PhD in Economics

Overview

The PhD in Economics is a 4-year programme designed for highly qualified and motivated students who wish to acquire the research and analytical skills of the international scientific community in Economics. The Programme is offered in close cooperation with UniCA-University of Cote d’Azur (Nice, France). Students attend one year and a half of intensive course work, part of which (2-3 months) is hosted at the UniCA. After the training period, students will proceed to supervised research work, yielding an original dissertation to be discussed in a final, public examination. It is expected that students produce articles publishable in international journals.
PhD students are exposed to the vivid research environment and participate to various ongoing research activities of the Institute of Economics at Scuola Sant’Anna (seminars, conferences, research projects).
The Programme is also part of a large international network of institutions and scholars, supporting exchanges of research students and faculty.

Areas of study and research facilities

The training covers traditional domains of economic analysis (micro, macro, econometrics) but also offers the unique opportunity to study and get involved in research fields often neglected in standard PhD Courses. In line with the core research interests and expertise of the Institute of Economics at Sant’Anna and associate institutions, Advanced and Field topics encompass: evolutionary perspectives on economic change, firm-industry dynamics, economics of innovation, agent-based computational economics, economic networks and complexity, economic history and history of economic thought, and a broad range of quantitative tools for the analysis of economic dynamics and causal inference.
PhD students have access to research facilities (software, hardware, data) available via the Scuola library, the Institute of Economics, and the computational infrascture of the Department of Excellence L'EMBEDS.

Job Opportunities

The Programme is primarily intended for students willing to pursue an academic career but also provides professional research skills to work in public and private research institutions. Former PhD candidates now work as postdoctoral research fellows, assistant professors, etc. in well-reputed Italian and international universities (e.g., Paris-Sorbonne, Utrecht University, University of York, New School New York, Cornell University, University of Bielefeld, Sciences Po, University of Strasbourg), research institutions (e.g., UN-ECLAC, ECB, Bank of Italy, STATEC-Luxembourg, OECD-Paris, JRC-Seville, Italian Ministry of Economic and Finance), and in the private sector (e.g., UBS).