Program Information

Classes began on July 11, 2022 (second summer session in the Academic Calendar). For students interested in pursuing doctoral study following the MA program, please note that we have designed the curriculum so that you will have a minimum of six completed courses in mathematics and economics prior to PhD application deadlines.

The MA program will be taught by many of the department’s best instructors and most prominent faculty members. Our 2022-2023 course offerings include the following:

(Summer) ECO 394C Mathematics for Economists: Dr. James Wiseman
Dr. Wiseman (PhD, Northwestern) is a Visiting Associate Professor of Mathematics from Agnes Scott College, where he is also Chair of the Mathematics Department.
(Summer) ECO 394D Probability and Statistics: Dr. James Scott
Dr. Scott (PhD, Duke University) is a Professor of Statistics with a dual appointment in the Department of Economics and the McCombs School of Business’ Information, Risk, and Operations Management Department. Dr. Scott’s areas of expertise in industry include Business Statistics and Financial Risk Management; his areas of research interest include Bayesian Methods, Decision Theory, Probability and Statistics, Risk Management, and Statistical Analysis.
(Summer) Real Analysis for Economists: Dr. Kirk Blazek
Dr. Blazek (PhD, University of Washington) is a Lecturer in the Department of Mathematics. Dr. Blazek teaches a wide range of topics at UT-Austin, including Differential Equations, Linear Algebra, and Real Analysis; his research interests include geophysical Inverse problems, functional analysis, and complex variables.
(Fall) ECO 394K Microeconomics: Dr. Stephanie Houghton
Dr. Houghton (PhD, Duke) is the M.A. Economics Program Director, and has been a Senior Lecturer at UT-Austin since 2013. She has extensive experience teaching both graduate and undergraduate Economics courses, including Honors courses, at UT-Austin, Texas A & M,and Duke University. Dr. Houghton’s teaching interests include Microeconomics (principles- advanced), Industrial Organization, Antitrust Economics, and Econometrics; her research interests include Industrial Organization and Applied Microeconomics.
(Fall) ECO 394L Macroeconomics: Dr. Anastasia Zervou
Dr. Zervou (PhD, Washington University, St. Louis) is a lecturer at UT-Austin. Prior to joining UT, she served as an assistant professor at Texas A & M University from 2009- 2017. Her research specialties include macroeconomics, applied time series econometrics, and financial economics. At Texas & M, she has taught courses in these areas at the undergraduate, Master’s, and doctoral levels.
(Fall) ECO 394M Econometrics: Dr. Stephen Donald
Dr. Donald (PhD, University of British Columbia) has been at UT-Austin since 2000, and in 2008 was awarded the department’s distinguished Edward Everett Hale Centennial Professorship in Economics. He regularly teaches Econometrics I in the doctoral program. His research is in the area of statistics and econometrics, and he serves on the editorial boards of four different econometrics journals.
(Fall) ECO 395K Markets for Electricity (Energy Policy and Economic Issues): Dr. Jay Zarnikau
Dr. Zarnikau (PhD, The University of Texas at Austin) is a Lecturer teaching courses in Energy and Economic Policy, Empirical Methods, and Applied Regression Analysis in the Economics Department, the LBJ School of Public Affairs, and the Department of Statistics and Data Sciences. He formerly served as an economist and the Director of Electric Utility Regulation at the Public Utility Commission of Texas, and is president of Frontier Associates consulting firm where he assists utilities and government agencies in the design and evaluation of energy efficiency programs, renewable energy programs, electricity pricing, and energy policy. Dr. Zarnikau’s publications include articles on energy pricing, water pricing, energy taxes, pollution taxes, energy modeling, and energy resource planning.
(Fall) ECO 395K Economics of Auctions: Dr. Jorge Balat
Dr. Balat (PhD, Yale) is an Assistant Professor who specializes in Industrial Organization and Applied Econometrics. Prior to arriving at UT-Austin in 2017, Dr. Balat was an assistant professor at Johns Hopkins University.
