Phd Programs with Normative focused classes?

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So I was looking at Boston College's list of classes for their doctoral program online (Boston College Department of Economics) and they had classes such as "Social Choice and Justice" and "Distributive Justice". I've been somewhat interested in these topics from an Econ perspective and was wondering if anyone new of any other Econ departments that had classes in these areas? I tried searching and couldn't find much.

[Blanket]

So I was looking at Boston College's list of classes for their doctoral program online (Boston College Department of Economics) and they had classes such as "Social Choice and Justice" and "Distributive Justice". I've been somewhat interested in these topics from an Econ perspective and was wondering if anyone new of any other Econ departments that had classes in these areas? I tried searching and couldn't find much.

 

The school of economic thought that can best be described as normative is called 'heterodox economics'. A directory may be found here: Graduate Programs | Heterodox Economics Directory

[mcsokrates]

The school of economic thought that can best be described as normative is called 'heterodox economics'. A directory may be found here: Graduate Programs | Heterodox Economics Directory

 

Sorry, this is wrong. We still learn welfare theory in first year micro, yes? Plenty of areas of mainstream economics heavily involve normative theory (or normative implications of empirical work). Anytime there's a welfare section of a macro paper? Normative. Pretty much any paper that deals with income inequality or poverty - normative, whether you like it or not (Atkinson (1970) say so). Hell, even the "policy implications" section of most empirical papers has a social evaluation function in the background implicitly.

[lbox]

I looked through the Heterodox Economics Directory and it didn't seem to be what I was really looking for either. The welfare, inequality, poverty topics are what I'm interested in. I want an orthodox economics education, but would like to have access to classes that explore the implicit or explicit philosophical/normative questions that are addressed in aforementioned topics, which seems to be what Boston College offers. I just didn't know if anyone was aware of other programs that had similar offerings.

[2Iron]

I looked through the Heterodox Economics Directory and it didn't seem to be what I was really looking for either. The welfare, inequality, poverty topics are what I'm interested in. I want an orthodox economics education, but would like to have access to classes that explore the implicit or explicit philosophical/normative questions that are addressed in aforementioned topics, which seems to be what Boston College offers. I just didn't know if anyone was aware of other programs that had similar offerings.

 

Ooh, that's a tough one. I'm not sure if that Social Choice class would be what you expect it to be. I think that at a mainstream program like BC, it will be more concerned with Arrow's impossibility theorem than with the writing of dead white guys.

 

Have you considered Harvard's Public Policy Ph.D.? It gives you a solid foundation in applied microeconomics, but then allows you to branch out beyond the traditional bounds of the discipline.

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Here's the course outline from an old "Distribute Justice" Syllabus at BC: http://fmwww.bc.edu/ec-j/f2012/EC884.01.pdf

I'd like to stay within the Econ or Applied Econ Phd programs, but i'd be interested in other programs that are heavily econ dependent.

[tm_member]

Here's the course outline from an old "Distribute Justice" Syllabus at BC: http://fmwww.bc.edu/ec-j/f2012/EC884.01.pdf

I'd like to stay within the Econ or Applied Econ Phd programs, but i'd be interested in other programs that are heavily econ dependent.

 

From that syllabus I imagine that class was pretty horrible.

 

It's hard for me to really determine what you are looking for - it seems like you want a History of Economic Thought class but also want a kind of non-market decision-making class. To be honest, there are very few universities where you couldn't find classes that would sate those interests, you might just have to look outside the econ department.

 

However, if you want to do interventionist-type work on poverty and inequality, then a public policy or econ program focused on development economics would be the best for you.

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Do most programs have flexibility to take classes outside the Econ dept? In which case, you're saying my best bet is to just find a class outside the econ dept that fits my interests instead of worrying about if the Econ program contains such a class.

If by interventionist type work, you mean work that examines solutions to poverty/inequality, then that would be a fair assessment. I'm wary of going to a public policy program though, because from what i've heard and read, it seems easier to go from Econ->Policy than from Policy->Econ, so Econ would keep more doors open and better placement opportunities, in general.

[tm_member]

Do most programs have flexibility to take classes outside the Econ dept? In which case, you're saying my best bet is to just find a class outside the econ dept that fits my interests instead of worrying about if the Econ program contains such a class.

If by interventionist type work, you mean work that examines solutions to poverty/inequality, then that would be a fair assessment. I'm wary of going to a public policy program though, because from what i've heard and read, it seems easier to go from Econ->Policy than from Policy->Econ, so Econ would keep more doors open and better placement opportunities, in general.

 

Yes, your best bet would be to go to the best program you can and find classes that meet your interests. As long as you get your core classes and field classes done no one really cares what else you do. Take grad classes in sociology, psychology, philosophy, history, or whatever helps your research.

 

You are right that an econ program opens more doors but the type of work you want to do is not really that amenable to graduate programs in Econ and you may be unable to do the work you want to do within the program you choose. You have to play the game and do work that suits your department and advisors. As I've said before, no one really wants a Jeff Sachs graduate student with grand ideas that will only entail a long dissertation phase and most-likely non-academic placement. Public policy programs would be far more interested in your approach and ideas.

 

Only you can decide whether the trade off is worth it to you.