty members in research projects exploring a wide variety of topics in the health economics and management fields.

Program Design and Core Competencies
Training in health economics and management at Penn is designed to impart core competencies required to produce knowledge that is novel and significant. The curriculum balances theoretical and factual content with skill-based methodological experience. At the program’s foundation is a commitment to rigor, excellence, and high professional standards. These core competencies include:

(1) Identifying researchable and policy-relevant topics
(2) Specifying precise research questions
(3) Evaluating existing research literature in the area
(4) Specifying rigorous yet tractable conceptual models with hypotheses whose testing will shed light on the policy relevant questions
(5) Developing a wide range of empirical skills in the collection, analysis, and interpretation of data
(6) Discussing results in clear language that can command both understanding and respect by technical and policy analysis
(7) Understanding how to best identify stakeholders in the results of the research in question, how to motivate them to attend to the results of research and appreciate its new contributions in methods, rigor, and relevance, and how to communicate those results in settings, formats and language that are understandable, compelling, and persuasive.

Disciplinary Clusters
The purpose of the disciplinary cluster is to equip candidates to conduct research in their areas of choice and to teach in fields in addition
to Health Care Management and Economics. The courses may be drawn from the following clusters:

• Economics
• Operations and Information Management
• Statistics
• Finance/Accounting
• Management
• Marketing
• Business Economics and Public Policy

PhD Requirements
The Wharton Doctoral Degree requires credit for 16 semester course units plus a dissertation. The requirements for candidates in the Health Care Management and Economics (HCM) program are as follows:

Discipline Course Units

HCM 6

Statistics 2

Microeconomics 2

Major and Minor Disciplinary Cluster 6

Dissertation –

Total 16

In practice, students have considerable flexibility in selecting courses outside their major or minor clusters, including Independent Study

A one-year graduate level sequence in statistics or in probability and statistics is required. Any of the following sample sequences can be used. Students may substitute other graduate level course upon approval of the graduate director of the Statistics department.

STAT 5000 & STAT 5010	Applied Regression and Analysis of Variance and Introduction to Nonparametric Methods and Log-linear Models
STAT 5100 & STAT 5200	Probability and Applied Econometrics I
STAT 5200 & STAT 5210	Applied Econometrics I and Applied Econometrics II
STAT 5200 & STAT 5120	Applied Econometrics I and Mathematical Statistics
STAT 5200 & STAT 5210	Applied Econometrics I and Applied Econometrics II
ECON 7300 & ECON 7310	Econometrics I: Fundamentals and Econometrics II: Methods & Models

 

Microeconomics
Select one of the following year long course combinations:
ECON 6100 & ECON 6110	Microeconomic Theory and Game Theory and Applications.
ECON 7100 & ECON 7110	Microeconomic Theory I and Microeconomic Theory II

Health Care Courses
The major field course requirements are selected from the following list. Normally, all PhD students are expected to take HCMG 9000, 9010, 9020, 9030, 9040, 9051 A&B, 9052 A&B.

PhD Level

• HCMG 9000 Proseminar in Health Economics: Models and Methods
• HCMG 9010 Proseminar in Health Economics: Health Econometrics
• HCMG 9020 Special Topics in Health Services Research: The Industrial Organization of Healthcare
• HCMG 9030 Economics of Health Care and Policy
• HCMG 9040 Doctoral Seminar in Organizational Behavior and Theory in Health Care
• HCMG 9051 A&B Health Care Management PhD Research Seminar (each semester is .25cu)
• HCMG 9052 A&B Health Care Management PhD Research Seminar (each semester is .25cu)

Masters Level

• HCMG 8450 US Payer and Provider Strategy
• HCMG 8600 Leading Health Care Organizations
• HCMG 8520 Health Services Delivery: A Managerial Economic Approach
• HCMG 8590 Comparative Health Care Systems
• HCMG 8630 Management and Economics of the Pharmaceutical & Biotech Industries

Curriculum
Students ordinarily complete all degree requirements in four to five years — two years of formal coursework, including directed research, followed by a thesis, which generally takes two years to complete. Before starting at Penn, trainees who plan to major in economics or related disciplines are strongly encouraged to take two semesters of calculus and statistics; they are also required to take the Wharton Doctoral Programs or the Economic Department’s summer math course, which is a prerequisite for PhD level economics courses. The first year of coursework is normally spent on quantitative methods, economics, and courses in the HCM or the disciplinary cluster. Typically, the student completes two Health Care Management and Economics courses during the first year. The second year is devoted to the remaining Health Care Management and Economics courses and the disciplinary cluster courses. Prelims are taken at the end of the second year. In the second and third years, students are required to participate in faculty-directed research projects for 10 hours a week. In addition, most students also participate in research during the summers, starting with their first summer. The final 2 years typically are devoted to full time work on dissertation research. The dissertation proposal defense, based on the proposed theoretical model and data analysis, and the final defense, are both open to the public. Students need to maintain a B average to maintain good standing. Students will have a year of probation to improve their status before any action may be taken. Final decision regarding any action will be made by the Doctoral Committee.