(Fall) ECO 395L Financial and Economic Crises, Exchange Rate, Regimes, and Monetary and Fiscal Policy: Dr. Valerie Bencivenga
Dr. Bencivenga (PhD, University of Toronto) is a Senior Professor of Instruction who specializes in monetary economics, financial intermediation, international finance, development economics, growth, and statistics and econometrics. Dr. Bencivenga has authored numerous publications over the years and has held teaching positions at NYU’s Stern School of Business, Cornell University, the University of Western Ontario, and UC Santa Barbara. Since joining UT Austin’s Department of Economics in 1996, Dr. Bencivenga has received multiple teaching and service appreciation awards.
(Fall) ECO 395M Python, Databases, and Big Data; Python and SQL: Professor Edward Krueger
Professor Krueger (MA Economics, University of Rochester) is an Adjunct Assistant Professor in UT-Austin’s Department of Economics and Principal Data Scientist (proprietor) at Peak Values Consulting. Prior to joining the MA Economics program faculty, Professor Krueger taught in the McCombs School of Business’ Data Analytics and Visualization Bootcamp program. He specializes in data science and scientific applications, having developed and deployed numerous simulations, optimization, and machine learning models. Professor Krueger’s experience includes building software to optimize processes for refineries, pipelines, ports, and drilling companies. Additionally, he has worked on projects to detect abuse in programmatic advertising, forecast retail demand, and automate financial processes.
(Spring) ECO 395K Industrial Organization: Dr. Eugenio Miravete
Dr. Miravete (PhD, Northwestern) has been on the UT-Austin faculty since 2006 and is currently the Rex G. Baker, Jr. Professor of Economics. He regularly teaches Industrial Organization in the doctoral program. Dr. Miravete serves on four different editorial boards and frequently publishes in the area of empirical industrial organization.
(Spring) ECO 395K Labor Economics: Dr. Gerald Oettinger
Dr. Oettinger (PhD, MIT) is an Associate Professor at UT-Austin. With the department since 1992, he has regularly taught Labor Economics in the doctoral program and now serves as the undergraduate honors program director.
(Spring) ECO 395K Game Theory: Dr. Svetlana Boyarchenko
Dr. Boyarchenko (PhD, University of Pennsylvania) is an Associate Professor at UT-Austin. Dr. Boyarchenko teaches undergraduate and graduate courses in Game Theory, Financial Economics, Microeconomic Theory, and Economic Statistics.
(Spring) ECO 395M Time Series Econometrics: Dr. Anastasia Zervou
Dr. Zervou (PhD, Washington University, St. Louis) is a lecturer at UT-Austin. Prior to joining UT, she served as an assistant professor at Texas A & M University from 2009- 2017. Her research specialties include macroeconomics, applied time series econometrics, and financial economics. At Texas & M, she has taught courses in these areas at the undergraduate, Master’s, and doctoral levels.
(Spring) ECO 395M Statistical Learning and Data Mining; Machine Learning using R: Dr. James Scott
Dr. Scott (PhD, Duke University) is a Professor of Statistics with a dual appointment in the Department of Economics and the McCombs School of Business’ Information, Risk, and Operations Management Department. Dr. Scott’s areas of expertise in industry include Business Statistics and Financial Risk Management; his areas of research interest include Bayesian Methods, Decision Theory, Probability and Statistics, Risk Management, and Statistical Analysis. This course introduces students to the most widely used data mining and statistical learning tools. It is a hands-on course in which students learn to use R statistical software while comparing and evaluating the performance of different techniques.
(Spring) ECO 395M Causal Inference; Applied Econometrics and Data: Dr. Scott Cunningham
Dr. Cunningham (PhD, University of Georgia) is a Visiting Professor at UT-Austin and a full-time Professor of Economics at Baylor University. His research interests include mental healthcare, corrections, sex work, labor and health policy. Dr. Cunningham is the author of “Causal Inference: the Mixtape,” and he specializes in design-based causal inference via his education platform, Mixtape Sessions.