philecon

Have you received anything yet?

Congratulations on the admits! Sigh. I'm still holding out on SFI Zurich. Does anyone here know anyone who got an acceptance? I was interviewed last Thursday, and was told by my inteviewers that results come out mid-next week. However, there's an acceptance already posted in GC. Not sure if that's a troll or not.

Because I couldn't get through you by PM, so I'll write it here. When you did the interviews last March 6th, did they inform you if the results will come out by middle of next week as well? I found an acceptance in GC today, but as I was in Zurich last Thursday and was interviewed, and was subsequently informed that results come out next week.

Hi everyone, this is my first time to post in the PhD Business forum. I was previously active in the PhD Economics forum when I applied during the Fall 2011 season. I will be reapplying for this season, and I am considering some b-school PhD programs. Currently, I am a sophomore student at a well-regarded European master program. My interests are in industrial organization, health economics, and recently, corporate finance. I am fine with pursuing the PhD at my current program, however, at present, there is no faculty member who does work in health economics, which is something that I am interested in for both personal and research reasons. Moreover, I have family in the US, and this is a very important consideration for me. I've been looking at some PhD programs at business schools, and one program that attracted me is Northwestern's PhD in Managerial Economics and Strategy. I am aware that Stanford also has a similar program (Economic Analysis and Policy) and perhaps, Wharton as well. Are there other business school PhD programs that are similar to Northwestern's MECS? If, in case I may have to stay in Europe, what programs should I look into?

Aside from Milgrom's seminal article in Econometrica, is there any other source for monotone comparative statics? Apparently, we're going to use it for IO.

I have no clue about BGSE, so I would rather not comment, but I'd have to agree with CostaRicanEcon in saying that indeed, the program is rigorous, and yes, the professors in CEMFI are very accessible. In fact, some of them would treat the entire class to beers. :)

Yes, for this term it's a choice between those two. I find it weird, though, that you used Wooldridge's text; the book we're using is Hamilton. The programming languages that we can use are GAUSS, Octave, and MATLAB (although we've been using Octave since the start of the year.)

Yup, I'm on the first-year of a two-year MS program. There's a Microeconometrics course next term, and it's usually taught by one of the experts in the field, so I will take that subject, aside from two other courses. The main textbooks for the course are Wooldridge's, Cameron and Trivedi, and Arellano's Panel Data Econometrics.

Hey everyone, it's been a while since I've last been here. Anyway, the third quarter in my graduate program has already commenced, and we've already chosen the courses that we're going to take for the term. I chose Industrial Organization, Corporate Finance and Finance I (because I'm mainly interested in applied micro stuff), but I'm unsure about my course choices - specifically, Corporate Finance. I'm thinking of substituting it with Time Series Econometrics, because a classmate of mine said that it might be better preparation for a PhD in the US, since econometrics is a year-long sequence. However, I talked to my advisor and two professors from my department, and although my advisor told me to take Time Series Econometrics because it is useful, my other professors informed me that if I intend to do research in applied micro stuff, it might be of great cost to me since I won't be using it in my research. What do you guys think? Is it really necessary?

I would think that wherever you may go, whether it might be CEMFI, ITAM, or BGSE, you won't have time to have an active social life because I'd imagine that you'll be working your *** off the entire term. You might be able to party, I guess, but it's highly likely that you'll be partying with your cohort during the term.

I see. Real analysis is a signalling class for adcoms; while not all of the concepts learned in this class are used in grad school, real analysis allows you to practice proof techiques. It'd be great if you take this class, but it doesn't mean that it's the end of the road for you if you can't. The common wisdom is that academic recommendations have more weight than recommendations from work. In your case, on the other hand, a recommendation from one of your bosses won't probably hurt. Your recommender can attest to your research abilities. Yeah, getting a recommendation from your LA prof sounds like a good idea. If you can get a rec from your game theory prof, it'd be fine as well. :)

It'd be helpful if you spell out your grades in Micro, Macro and Econometrics, so that it'd be easier to dish out advice. Anyway, working with the information given here, do you think you can squeeze in a real analysis class, or a grad Economics class (preferably micro) in your last year? [i'm assuming you're still in school, but if you're not, will you consider taking a class in real analysis or grad Micro?] Those are the things that are on top of my head, aside from acing the GRE. Mostly, recommendations should come from academics, so if you can get another letter from a professor in Chicago where you did strong, that would be great! As for programs, other schools that are on top of my head would be UPF, CEMFI, Toulouse (which is strong in IO - but the setback is it's quite unknown in industry), and Tufts.