Sample Course Sequence

Year	Fall	Spring
Year 1	· Health Economics: Models and Methods · Organizational Behavior and Theory in Health Care · Microeconomic Theory · Applied Regression and Analysis of Variance	· The Economics of Health Care and Policy· Game Theory and Applications · Applied Econometrics II · Management and Economics of the Pharmaceutical & Biotech Industries
Year 2	· Structural Econometrics · Econometric Methods for Program Evaluation · Econometrics I: Fundamentals · Industrial Organization of Health Care	· Empirical Public Policy · Health Econometrics · Market Design · Empirical IO

Prelim
The preliminary exam test consists of a number of questions dealing with (1) health economics literature and critical thinking; (2) knowledge of economic theory and econometrics; and (3) knowledge of economic valuation. The exam covers all course material for year 1 and 2 as well as additional readings. A student must pass the prelim to advance to candidacy. Students, who fail their prelim, have the opportunity to retake it one other time while remaining in good standing.

Student Involvement in the Department
Students participate in faculty-supervised projects as research fellows, starting in the second year of the program. This work provides first-hand knowledge of research methods and design and often furnishes the basis for a dissertation topic. It also teaches students the art of securing funding for research, which is important for any aspiring health services researcher. Students are also expected to participate in the Leonard Davis Institute’s Research and Policy Seminar Series, which feature external speakers working on cutting-edge health services research projects and policy issues. In addition to regular seminars, all PhD students are expected to participate in the departmental colloquium, which features discussion of research in progress by faculty members, students, and guests.

Admission to Candidacy
Before admission to candidacy, the student is required to complete the course requirements as described. Health services research prelims are given at the end of the second year. The student’s disciplinary cluster prelim is usually given at the end of the first year.

LDI Associate Fellow Appointments
HCM PhD students, as well as other Penn PhD students with strong interest in health care research and are trainees of LDI Senior Fellows, are invited to apply for LDI Associate Fellow appointments, which provide funding opportunities for research as well as opportunities for research collaboration with other LDI Fellows and Senior Fellows.

For additional information on the MD-PhD program please see the University of Pennsylvania’s MD-PhD Pr

CURRICULUM

Students in PhD program in Management must complete 16 graduate-level course units:

• 2.5 CUs of required management seminars (MGMT 9000, 9330, 9340, 9530)
• 4 CUs of management electives
• 2 additional units of research methods (e.g., MGMT 9700 + 970X; + 1 additional CU)
• 2 units of a statistics sequence required by Wharton Doctoral Programs (a 5000+ STAT sequence)

• For students pursuing large-sample statistics or econometrics, usually “macro” students in the program, this requirement must be fulfilled by taking STAT 5200-5210
• 2 units of courses in social science theory (e.g., any PhD level class in the college)
• 3.5 units of free electives

Under normal circumstances, students are expected to complete the 16 credits of coursework by the end of the second year. Students can defer some credits until the third year, but this should be only under exceptional circumstances approved by the doctoral coordinator.

The following is a list of doctoral courses offered in the Management Department. Electives are taught on a two-year rotation. Required courses are taught every year.

 

Required Management Foundations
MGMT 9000: Economic Foundations on Management Research	0.5
MGMT 9330: Psychological Foundations of Management Research	0.5
MGMT 9340: Sociological Foundations of Management Research	0.5
MGMT 9530: Seminar in Research Design + linked ISP	1.0
Required Management Methods (9700 + one of 970x)
MGMT 9700: Introduction to Research Methods in Management	0.5
MGMT 9701: Quantitative Research Methods in Management: Econometrics	0.5
MGMT 9702: Applied Research Methods and Data Analysis in Organizational Behavior	0.5
MGMT 9703: Qualitative Research Methods in Management	0.5
Management Electives (Strategy)
MGMT 9250: Seminar in Corporate Strategy	0.5
MGMT 9270: Technology and Innovation Strategy	0.5
MGMT 9260: Seminar in Strategy and Organization Design	0.5
MGMT 9350: Seminar in Organization Learning	0.5
Management Electives (Entrepreneurship)
MGMT 9370: Seminar in Entrepreneurship	0.5
MGMT 9380: Seminar in Social Entrepreneurship	0.5
Management Electives (Organization Behavior)
MGMT 9520: Special Topics in Organization Theory	0.5
MGMT 9570: Special Topics in OB: Theories and Methods	0.5
MGMT 9610: Special Topics in OB: Making a Contribution	0.5
Management Electives (Multinational Management)
MGMT 9550: Foundations of Multinational Management	0.5
MGMT 9600: Seminar in Non-Market Strategy	0.5
MGMT 9620: Seminar in Management in the Global Economy	0.5
Management Electives (Human and Social Capital)
MGMT 9180: Contemporary Issues in Employment, Careers, and Work Organization	0.5
MGMT 9200: Seminar in Human Resources Research	0.5

 

Independent Study. In addition to meeting course requirements by taking courses in the Wharton or Penn catalog, students can meet certain elective requirements by taking independent study courses. These are customized programs of learning designed by the student with a faculty member. Students may take no more than 4 credits of ISPs throughout the program.

