Economics
Introduction
The PhD programme in Economics aims to give dedicated graduate students a solid training in performing high quality scientific research in economics, making use of the empirical and theoretical techniques that reflect the state of the art in the field. The programme prepares students for the international academic job market, for positions at national and international policy institutions, central banks, and research organisations.
The Department of Economics
The Department of Economics has a faculty of 32 people, distributed over three sections: economics (24), economic history (3) and economic geography (3). Current faculty members include Nobel Laureate and NHH alumnus Professor Finn E. Kydland.
More information on the department and faculty members can be found here.
Areas of Research
The department is interested in applicants within the whole range of the academic profile within the department, but especially in the following fields:
Development economics:
Entrepreneurship and microfinance, natural resources and economic development.
Experimental economics:
The application of experimental methods to study economic behavior and to test assumptions about individuals' preferences and rationality.
Industrial organisation:
Theoretical and empirical studies of competitive strategy.
Labour economics:
Empirical labour economics, particularly on industry restructuring, family economics and the economics of education.
Monetary history:
Historical studies of monetary policy and business cycle fluctuations, history of central banking.
Public economics:
Studies in public finance including the theory of public goods and taxation, the design of social insurance, and environmental issues.
The programme
The programme consists of advanced courses in microeconomics, macroeconomics and econometrics. These core courses each amount to 7.5 ECTS and should be taken and passed successfully during the first year. In addition students take a course on Scientific Method (7.5 ECTS), and specialisation courses up to 15 ECTS. The specialisation courses reflect the research areas in which the Department of Economics is active and able to provide supervision. These are
- industrial organisation and labour market relations
- welfare and public economics
- regulation and incentive theory
- international economics
- resource economics
Furthermore, students are encouraged to attend intensive doctoral courses at affiliated academic institutions, both in Norway and abroad. The department is a member of the Nordic Network in Economics (NNE).