Overview

Introduction:

Economics is an important social science. As the economy continues to expand and diversify, there is growing need for economic expertise for understanding various facets of this increasingly complex economic system. Demand for well dedicated economics graduates comes from business industry, academia, government and international development finance institutions. The COMSATS Institute of Information Technology is well placed to play an important role in catering to these national and global needs by producing high quality economics graduates with MS and PhD degrees. The graduate program in Economics would aim to develop the best economic program in the country and especially in the region.

Justifications for the Program:

The graduate program in Economics is being introduced after thoughtful consideration of the following factors:

1. COMSATS already has well-established BS programme in Economics. After completion of their program at CIIT, most of these students pursue graduate studies in economics at other institutions.
2. There is a growing demand for graduate in economics in the market and CIIT Abbottabad has all available resources to cater the market need
3. CIIT Abbottabad is providing state of the art facilities to enable our student master needed skills to compete internationally.

Specializations Offered:

The MS Economics program offters the following specializations:

1. International Economics
2. Development and Public Policy
3. Agriculture Economics
4. Econometrics

MS Economics

Course Work	Min No of Courses	Min No of credits
Core courses	5	15
Electives	3	9
Thesis	1	6
Total		30

Program Description

The thrust of the course is on Business Economics, Development Economics, Environmental Economics and Mathematical Economics. The core courses of Mathematics and Statistics are included to familiarize the students with quantitative methods used in economics. Alongside economic courses that comprise approximately three quarters of the study time, students are required to study courses drawn from a range of other related disciplines of social sciences. The courses are designed with clear objectives keeping in view the latest trends and requirements of Higher Education Commission.

Application and admission

At CIIT the admissions into graduate progams are offered on merit. the merit is determines on the basis of the academic record, GRE/NTS-GAT score and interview.

General Eligibility Criteria 

Pre-requisite:

• A 16 years degree in Economics or Masters degree in Economics or any other related discipline from an accredited institution, with minimum First division (annual system) or CGPA 2.5/4.0 (semester system) and no third division (Annual system) or ‘D’ grade (semester system) throughout academic career. 
• NTS GAT (General) with minimum score of 50.

Program Duration:

The duration of studies for MS degree shall normally be, not less than two years and not more than four years.

Course Work:

An MS Scholar will have to complete minimum of 30 credit hours by undertaking 24 credit hours course work from approved Scheme of Studies and 6 credit hours of MS Thesis.

Scheme of Studies

MS Economics

Course Work	Min No of Courses	Min No of credits
Core courses	5	15
Electives	3	9
Thesis	1	6
Total		30

Core Courses

Course Code	Title	Credits
ECO601	Microeconomics Theory-I	3(3,0)
ECO605	Mathematical Reasoning For Economists	3(3,0)
ECO602	Microeconomic Theory-II	3(3,0)
ECO603	Macroeconomic Theory	3(3,0)
ECO604	Econometric Methods	3(3,0)

Thesis

Course Code	Title	Credits
ECO800	MS Thesis	6

International Economics Specialization

Course Code	Course title	Credits
ECO701	Theory of international trade	3(3,0)
ECO702	Theory of international finance	3(3,0)
ECO703	Political economy and globalization	3(3,0)
ECO704	Monetary economics	3(3,0)

Development and Public Policy Specialization

Course Code	Course title	Credits
ECO710	Development Economics: Theory and Practice	3(3,0)
ECO711	Applied general equilibrium and welfare economics	3(3,0)
ECO712	History of economics philosophy	3(3,0)

Agriculture Economics Specialization

Course Code	Course Title	Credits
ECO720	Agriculture Policy	3(3,0)
ECO721	Productivity Analysis	3(3,0)
ECO722	Agriculture Development in Developing Countries	3(3,0)

Marketing Specialization

Course Code	Course Title	Credits
ECO731	Data analysis techniques for economics	3(3,0)
ECO732	Time series methods in econometrics	3(3,0)
ECO730	Research methodology in economics	3(3,0)