Independent study courses must be approved by the doctoral coordinator, based on the following guidelines:

• Students must submit the official ISP approval form, which requires sign off from the ISP instructor and the doctoral coordinator. Students must give the coordinator at least 2 weeks of lead time when requesting an ISP (no same-day approvals).
• In addition to the form, students must attach a proposal specifying the learning objectives and key deliverables.
• The scope of the course must be comparable to the workload required for gaining the same number of credits in a normal graduate-level course.

Transfer Credits. Up to 3 units of free electives can be transferred by related graduate-level coursework from another institution with approval from the doctoral coordinator. Approval is not automatic. The coordinator must deem that the courses are equivalent in content and rigor to what students would have taken at Wharton/Penn.

SECOND YEAR EXAM

The second‐year qualifying exam is given to allow students to demonstrate their competency in a particular management specialization (or specializations) prior to proceeding to dissertation stage. It must be taken during the month of May.

By the end of February, students choose a core specialization, and may choose a secondary specialization, from the following set of six options:

• Entrepreneurship
• Human Resources
• Multinational Management
• Organization Behavior
• Organization Theory
• Strategic Management

An examination committee is formed by 2‐4 faculty members, where the head of the committee is a subgroup member in the core specialization area. The committee membership is chosen by the core subgroup area coordinator in consultation with the doctoral coordinator; at least half the members of the committee are subgroup members in the core specialization area.

A reading list is generated by the committee in conjunction with the student. Typically, the reading list contains required and optional materials from class syllabi as well as other related articles and is supplemented with additional articles that relate to the student’s interests.

The written component of the exam contains multiple questions. Students are typically required to answer certain questions and are provided optional elections among other questions. Students are given between 8‐10 hours to complete their written responses. The exam is open book / open notes and is delivered and returned via email. The oral component of the exam is held 2‐3 days after the written component. In a session lasting between 30 minutes and 1 hour, the student answers questions intended to clarify their written responses. Throughout the duration of the exam period, students may ask clarifying questions of faculty members of their committee but are not permitted to discuss exam answers with faculty or fellow students.

After the oral exam, the committee grants a pass, a conditional pass, or a fail. “Pass” means that the student is qualified to move to dissertation stage. “Conditional pass” means that the student needs a limited amount of remedial work; in this case, the committee will require some additional writing due within one week and may request a follow-up oral exam. “Fail” means that the student has demonstrated serious deficiencies; in this case, the exam must be retaken and passed before August 15 in order for the student to remain in the program. Any student who fails a re-examination will be dismissed from the program.

Students taking the exam will officially enroll in a 0.5 CU independent study taken during Q4 in the spring of year 2. This will provide structure to the process of assembling a committee, selecting the reading list, and reading the selected articles. The chair of the committee will serve as the instructor of record for the independent study course. The final deliverables of the course will be the written and oral parts of the exam, as outlined above.

SECOND YEAR PAPER

The second-year paper requirement is designed to develop and demonstrate a student’s ability to work on a project throughout all the key stages—ideation, hypothesis development, research design, data analysis and interpretation, and writing. It is meant to help students gain experience completing the key steps of a research project as training for the dissertation. In addition, the second-year paper provides an opportunity to practice presenting a paper in a full-length research seminar format (80-90 minute). The work should be of sufficient quality to be accepted at a high-quality conference (e.g. AOM or SMS). We strongly encourage students to submit their second-year papers to a conference soon after it is completed, and to eventually submit to a prestigious journal for publication well before the job market year.

A second-year paper committee should be formed no later than March 31 of the second year. The committee includes an advisor and two readers who are faculty members of the Management department. Of the three, the advisor should be the one with the most prior exposure to the paper. The paper can be coauthored, and the student need not have had the original idea, but the student must have been involved early and deeply enough to have earned primary or co-equal authorship. A faculty coauthor cannot serve as a reader, but they can serve as the advisor.

The paper should be successfully defended no later than September 15 before the third year of the program (i.e. the summer between years 2 and 3) for students to remain in good standing. After receiving a draft of the paper, the committee will have two weeks to approve the paper as is or ask for revisions. (In practice, the advisor has seen multiple prior drafts of the paper, and the readers have provided feedback on at least some prior drafts before the official submission.) Once the committee deems that the paper is ready for presentation, the student is responsible for securing a presentation date that works for the committee and a member of the doctoral committee (typically the doctoral coordinator). All members of the department are invited to attend the presentation.

To maximize the chances of completing the paper defense on time, students should begin working on it as early as possible in year 1 and no later than the summer between years 1 and 2.

EVALUATION GUIDELINES BY YEAR IN THE PROGRAM

All doctoral students in the management department will be evaluated by the doctoral coordinator and the doctoral advisory group (the “evaluation committee”) for good standing at a meeting during the summer of each academic year. The annual feedback is based on comments provided by the faculty with whom the student interacted in the previous academic year (seminar instructors, advisor(s), committee members, coauthors, informal mentors, etc.). The evaluation process should serve as an opportunity to offer constructive advice. However, students found not to be in good standing are at risk of loss of funding and of dismissal from the program.

