Doctoral Degree Program

The doctoral program is taught by the faculty of the Yale School of Management and is intended for students who plan scholarly careers involving research and teaching in management. The program is small and admits only a few highly qualified students each year. Currently, specialization is offered in the management fields of accounting, financial economics, marketing, operations, and organizations and management.

Each student develops a customized course of study in consultation with the relevant faculty members and the director of graduate studies for the program. During the first two years, students normally take three or four courses each term, gain experience in research, and prepare for the qualifying examination in their chosen areas of concentration. All program requirements except the dissertation must be completed prior to the start of the fourth year of study.

Students typically take five years to complete the program. Upon completion of the program, most students elect careers that combine scholarly research with teaching in a university setting.

This program has been designed to enable a student to concentrate in any of a number of traditional or innovative areas of the management process. The format allows informal arrangements to surface in response to diverse faculty and student talents and interests. Flexibility is a central feature of the doctoral program. We expect area studies to evolve as faculty strengths and interests change and grow.

Program Offerings

The courses offered in the doctoral degree program may change from year to year according to student and faculty interests. The courses listed below are the core courses and those designed specifically for this program’s different specializations. Additional courses of interest are offered throughout the university.

ECON 5500General Economic Theory: Microeconomics1
ECON 5501General Economic Theory: Microeconomics1
MGMT 7101Seminar in Accounting Research I1
MGMT 7102Seminar in Accounting Research II1
MGMT 7103Seminar in Accounting Research III1
MGMT 7104Seminar in Accounting Research IV1
MGMT 7201Experimental Economics1
MGMT 7202Applied Empirical Methods1
MGMT 7203Finance of Information.5
MGMT 7204Financial Economics I1
MGMT 7205Financial Economics II1
MGMT 7206Financial Econometrics and Machine Learning.5
MGMT 7209Household Finance1
MGMT 7210Behavioral Finance1
MGMT 7211Financial Crises1
MGMT 7212Empirical Asset Pricing1
MGMT 7213Empirical Corporate Finance.5
MGMT 7215Corporate Finance1
MGMT 7301Behavioral Decision-Making I: Choice1
MGMT 7302Behavioral Decision-Making II: Judgment1
MGMT 7303Designing and Conducting Experimental Research1
MGMT 7304Foundations of Behavioral Economics1
MGMT 7305Moral Consumer Decision Making.5
MGMT 7308Seminar in Marketing I1
MGMT 7311Analytical Methods in Marketing1
MGMT 7312Empirical Methods in Marketing1
MGMT 7401Models of Operations Research and Management.5
MGMT 7403Modeling Operational Processes1
MGMT 7502Organizations and the Environment1
MGMT 7504Theory Construction1
MGT 611Policy Modeling2

Students are encouraged to work closely with faculty members to develop, conduct, and report significant research. Students design their program of studies in consultation with faculty members. However, each student’s program has at its core a small number of important common courses. For example, a marketing student’s program of study usually includes all doctoral seminars taught by the marketing faculty, some doctoral seminars taught by other School of Management faculty, and a considerable number of graduate-level courses in related departments outside the School of Management. Courses taken outside the School of Management are usually taken in the departments of Economics, Psychology, and Statistics and Data Science. Other departments and schools of interest include Sociology, Political Science, and Law.

Individualized Study

The number of doctoral students admitted each year is limited, enabling each student to obtain individual instruction and guidance. Students may, for example, take tutorials with faculty members on specific topics not covered by formal courses. In addition, students work with the faculty and with their student colleagues on research projects to gain experience and sharpen skills in their areas of special interest.

Multiple Learning Methods

Doctoral students engage in a wide variety of learning activities. Formal coursework is important, but just as important are the informal seminars, colloquia, research projects, opportunities to assist in teaching, and various other activities that can help one understand and deal competently with management and organizational phenomena.

Interdisciplinary Study

Students are encouraged to develop programs that draw on courses and learning experiences from a variety of academic disciplines. The school maintains working relationships with various departments and other professional schools at Yale University.

Requirements for Admission

The program admits promising students whose academic backgrounds are in the behavioral sciences, business, economics, statistics, mathematics, engineering, or the liberal arts. For more information, refer to the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences Bulletin’s Policies and Regulations section https://catalog.yale.edu/gsas/policies-regulations.