Economic Analysis and Policy: Research Project
Our Strength: Our Program
The Rotman PhD is a challenging, academically rigorous program. Some areas require a research project component for the purpose of developing research and writing skills and preparing for the final dissertation. Students may be encouraged to present research at academic conferences or develop work to be published. Read more to learn about the research paper requirements for the Economic Analysis and Policy area.
Research Project
The demonstration of original and innovative research work is central to success in the PhD program. To encourage this work, each student is required to submit a paper demonstrating original research in economics by the end of the first semester of the third year.
- Students should start working on the research project before the summer of the second year. Substantial progress is expected by the end of summer.
- Prior to May 31 of the summer semester at the end of the student’s second year, the student must submit a Research Paper Topic Approval form to the PhD office that is signed by a faculty member who agrees to supervise the work. The topic approval form must identify the topic, research hypotheses, the approach (theoretical and/or empirical), data collection procedures or details of the proposed data set, modeling approach or data analysis plan, and the expected contributions to the literature.
- The paper may be an extension of a paper completed as a course requirement. However, the extension must be substantial and the original paper must be submitted with the research paper.
- The paper must be presented to area members in a seminar format before the end of the first semester of the third year. It is recommended that the student make every effort to present the paper prior to submitting the paper for evaluation. In that way, the student can incorporate feedback from the presentation into the final draft.
Students must submit the completed paper by January 31 of the winter semester in the student’s third year.