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Placements Completed for Graduates of GSE Reference Doctoral Programs

May 2008

The 2008 job market windes down as placements are finalized for graduating doctoral students of the GPEFM program of the UPF and the IDEA program of the UAB, the reference doctoral programs of the BSE.

The particular excellence of this year’s placements is testament to the value of the programs. This year saw placements throughout Europe and the US, as well as in top institutions of Asia and South America. While most students accept tenure track positions at universities and research institutions, others opt for alternate applications of their PhD.

The Postgraduate School at the UAB's Bellaterra campus, site of the IDEA program

Pau Olivella, Placement Officer of the IDEA program and GSE Affiliated Professor, emphasizes the range of placements that the graduates have obtained. “The IDEA program has a history of placing its PhDs in prestigious academic and non-academic positions, such as the universities of Aarhus, Carlos III de Madrid, Dortmund, New South Wales, UPF, and Shanghai; the Central Banks of Mexico, Venezuela; or the United Nations.”

The anecdotal success of the PhD programs is backed by empirical evidence. In February 2008, The Review of Economics and Statistics published an article titled “Ranking Economics Departments Worldwide on the Basis of PhD Placement”, coauthored by Rabah Amir (University of Arizona) and Malgorzata Knauff (Warsaw School of Economics).

In it the researchers reveal a global ranking of economics departments based on the idea that a department's value is reflected in the reputation of the accumulated placements achieved by their Ph.D students- the higher the total value of the employing institutions the higher the value of the Ph.D program.

The ranking highlights the strong position of the GPEFM and IDEA doctoral programs. In a short period of time (they are both 15 years old) they have managed to position themselves as the 9th and 14th in Europe, respectively. As Amir and Knauff say "several Departments have entered the global market for Ph.D education in the last 15 years at a level that earned them a place in the rankings".

The Graduate Program in Economics, Finance and Management (GPEFM) of the Universitat Pompeu Fabra and the International Doctorate in Economic Analysis (IDEA) of the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona enjoy a close link with the GSE, sharing both faculty and resources. In some instances, graduates of the GSE master programs continue their studies in one of the reference doctoral programs.

Since their respective founding-- the GPEFM program in 1993 and the IDEA program in 1991-- the programs have awarded doctoral degrees to 125 and 130 students, respectively.

The Ciutadella campus, site of the UPF's GPEFM program

GSE Reference Doctoral Programs