 

For first-year students, the following rules shall apply:

a. Grades: To remain in good standing, students must maintain a grade average of at least B+.

b. Overall evaluation: Any student who has maintained the required grade standard will be deemed to have met the academic standard for continuation in the program. Should grade performance be marginal or unacceptable, the doctoral committee will decide, following a simple majority voting rule, whether to dismiss the student from the program or to establish additional remedial work. This vote will also take into consideration feedback from the student’s first-year research assistantship supervisor as well as written feedback from any other faculty members who have significant information concerning the student’s progress. In the event of a tied vote, the doctoral coordinator will cast the deciding vote.

For second-year students, the following rules shall apply:

a. Grades: To remain in good standing, students need to maintain a grade average of at least B+ with no “permanent incompletes” (terminology used by the university to indicate an incomplete more than a year old, denoted by I* on the transcript).

b. Second-year qualifying examination: See above for specific guidelines.

c. Overall evaluation: Any student who the committee unanimously declares to have passed the exam and has maintained the required grade standard will be deemed to have met the academic standard for continuation in the program. Should grade or exam performance be marginal, the evaluation committee and examination committee will jointly decide, following a simple majority voting rule, whether to dismiss the student from the program or to establish additional remedial work. This vote will also take into consideration feedback from the student’s first- and second-year research assistantship supervisor(s), the grade on the first-year examination, as well as written feedback from any other faculty members who have significant information concerning the student’s progress. In the event of a tied vote, the doctoral coordinator will cast the deciding vote.

For third-year students, the following rules shall apply:

a. As explained above, the second-year paper must have been successfully defended by August 31 before the beginning of the third year.

b. All course requirements must be fulfilled with no incompletes of any type on record and an overall grade average of at least B+.

c. The evaluation committee will review the performance of any student who has not met these considerations and decide, following a simple majority voting rule, whether to retain or dismiss the student. The committee will solicit input from faculty serving as advisors or readers for the second-year paper, from other faculty involved with the student in collaborative research, and faculty instructors for any classes taken during the third year, as well as information from the first- and second-year evaluations. In the event of a tied vote, the doctoral coordinator shall cast the deciding vote.

For fourth-year students, the following rules shall apply:

a. The dissertation proposal must be approved by May 15th. This is considered a “last resort” deadline. Students should strive to defend earlier in the fourth year to have more time to prepare for the job market the following summer.

b. The evaluation committee will review the performance of any student who has not met these considerations. The committee will also solicit input from faculty serving as dissertation committee members and from any other faculty involved with the student in collaborative research to decide, following a simple majority voting rule, whether to grant fifth-year fundin In the event of a tied vote, the doctoral coordinator shall cast the deciding vote.

For students in their fifth year and beyond, the following rules apply:

a. Students must be making satisfactory progress towards completing their dissertations.

b. The evaluation committee will review the performance of each student annually, soliciting input from faculty serving as dissertation committee members and from any other faculty involved with the student in collaborative research to decide, following a simple majority voting rule, whether the student is making satisfactory progress towards the completion of their dissertation. In the event of a tied vote, the doctoral coordinator shall cast the deciding

c. The department will not provide a stipend after the fifth year. At the discretion of the department chair, the department may agree to cover fees and health insurance for students who remain beyond the fifth year.

Note: Any student dismissed from the program has the right to appeal to the Vice Dean of Wharton Doctoral Programs

OTHER PROGRAM GUIDELINES AND POLICIES

Active Participation in the Intellectual Life of the Department

Becoming a scholar entails a significant amount of tacit learning—things that can only be learned via apprenticeship, repeated exposure, and internalization of norms. Taking coursework and meeting the bare minimum formal requirements is not enough to achieve excellence. Doctoral students are expected to participate actively in the full breadth of the intellectual life of the department. This includes frequent attendance of department seminars and other intellectual activities, as well as frequent interactions with faculty members and other doctoral students.

Guidelines on Overlapping Topics

Exploring a general topic of personal interest in more than one course paper is often a wise strategy as it allows students to deepen their expertise by bringing multiple lenses to it. With this approach, work done in multiple course papers on topics is likely to generate the seeds for the second‐year paper, the dissertation, and other research papers. To ensure that professors are aware of students’ work on the same topic in multiple courses, students need to disclose this information to course instructors as early as possible. If you plan to write a new paper on a topic that you have addressed in a prior class, you must (a) let your current professor know; (b) explain how the work you will complete for the current class will add something new; and (c) give the current professor a copy of your prior deliverable. If you are writing on the same topic for two or more simultaneous courses, you must (a) let each of your current professors know; (b) explain the unique dimensions that the deliverables for each class will contain; and (c) make the final deliverable for each course available to the other faculty member upon request.

New Parent Accommodations

Upon the birth or adoption of a child, students are eligible for a 6-month extension to the deadlines for the defense of the second-year paper and the dissertation proposal defense.

TA Work for Additional Compensation

The Management program does not have any required teaching assignments for doctoral students. Nevertheless, students have the opportunity to get involved in teaching-related activities (usually TA or grading work) for additional compensation starting in the second year. (Wharton policy prohibits first-year students from engaging in work for additional compensation.) These opportunities can be an enriching complement to the heavily research-focused tasks of the program, allowing students to develop teaching skills that will be useful upon taking a faculty job.

Any TA (or other) work taken on for additional compensation requires pre-approval by the doctoral coordinator, who will usually consult with the dissertation advisor to ensure TA responsibilities don’t interfere with progress on other program milestones. Students and their advisors should be judicious in considering how much TA work is appropriate.

