Good European Schools?

[rvalchev]

Hey all,

I have like 0 knowledge about the European scene and I was hoping that you could help me out with some pointers. May be some good webpage that gives an informational ranking of European schools would be a great place to start. Even better, if you can share personal opinion as to who has the best econometrics or macro faculty I'll be very grateful.

Unfortunately, apart of LSE, I do not really know even the names of well respected European schools. To my understanding their application deadlines are a little later than most of the US Schools? I figured sending a couple overseas wont be a bad idea and I wont have other applications to bother with anyway.

[EnLaPlaya]

Hi, I think a good starting point is this http://www.bm.ust.hk/econ/JEEA.Ranking.pdf (European schools are treated separately). For your convenience, I´m posting the links to most of top European programmes right here:

Germany
CDSE
Munich Graduate School of Economics - Munich Graduate School of Economics
Bonn Graduate School of Economics

Italy
European University Institute - Doctoral and Post-doctoral Research in the Social Sciences
Ph.D. IN ECONOMICS - Universita' Bocconi=

Spain
Barcelona GSE
IDEA Homepage
Master in Economic Analysis
CEMFI

UK
Postgraduate Programmes
Department of Economics - University College London
(I´m omitting Oxford, Cambridge and Warwick on purpose)

Netherlands
Tinbergen Institute
Tilburg University - Graduate Program in Economics

Belgium
UCL - Louvain's Economics Departement

France
Toulouse School of Economics
Graduate programme Analyse et politique Economiques (APE)

Sweden
Nationalekonomiska institutionen, Stockholms universitet

LSE and Tinbergen should be the best in econometrics; LSE and UPF should rule in macro but let this be subject to discussion.

[elcapitano]

Originally Posted by EnLaPlaya

(I´m omitting Oxford, Cambridge and Warwick on purpose)

May I ask why?

[EnLaPlaya]

Originally Posted by elcapitano

May I ask why?

Sure. To start with, I should say that as I do not study at these schools (and never will), I cannot base my judgments on anything but, say, second-hand info. Through the course of time, I somehow got the impression that at least in terms of teaching these programmes are not as good as one - given the famous names - would expect. I think this is well summed up here: http://www.urch.com/forums/phd-econo...tml#post596478 (First Year Updates) (hope it is ok to link this) and I feel the similar might go for Cambridge.

As for Warwick, I confess that my impression is based almost exclusively on this: http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/fac/soc/ec...dbook_0708.pdf, which seemed so funny to me in some parts (e.g. "Copying out lecture notes is something we especially discourage. Notes provided by lecturers should be only a starting point of your research, not your finishing point. Again, work based on lecture notes will not get a good mark." - p. 18) that I simply told myself they cannot mean the PhD stuff seriously.

[michaelmas]

The only graduate programs in the UK worth considering are those that more or less follow the US model, with two years of coursework and intermediate econ courses as prerequisite.

LSE, Cambridge, Oxford, Essex, Warwick and UCL are those that come to my mind. Who am forgetting?

You don't hear much talk about York or Manchester on TM (no disrespect to either programs).

[vanRijn]

I think that the list posted by EnLaPlaya is pretty complete and informative. I'd add Kiel's masters and Geneve for international economics tho, plus stockholm school of economics, maybe also brussels ecares for metrics.

another thing: In my opinion taking a look at the placement record gives a better glimpse at the respective stenghts of the graduate programs of these institutions, and it's much better than looking at the rankings based on publications.
for instance, I think that EUI, which fares bad in publ. based rankings because of the small faculty (its a graduate-only institution), has probably a better program than the majority the institutions listed (besides having the most amazing campus hands down )

also mind that these programs vary wildly in international exposure and diversity of their students (for instance, I have the impression, maybe wrong, that german schools and PSE have mostly national students)

cheers

[EnLaPlaya]

Originally Posted by vanRijn

plus stockholm school of economics

That´s what the last link was supposed to be about, sorry for this (more correct one is SSE - Welcome to Stockholm School of Economics - the two schools seem to collaborate, so the original link works after some more clicks as well).

Originally Posted by vanRijn

another thing: In my opinion taking a look at the placement record gives a better glimpse at the respective stenghts of the graduate programs of these institutions, and it's much better than looking at the rankings based on publications.

Ok, here it goes: http://www.ires.ucl.ac.be/DP/IRES_DP/2005-41.pdf (although these rankings should only serve as an indicative list)

Originally Posted by vanRijn

I have the impression, maybe wrong, that german schools (...) have mostly national students

This is quite true. By the way, I did not get into any of the German schools I applied to but all my remaining applications (ok, there were only two of them), sent to most likely better programmes that are at the same time open to international candidates were successful (and, needless to say, I am not German).

[asianeconomist]

1) UPF

2) THE QEM Program

3) University of Copenhagen

[mbonheur]

I would add ECARES @ ULB which do have a pretty good placement record (If you wanna stay in Europe). Dewatripoint is pretty well known if you are into contract theory.

[LouisBD]

Not to forget that he's 50% MIT.
Not only they have Dewatripont, but also Philippe Weil who is also quite well known. And they have produced some great researchers in the past (in different fields). We are just not always aware from where some people come.

E.g.: I was surprised to find out that this researcher obtained his phd at the ULB: http://www.econ.berkeley.edu/~groland/pubs/CVGR2007.pdf