Agricultural and Applied Economics, MS

Program Description

The MS in Agricultural and Applied Economics provides training in applied economics, econometrics, and statistical methods. Students have the opportunity to develop skills in applied economic analysis, econometric modeling, policy analysis, and the design and of experiments and surveys. These methods are applied to a variety of concentrations, including agribusiness, agricultural economics, economic development, and environmental and natural resource economics.

The MS curriculum has a thesis option and a non-thesis option. The thesis option is designed for individuals who plan to pursue a PhD degree or a career that requires a high level of research competence. The non-thesis option is designed for individuals who want technical skills for their professional careers in business or government.

Combined Bachelor’s/Master’s Degree

This program allows students to count up to 12 hours of graduate credit toward both the bachelor’s and master’s degrees. Students participating in this program must major in Agribusiness, have a minimum cumulative grade-point average of 3.4, and be admitted to the Graduate School prior to registering for graduate courses. Details of the suggested curriculum and program information are available from the Department of Agricultural Sciences at http://www.clemson.edu/cafls/departments/agricultural-sciences/index.html. Application details are available in the Undergraduate Announcements.

Summary of Degree Requirements

Students must earn at least 18 additional graduate credit hours beyond the 12-hour core requirement to complete the degree program. For students pursuing the thesis option, six of the additional required credit hours are thesis credit hours and the other 12 hours are selected from elective courses. Students pursuing the non-thesis option are required to take at least 18 additional elective credit hours. Elective courses may cover a wide array of topics such as: 1) benefit-cost analysis, 2) economic or regional development, 3) environmental economics, 4), natural resource economics, 5) agribusiness, 6) commodities and futures, 7) financial economics, 8) international economics, 9) industrial organization, 10) labor economics, 11) mathema­tical economics, 12) monetary economics, 13) public finance, anti-trust policy and regulation 14) sampling, 15) multivariate statistics, 16) spatial statistics, 17) experimental design and 18) sports economics. Students may also take, with approval of their advisory committee, two (at most) non-economic or non-statistical but relevant elective courses, such as Geographical Information Systems (GIS) or financial mathematics.  

Thesis Option

Students who choose the thesis option must take at least 24 graded credit hours of course work and six units of thesis research (APEC 8910  or ECON 8910 ) to earn the minimum 30 credits. At least 12 of the 24 graded credits must be 8000-level or 9000-level courses. Well prepared, full-time students in this option can earn their degree in one calendar year but most take 18 months to finish the course and thesis requirements. Completion of a thesis is a prerequisite to most PhD graduate programs in Economics or Applied Economics.

Non-Thesis Option

Students choosing the non-thesis option must earn at least 30 credit hours of graded course work. At least 15 of the 30 graded credits must be 8000-level or 9000-level courses. The non-thesis option provides practical training in applied economics, econometrics, and data analysis for business or government. The program provides additional technical skills for business- or public service-oriented students. A technical or professional paper is required. An acceptable technical paper includes a relevant literature and theory review plus an applied empirical section.

Core Coursework

• ECON 8230 - Microeconomics for Public Policy  - offered in fall semester. 
• APEC (ECON) 8220 - Public Policy Economics  or ECON 8050 - Macroeconomic Theory  - both offered in spring semester.
• ECON 6050 - Introduction to Econometrics  or an approved substitute course.
• ECON 6060 - Advanced Econometrics ,  STAT 8040 - Sampling , STAT 8050 - Design and Analysis of Experiments , STAT 8170 - Multivariate Statistics in Agriculture, Forestry and Natural Resources , or ECON 9090 - Time-Series Econometrics .
• STAT 8030 - Regression and Least Squares Analysis  may be substituted for ECON 6050 if its undergraduate counterpart, ECON 4050, or a similar course, was taken by the student in their undergraduate program. STAT 8030 is often selected as an elective course taken by students who desire additional education in basic regression analysis. 
• STAT 8010 , an equivalent graduate course, or an undergraduate introduction to probability and statistics, is a prerequisite for ECON 6050, STAT 8030, STAT 8040, STAT 8050, and STAT 8170. STAT 8010 is offered each summer session, in addition to being offered in the fall and spring semesters. Students who need to take STAT 8010 may include the course credits in their degree program.

Outcomes, Learning Objectives, and Graduation Requirements

Students who earn a Master of Science (MS) in Agricultural and Applied Economics learn to apply economic theory, design experiments or surveys, estimate econometric models, and test hypotheses with inferential statistics to analyze human behavior, business practice, or government policy. The behavior, practice, or policy might relate to agriculture, banks, credit markets, environ­mental or natural resource management, forestry, health care, insurance, marketing, property rights, regional economic growth, regulation, stock markets, sports businesses, or sustainable development.