The department maintains the “Marketing Department PhD Student Manual” which is updated annually and posted on the department’s website: https://marketing.wharton.upenn.edu/phd-program-information/. It contains the information listed below plus more details about the PhD program requirements as well as department operations.
Pre-Candidacy Phase

• Before admission to candidacy, the student is required to complete the required 15* cu’s of graduate level courses as described in detail in the Coursework section below. (*Students entering the program before Fall 2019 need to complete 17 CUs)
• Take and pass the Marketing Qualifying Examination offered at the end of the first year.
• Declare a faculty supervisor for their First Year research paper by March 15 of their first year.
• Complete a faculty supervised First Year research paper due September 1, before the start of the second year.
• Declare a faculty supervisor for their Second Year research paper by March 15 of their second year.
• Complete a faculty supervised Second Year research paper due by September 1, before the start of the third year, and present it in a faculty seminar in the fall semester of their third year.
• Declare primary advisor(s) by December 15 of the third year.
• Form and declare a dissertation committee by May 15 of the third year.
• Prepare and defend a dissertation proposal by September 15 at the start of the 4th year.

 

Coursework
The PhD program in marketing is based on the completion of the dissertation as well as a minimum of fifteen graduate level courses in the following categories:

• Major Field Course (5 cu) – The Marketing Department requires that the students take five credit units (cu) of PhD seminars in the department as follows
  • Four credit units must be met by taking the following seminars:
    • MKTG 9400 and 9410 (1.0 cu total)
    • MKTG 9420 and 9430 (1.0 cu total)

Students entering the program prior to Fall 2019 also need to complete the following courses:

• MKTG 9710 and 9720 (1.0 cu total)
• MKTG 9730 and 9740 (1.0 cu total)

• Students meet the remaining three credit unit major field requirement by completing either the Quantitative Tract or the Consumer Behavior Tract, according to their research interests.

Consumer Behavior Tract: 3 cu’s as follow:

• MKTG 9500 (0.5 cu) AND MKTG 9510 (0.5 cu)
• MKTG 9520 (0.5 cu) AND MKTG 9530 (0.5 cu)
• MKTG 9540 (0.5 cu)
• MKTG 9560 (0.5 cu)

Quantitative Tract: 3 cu’s as follows:

• MKTG 9540 (0.5 cu) AND MKTG 9550 (0.5 cu)
• MKTG 9560 (0.5 cu) AND MKTG 9570 (0.5 cu)
• MKTG 9500 (0.5 cu)
• MKTG 9520 (0.5 cu)

If a required Marketing Seminar is not offered, students may submit a request in writing to the Marketing Department’s Doctoral Coordinator for a course substitution. Course Descriptions and schedules can be found on the Marketing Department website

• Basic Course (3 or 4 cu) – Students need to complete three or four credit units of a statistics and economics course sequence.
  • The specific courses permitted to satisfy the statistics basic course requirements are determined by the Wharton Doctoral Program Office in Section 5.4 of this manual. (2 cu)

• The economics requirement can be met by taking one of the following three sequences (1 or 2 cu):
  • ECON 7100 (1 cu) AND ECON 7110 (1 cu) – Microeconomic Theory I & II OR
  • ECON 6100 (1 cu) – Microeconomic Theory AND ECON 6110 (1 cu) – Game Theory and Applications OR
  • BEPP 9500 (1 cu) – Managerial Economics

• Course in a Related Field (2 or 3 cu) – Students must complete two to three credit units in related fields. A partial list of possible related fields includes: Communications Research, Decision Processes, Econometrics, Economics, Information Systems, Operations Research, Psychology, Sociology, and Statistics.
• Electives (4 or 5 cu) – Graduate level courses

Of the fifteen course units, a maximum of four can consist of transfer courses for graduate work at other universities. In addition, only two of the fifteen course units can be independent study courses.

Candidacy Phase
The candidacy phase comprises of the preparation of the doctoral dissertation and the final defense of the dissertation. The department expects students to adhere to the sequence of events and requirements associated with the dissertation as detailed in the Wharton Doctoral Policies and Procedures Manual to which the appendix is attached. As a condition of advancement to candidacy, each student is required to have a Dissertation Committee they meet with regularly and submit required progress reports.
Remaining in Good Standing
Students in both the pre-Candidacy and Candidacy phases need to remain in good standing to continue in the Marketing PhD program. Criteria essential to being considered in good standing include:

• Participate in the Marketing Department Colloquia and other PhD program activities such as the brown bag seminar.
• Maintain a B+ average and making satisfactory progress in their studies. A typical course load is four courses per semester.
• Third Year Funding: Timely Completion of First Year and Second Year papers
• Fourth Year Funding: Timely formation of the dissertation committee by May 15 of the third year.
• Fifth Year Funding: Timely defense of the dissertation proposal prior to September 15 of their fourth year.

Departmental Course Requirements

A total of 16-course credits are required for graduation. Up to four appropriate graduate course credits can be transferred from another graduate institution, after approval of the student’s advisor and of the PhD coordinator. This section outlines the remaining requirements for all PhD students in OID.

