PhD in Economics, Finance and Management

Introduction

The PhD program in Economics, Finance and Management of the Department of Economics and Business at Universitat Pompeu Fabra (UPF) is one of the leading PhD programs in Europe. Launched in 1993, our program attracts students of exceptional talent and provides a strong foundation, a stimulating environment, and worldwide placement in the most prestigious institutions, research centers, and universities.

The PhD program covers practically all areas of research, with particular emphasis on:

Behavioral and Experimental Economics
Business Economics and Industrial Organization
Economic and Business History
Finance and Accounting
Labour, Public, Development and Health Economics
Macroeconomics and International Economics
Management and Organization Studies
Microeconomics
Operations Management
Statistics, Econometrics and Quantitative Methods

Structure

The PhD program is structured in three stages. Stages 1 and 2 involve course work, while Stage 3 focuses on research. Most students complete the entire PhD program in five to six years.
Stage 1. Master’s Degree in Economics and Finance. This stage involves the completion of the Master’s Degree, jointly offered with the Barcelona Graduate School of Economics. This one-year master provides students with rigorous training on the foundations, applications, and policies covering theoretical and empirical approaches.

Stage 2. Master of Research in Economics, Finance and Management (MRes).
After the successful completion of the Master’s Degree in Economics and Finance, the student enters the MRes. The MRes is one year of coursework that prepares students to conduct research. It offers a wide variety of specialized courses taught by the leading international faculty of the Department of Economics and Business and CREi. The courses present students with cutting-edge research, help them find topics for their own research, and put them in contact with potential thesis directors. The department's broad workshops and seminar series complement the coursework with exposure to the latest research and insights presented by renowned speakers from institutions around the world.

Stage 3. Completion of the MRes leads to the proper PhD stage, which involves three or four years of research, culminating with the thesis defense and the Doctoral Degree.

Admissions

The standard access to the PhD program is through Stage 1 above, by enrolling in the Master’s Degree in Economics and Finance offered in conjunction with the Barcelona GSE. Information on the admissions to the Economics and Finance programs of the master can be found here:

Economics Program, joint with the Barcelona GSE
Finance Program, joint with the Barcelona GSE

A handful of external candidates, who do not go through Stage 1 (Master’s Degree in Economics and Finance), are accepted directly to Stage 2 (the MRes). Only in exceptional circumstances it is possible to directly access to Stage 3 (the proper PhD).

Funding

The years of the MRes and the proper PhD are fully funded (covering tuition and living expenses) by a combination of scholarships, teaching assistantships (TA) or research assistantships (RA). We provide additional funding for attending selected conferences and summer schools, and to cover research costs such as experiments. We also offer funding in the form of scholarships, TAships, and fee waivers to a selected group of students admitted to the Master Degrees.

Academic Contents

PhD - Guide for Students

In addition to research for the doctoral thesis, the PhD includes:

• Formal defence of the Thesis Proposal
• Attending research seminars at the Department of Economics and Business
• Some course work. To complement the research training, the Director of the PhD programme can also recommend specific courses in some of the master's programmes that are coordinated by the department and its affiliated schools.
• Presentations in conferences and periods spent at other universities are highly recommended and partially financed by the programme.

Job Market

The UPF Department of Economics and Business PhD program offers a strong placement program. We carefully prepare our students for the international job market. Our past graduates have obtained tenure track positions in the United States (Chicago, Duke, NYU, Stanford, UC San Diego), Europe (Bocconi, Bonn, Carlos III, Cemfi, ESADE, IESE, IIES-Stockholm Universiy, LSE, Mannheim, Nova de Lisboa, Oxford, Tilburg, UCL, Warwick, Zurich), Latin America (ESPOL, ITAM, Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú, Universidad de Los Andes), and Asia (Singapore Management University, Shanghai University of Finance and Economics). Other students have continued their research with post-doctoral positions at the most prestigious universities, such as Harvard, Oxford or Princeton. Others have joined central banks (Banca d’Italia, Bank of England, Boston FED, European Central Bank,etc.), international institutions (like the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank or the Inter-American Development Bank), or economic consulting firms such as NERA,Deloitte or JP Morgan.