Economics

Overview

The Economics programme from Bilkent University aims to train students to enable them to carry out independent research. For this purpose, the programs are designed to ensure that the students get a solid background in both economic theory and the techniques used in empirical research.

While the Department offers both M.A. and Ph.D. degrees, the M.A. degree is considered, in principle, as an intermediate step that is passed en route to the Ph.D. The core requirements common to both programs leave little room for choosing the courses to be taken in the first year, but the students are offered considerable flexibility as to their choice of the fields of specialization later on.

Students admitted to graduate studies in the department are expected to have a strong background in undergraduate level economics and some training in mathematics and statistics. Sufficient (though not necessarily a pre-condition) background would consist of an undergraduate degree in Economics, a year-long calculus sequence that includes multivariate analysis, a course in linear algebra, and a course in probability and statistics.

The Economics programme

Economics is the study of the behavior of economic units, institutions and systems and the choices that they make with respect to the allocation of scarce resources between production and consumption. It is concerned with a wide range of problems that directly affect society: the causes of unemployment and inflation, productivity and economic growth, foreign debt and trade links, and the role of government in market economies.