Course Requirements

Core Courses

Students must take at least one of these core courses and earn a grade of B+ or better:

• OIDD 9000 – Foundations of Decision Processes;
• OIDD 9400 – Operations Management;
• OIDD 9550 – Research Seminar in Information Systems

Basic Course

Students need to complete four credit units of a statistics and economics course sequence.

The Wharton School requires all PhD students to demonstrate proficiency in the material covered in one of several one-year sequences of statistics courses. The OID Department PhD students can satisfy the Wharton requirement with one of the following sequences: Statistics 5000-5010; Statistics 5200-5210; STAT 5150-5160; or Economics 7300-7310.

The specific courses permitted to satisfy the statistics basic course requirements are determined by the Wharton Doctoral Program Office in Section 5.4 of this manual.

The economics requirement can be met by taking one of the following three sequences:

• ECON 7100 and ECON 7110 – Microeconomic Theory I & II OR
• ECON 6100 – Microeconomic Theory and ECON 6110 – Game Theory and Applications
• ECON 6100 – Microeconomic Theory and BEPP 9500 – Managerial Economics

 

Students may demonstrate proficiency by either receiving a grade of B- or better in each course, or by passing a waiver exam administered by the Economics or Statistics Departments, or by transferring a comparable graduate-level course from another institution.

 

Students may choose courses across sequences with permission from the PhD coordinator. Students are expected to complete their statistics requirements during their first year, before their qualifying exam.

TA Training

Students will be required to complete the 3-day TA training at the beginning of the academic year (usually end of August) in which they are scheduled to TA for the first time.

 

Course Requirement for Each Area of Specialization

 

This section provides a brief description of each of the three areas of specialization within the department and lists the required courses for each area.  Beyond these required courses, students have the flexibility to construct a set of courses that supports their progress towards the completion of a dissertation.  The particular program of study adopted by the student should be developed in consultation with the student’s advisor.

Decision Making (DP)

DP focuses on making choices when faced with ambiguity, uncertainty, and conflicting views and motivations of the principal stakeholders.  This specialization gives students a theoretical basis and applied orientation for studying the behavior of individuals, firms and policymakers.  Students are guided by formal, normative models of how decisions should be made by individuals and groups, based on economic and statistical decision theories, as well as by descriptive analyses of how decisions are actually made, drawing on recent work in cognitive and experimental economics.

 

In addition to the departmental core course and Wharton Statistics requirements, DP students are required to take two economics courses. Beyond these requirements, students typically take courses in statistics, economics, marketing, psychology, and organizational behavior.  These courses are offered by the OID Department, Wharton’s Management, Marketing, and Statistics Department, as well as Penn’s Psychology Department.

The qualifying exam in DP typically draws from material covered in OIDD 9000, along with that covered in the student’s core economics and statistics sequences.

 

Information Systems (IS)

The IS track covers a broad range of research interests.  Students interested in information and decision technology (IDT) focuses on the analytical and information technology-based methods for managing complex organizations.  This interest in information strategy and economics (ISE) focuses on understanding the strategic aspects of information and information management.

 

In addition to the department core and core statistics sequence, all students focusing on IS are required to take a year-long microeconomics sequence.

Beyond these required courses, IS students typically pursue courses that support their specific research interests.  Those with an interest in IDT concentrate on the theory, development, and application of computer-implemented technology for solving problems. As such, their coursework may include courses related to knowledge discovery and data-mining, computation and equilibria, and logic modeling, to name a few.  These courses may be offered by the OID Department, Wharton’s Management or Statistics Department, Penn’s Computing & Information Science Department and other departments across the university.  Students with an interest in ISE take additional courses on the methodological and theoretical foundations in economic theory, statistics/econometrics, and information technology.

The qualifying exam for IS students typically draws from material covered in OIDD 9550, along with that covered in the students’ core economics and statistical sequences.

 

Operations Management/Operations Research (OM/OR)

OM/OR focuses on the processes that define an organization’s outputs, as well as the methods commonly used to analyze these processes. Students specializing in OM are interested in a wide range of functions and organizational types, including operations strategy, product design, process design, technology management, capacity planning, inventory control, supply chain management, and service system planning.  Students interested in OR focus more on the application of mathematical models to these areas.

Because a strong knowledge of OR tools is an important foundation for much OM research, OM/OR students are required to master the same set of coursework.  In addition to the department core courses and the Wharton statistics requirement, OM/OR course requirements are as follows:

• A year of microeconomics
• Math programming
• Stochastic processes
• An advanced course in operations management

Beyond these required courses, OM/OR students take a wide range of methodologically-oriented course offered by the OID Department and Wharton’s Marketing and Statistics Department, as well as the Economics Department and other departments around the university.  Many OM/OR students take a sufficient number of statistics that they obtain a Master’s in Statistics on their way to completing an OID Department PhD.

Examples of tools courses that students can take include the following: advanced linear programming, advanced nonlinear programming, game theory, integer programming, queuing theory, dynamic programming, and research methods.

The qualifying exam in OM/OR typically draws from material covered in the course requirements that are expected to be taken during the first year in the program.

