<p>i noticed that some business schools and schools of management have doctoral programs in business econ or financial econ...how is this degree different than a Ph.D in Economics from a graduate school of arts and sciences? is one more impressive than the other? </p>
<p>thanks in advance.</p>
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<p>Financial economics is definitely synonymous with finance. As the name “financial economics” implies, finance is a subset of economics. Whereas economics is the study of how society allocates scarce resources, finance is the study of how society allocates scace resources over time.</p>
<p>Business economics is related to finance, though it may not be a pure synonym like financial economics. At [HBS[/url</a>], business economics “includes finance.” I’m guessing that there may be some other areas within business economics that are not part of finance, but all the [url=<a href=“http://www.hbs.edu/doctoral/areas-of-study/business-economics/index.html]“possible”>http://www.hbs.edu/doctoral/areas-of-study/business-economics/index.html]"possible</a> fields of specialization”](<a href=“http://www.hbs.edu/doctoral/areas-of-study/]HBS[/url”>http://www.hbs.edu/doctoral/areas-of-study/) appear to be straight-up finance topics.</p>
<p>You can probably already guess what the answer to your first question is: the “possible fields of specialization” are more focused within financial economics compared to economics because the former is a subset of the latter. Neither is “more impressive” than the other; the programs are designed for different students with different research interests.</p>
<p>I just finished the admissions and acceptance process for PhD study in business administration, so if you have further questions, please feel free to send me a PM.</p>