Natural Resource and Environmental Economics Prelims

PhD Preliminary Examination Process

The Preliminary Examinations are administered twice a year on the Thursday before classes begin for the Spring semester and first Summer term of each year. All PhD students are required to pass one written field preliminary exam and one oral preliminary exam.

Students planning to take the Preliminary Examination must have passed the Agricultural Economics Qualifier Exam, and have cumulative and degree plan GPRs of at least 3.0. The oral preliminary exam will be administered after the student has passed the written field preliminary exam. Students must pass both the written field exam and the oral exam to pass the Preliminary Examination. A failure in either of these examinations constitutes a failure of the Preliminary Examination.

Natural Resource and Environmental Economics Field Prelim Content

The Ph.D. Field Preliminary Examination in Natural Resource and Environmental Economics (NR&EE) will emphasize material introduced by the Fundamentals and Frontiers courses, but background information derived from other preparations will be useful. This includes survey NR&EE material (such as the topics covered in the AGEC 604 textbook), microeconomics, and material from the core courses (particularly welfare economics), econometrics, and static and dynamic optimization. The exam's goal is to assess the students' integrative capacity to address NR&EE issues with appropriate interpretations, concepts, tools, and policies.

If you would like to have access to previous prelims, contact the Grad Office.