Qualifying Exam

The Qualifying Exam consists of a written exam, an oral exam, and the student’s summer paper. The qualifying written exam is taken at the start of the student’s first summer.  Each specialization determines the format of their exam.  After the completion of the written exam, the student spends the summer working on his or her summer research paper. The oral exam is scheduled at the end of the summer and students are notified of their results shortly afterwards.

OID Department faculty members evaluate students based on the quality of their summer paper and their performance on the written and oral portions of the exam. If the faculty determines that the student has sufficiently mastered the skills needed to continue progress towards a PhD in the chosen specialization, then a student receives a passing grade.  If the faculty determines that a student is missing some basic skills, it can specify remedial steps the student must undertake to receive a passing grade.  These steps typically include, but are not limited to, reworking responses on the written exam, improving the summer paper and/or completing specific courses with a sufficient grade, and retaking portions of or the entire written exam.  The student must complete all qualifying exam conditions by May 31 of the student’s second academic year.

If the faculty determines that the student is sufficiently far from meeting requirements (or if the student fails to meet all conditions by the May 31st deadline), then the student receives a failing grade and may no longer continue with the program.

 

Summer Paper

During the summer between their first and second years, all students must complete a research paper under the supervision of a faculty advisor. Students should identify a faculty advisor and a topic for their summer paper by the end of the second semester. At that time a short (one-page) summer paper proposal should be signed by the student and the advisor and returned to the PhD coordinator. Students should work closely with their advisor throughout the summer. A completed paper must be submitted to the PhD coordinator at the end of the summer. Part of a student’s qualifying exam performance depends on the quality of the student’s summer paper. The goal is to write a publishable quality paper. It is recognized that this is an ambitious target for the first summer, but it is a feasible target – several students have indeed published their first summer paper.

Dissertation Proposal

The dissertational proposal is designed to provide a student with early and formal feedback from the faculty on the student’s dissertation plans. The dissertation proposal defense should occur before the end of the student’s fourth year, with the fifth year dedicated to the completion of the dissertation. The dissertation proposal should include preliminary results as well as a detailed plan for work that will be completed in the dissertation.

Dissertation Defense

The final requirement in the program is the dissertation defense, which should occur around the end of the student’s fifth year.

This program is designed for students who desire academic research careers.  The foundation is a sequence of courses in probability, mathematical statistics, linear models, and statistical computing.  The program also encourages study in a cognate area of application.

Coursework

The program for the PhD degree includes six core courses in the 2024-2025 academic year.

STAT 9270 Bayesian Statistics

STAT 9300 Probability Theory

STAT 9310 Stochastic Processes

STAT 9610 Statistical Methodology

STAT 9700 Mathematical Statistics

STAT 9710 Introduction to Linear Statistical Models

More advanced students choose from among various elective courses offered by the faculty of the Statistics and Data Science Department and other departments at the University.  There is also considerable opportunity to take individually-structured reading courses with faculty in the department.

Under normal circumstances, students are expected to complete 13 classroom courses (13 credit units).  These are comprised of the six core courses and seven elective courses, most of which are expected to be taken among those offered by the Statistics and Data Science Department.  Students may waive some of the required courses based on classes taken prior to enrollment; waived courses must be substituted by electives to meet the 13 credit unit requirement.  It is common for students to meet the 13 credit unit requirement by taking 6 classroom courses in the first year, 4 in the second, and then 1 every semester.  Courses from other departments in the University may be taken subject to approval of the PhD coordinator(s).

Students often take non-classroom based courses (reading courses/independent studies).  These courses are arranged between a student and one of the faculty members and provide a way in which students can engage research areas, perhaps leading to a dissertation topic.

Students are strongly encouraged to take or seriously audit one course per semester beyond the third year.

TA Training

All new TA’s are required to complete the 3-day TA Training workshop that is offered annually during the last week of August by Penn’s Center for Teaching and Learning. Our students typically complete the workshop in the summer prior to their first semester.

First Year Paper

In the first year of their doctoral education all students are required to complete a summer research project under the mentorship of a faculty member. The goal of this summer project is to ensure that all students, by the summer after their first year, have made contact with a faculty mentor and have started research with this faculty mentor. It is expected that for many, but not all, doctoral students, this faculty mentor will eventually serve as their dissertation advisor.  The research project will be finished by the end of the summer before the start of the second year and a paper written based on this research is to be presented to the department at a poster session at the start of the fall semester of year two. The paper must follow the conventions of an actual publication: abstract, introduction, execution, summary/discussion, and references. Several forms of the paper are conceivable, including but not limited to the following: (1) a replication with commentary of a published paper, (2) a literature overview of a reasonably specific topic, (3) a short simulation study of a method of interest, (4) a fairly straightforward generalization of a known result in mathematical statistics or probability theory.

PhD Qualifying System

The faculty will meet early in the fall semester of the PhD students’ second years to determine whether each first-year PhD student has qualified to move on with their studies.  This assessment will be based primarily on (a) first-year coursework and (b) a summer project with a faculty member and associated poster presentation.

For the first-year course work, acceptable performance is considered to be an A or A- in all six core courses (or approved substitute courses) and an A in at least four of the courses.  If the student does not meet this standard, then at the discretion of the faculty, the student may require additional evaluation or be asked to leave the program.

