[constrainedoptimizer]

Originally Posted by appler

and yeah, am serious about financial economics, more than political econ anyway

I am going out on a limb here, but judging by your background thus far, I think USC, UC Santa Barbara and UC Irvine might serve as good starting points. Irvine has a reputation as being a good place to study political economy, but they also have Hirschleifer, who is a big name in behavioral finance/financial economics.

You can always throw in UCLA, UC San Diego and Berkeley as reaches...