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 500 and 501, General Economic Theory: Microeconomics
  • MGT 611, Policy Modeling
  • MGMT 700, Seminar in Accounting Research I
  • MGMT 701, Seminar in Accounting Research II
  • MGMT 702, Seminar in Accounting Research III
  • MGMT 704, Seminar in Accounting Research IV
  • MGMT 720, Models of Operations Research and Management
  • MGMT 721, Modeling Operational Processes
  • MGMT 731, Organizations and the Environment
  • MGMT 733, Theory Construction
  • MGMT 737, Applied Empirical Methods
  • MGMT 740, Financial Economics I
  • MGMT 741, Financial Economics II
  • MGMT 742, Theoretical Corporate Finance
  • MGMT 745, Behavioral Finance
  • MGMT 746, Financial Crises
  • MGMT 747, Empirical Asset Pricing
  • MGMT 748, Empirical Corporate Finance
  • MGMT 750, Seminar in Marketing I
  • MGMT 751, Seminar in Marketing II
  • MGMT 753, Behavioral Decision-Making I: Choice
  • MGMT 754, Behavioral Decision-Making II: Judgment
  • MGMT 755, Analytical Methods in Marketing
  • MGMT 756, Empirical Methods in Marketing
  • MGMT 758, Foundations of Behavioral Economics

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 Yale 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 course work 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 chapter https://catalog.yale.edu/gsas/policies-regulations.