In the case that a student has already taken a core course or an equivalent course at another university, the student may discuss with the PhD coordinator whether an appropriate more advanced course on the subject could be taken as a substitute.  If a substitute course is taken, the grade that would count for determining whether a student has met the standard of an A or A- is the grade in the substitute course taken in the first year, not the grade of a course that was taken before the student began their PhD study

Matching of Students to Faculty Mentor(s)

In order to ensure that all students receive adequate supervision and attention, the doctoral oversight committee will match students and faculty taking into consideration student preferences, faculty preferences, the current mentoring load of faculty (in terms of the number of students mentored by each), and the number of RA-ships that each faculty is funding using external grants.  The details of this matching process are as follows.

It is expected that students should connect with faculty with whom they desire to work with during their first year, and have established a mutual interest in a mentor-mentee relationship.  At the end of the first year, students should submit their first preference for faculty mentor to the doctoral oversight committee. The doctoral oversight committee will then match each student to a faculty based on the following guidelines.

If the student’s top faculty choice agrees to the match and is not currently advising any PhD students, or if the student’s top faculty choice pledges one full year of RA-ship funding, then the student is matched to that faculty.

If (1) does not result in a match, then the doctoral oversight committee will ask the student for a second faculty choice and apply the same criterion. The committee will continue to work with the student in this way until a match is made.

A faculty with multiple students should typically have no more than one full student who is on TA-ship.  Faculty should divide their RA-ship support so that each student has time free of TA-ship duties.We encourage all students to update the doctoral oversight committee of their progress, especially in the beginning as they are searching for mentor/projects.  Usually, but not always, the faculty that is matched to the student is advising the student on their first-year summer paper.  At the beginning of the summer after their first year, doctoral students should send an email to the doctoral oversight committee about their summer plans and whom they are working with for their summer paper.

Second Year Paper

During the summer between the second and third year, students will work on a more substantial paper under the supervision of a faculty member, ideally their PhD supervisor.  This paper could be a preliminary version of a thesis proposal.  There should be some attempt at original research or at least the framing of an interesting original research problem.  It is recommended that the actual writing of the paper be coordinated with the Wharton doctoral writing program. This paper is to be presented to the department at the start of the fall semester of year three.

Third Year and Thesis Proposal

Sometime during the third year or by the end of their fourth-year, students will present a formal research proposal to a group of at least three faculty members.

Oversight of Student Progress and Change in Mentor

Every year, the doctoral coordinator will meet with each student to discuss their annual review report as administered by Wharton Doctoral Programs. For students in their second year and above, the doctoral coordinator will discuss with the student their progress towards their degree, and whether they wish to continue working with the faculty member to whom they are currently matched. At any time that a student wishes to switch thesis advisor, they need to discuss with the doctoral coordinator.  The doctoral coordinator will bring the case to the doctoral oversight committee who will help the student find a different faculty mentor by the same matching process as described above.

Co-mentorship

Students may be co-mentored by two faculty.  Students are allowed to indicate co-mentorship requests when they submit their matching preferences, and two faculty members can pool their grant awards towards the funding of a full RA-ship.   Students may also indicate later if they wish to add a second faculty as co-mentor.  In this case, they should discuss the arrangement with both faculty as well as with the doctoral coordinator.  The doctoral coordinator and doctoral oversight committee will talk with both faculty mentors to ensure that both agree to the co-mentorship and have TA/grant funding for the student.

Department Support

Students are typically funded by the department for four years.  A fifth year of support is contingent upon the availability of a research grant or another source of external funding.  Students are evaluated at the end of each year.  Financial support and continuation in the program is based on satisfactory performance in classwork and research, as well as duties performed as a teaching assistant.

Students in the Statistics and Data Science PhD Program are not allowed to accept employment without first receiving approval from the PhD Program Coordinator. Employment requiring approval include any teaching assistantships and all other paid employment inside and outside of the Statistics and Data Science Department both during the Summer and the academic year. Students should discuss with the department program coordinator prior to applying for any summer research internships.

Student Involvement in the Department

In addition to formal coursework, students are expected to participate in the informal intellectual life of the Statistics and Data Science Department.  This includes attendance at Statistics and Data Science colloquia, where visiting speakers describe current research, plus participation in informal seminars investigating current topics of interest in a non-course setting.

The department holds a senior PhD student seminar day at the end of the spring semester each year during which non-graduating third-year and above students are expected to give 15 minute talks.

It is anticipated that students will spend some of their semesters as research assistants and other semesters as teaching assistants. Both are important in preparing for their future in academia. In the first year all students have one semester which is free of either of these roles as they transition to their life as a graduate student. The time devoted to either an RA-ship or a TA-ship is similar and should not exceed 20 hours in any given week. Publications that arise out of work based on research assistantships should have these students at least as coauthors. As part of their annual review students will be asked to list courses for which they would like to have a TA-ship. The department will try to avoid assigning students to the same faculty member unless both the student and the faculty make such a matching request. There is a presumption of rotating assignments.

Students who are not working as teaching assistants are expected to help as exam proctors or exam graders. The PhD oversight committee will work to make sure that this work is spread out fairly.