I see. You can get by the program, and actually do well, even with only Calc I-III and Linear Algebra in your belt. I sat in the 1st course in the grad econometrics sequence (economic statistics), and it was quite easy to follow. The book is alright, though, some students find it hard to read because it's terse. My only nitpick with it is that the level is more like an advanced undergraduate course abroad, as opposed to a graduate treatment of the topics covered. With regard to funding, the school provides funding to its PhD students. Anyway, if you have more questions, PM me. :)

UPD is my undergraduate institution. Though I haven't attended the graduate program, I'm a bit familiar with how things work. Admission to the PhD program is mainly through the MA program. Students take the first year MA coursework (micro, macro, and econometrics), and those who have an A average are invited to the PhD program. During their second year, PhD students take courses in advanced micro, macro, and econometrics, plus history of thought, and elective courses (the courses usually offered are international economics, health economics, natural resource economics, development economics, monetary economics, and public finance). At the end of the second year, the PhD students take comps. The subjects are macro, micro, and two fields. Students are given only two attempts to pass the comps. After the comps, students work on a dissertation. Normally, after students pass the comps, they take some time off and work as consultants for projects; afterward, they finish their dissertation. The fields I would consider the school to be strong in are health economics and development economics, since most of the research being produced are in these fields. Although there used to be someone who published in macroeconomics, she's currently on a leave from the school. Most of the other professors, on the other hand, are involved in public policy.

I'd agree with this statement. The OP must consider the costs associated with each route. And the OP should think carefully about why he wants to pursue a PhD. @ OP: Taking hard math courses gives you the benefit of showing to adcoms that you can handle the first year classes, assuming you do well. But you have to take it a good program in the Houston area. Maybe you should look at course catalogs of the colleges in your area, and see what prerequisites they require. As of now, if you've completed the Calc I-III sequence, maybe consider taking linear algebra, math stats, an intro to proofs course, or if you think you can, real analysis. On the other hand, if 2 years isn't that much of an opportunity cost for you, a Master's program may be a good option as well. Good programs in Europe/Canada at the top of my head are Queen's, UBC, Toronto, LSE, UPF, CEMFI. Maybe look into ITAM in Mexico as well.

Your profile is actually good. You should probably consider Top 30 programs. I'd take out UC Riverside from your list, and include UCSD, as they're one of the econometrics powerhouses. ASU's also a good school, so you should keep it there. Maybe consider going to PSU as well. :)

I'm not too sure about Carlos III, but in the case of CEMFI, only a few people apply to PhD programs elsewhere, and they are able to get Top 30 placements. Professors there say that fluctuations in PhD placements are due to varying interests of the students. Anyway, on topic: Yep, Canadian master programs are also a good option, plus a host of other European programs. Some people say though, that you might have to consider fields of strength in European masters.

He also has this amusing journal article named "Life Among the Econ."

Animal Spirits - Akerlof and Schiller

I used Daniel Solow's book when I took my proof-writing class. It was really good, it helped me a lot. If you can find it in your college library (since you'll be taking summer classes), I guess you should take a look at it.

I did a bit of research on some of the schools, and: Toronto requires GRE scores to be at taken within 2 years, while PSU requires GRE scores to be taken within 3 years prior to applying. UW takes scores for up to 5 years. :)

I'd have to agree with seacucumber, real analysis will be a lot easier if you have taken proof-writing or introduction to abstract math classes. I had some classmates in my real analysis class who did not have previous exposure to abstract math, and they really struggled with the class. Those are my two cents, though. :)

Who doesn't love buying textbooks? In my case, I think I might end up buying most of the books in the grad micro canon. I already have adult Varian, and I definitely have to buy MCWG, but I'm looking at buying Jehle and Reny (because one of the profs in my undergrad dept swears by it) and possibly Kreps (but more of Jehle and Reny). And if I can still squeeze in some more, I want to buy that Bowles textbook. Oh, crap. Anyway, one of the professors in the school used both Gujarati and Wooldridge as references for econometrics, and according to my classmates who took her class, they found Gujarati better. My professor, on the other hand, used Wooldridge exclusively. I liked that book - it explained concepts clearly, plus Wooldridge has this sense of humor that I never found in Gujarati when I browsed through it. (In fact, I donated my Gujarati to some org one week after buying it - it was so boring that some of the pages of that book had saliva markings on it. Evidently, it was more useful as a pillow.)

I used Stata SE when I did my undergrad thesis, and it was okay. Then again, I had to run a large data set. Students from another department in my country use gretl. It's free, and it's a bit friendlier than Stata, I think. From what I was told you don't have to write the commands (is this true?). I haven't looked at it yet, though.

Learn how to prove Hotelling's Lemma, solve dynamic optimization problems, and derive the Gauss-Markov theorems while under the influence of copious amounts of alcohol. Oh, and learn Python too. Google has a free class on it. Cool. And yeah, travel, go sport climbing and just have fun fun fun. It'll be my last for the next seven or so years, mind.