PhD Economics

The Department offers a fully-fledged PhD program in Economics that trains students to the most advanced standards in the discipline. It is characterized by rigorous coursework, a strong research element, and the Department’s ambition to place students at recognized international institutions.

The programm offers:

a structured curriculum with (i) a mandatory core and (ii) field courses to choose from,
fully funded positions and excellent working conditions, and
a stimulating research environment characterized by a sizeable number of researchers, all organized in one faculty.

The research at the Department covers a broad range of topics in applied microeconomics and industrial organization, macroeconomics and international economics, and economic policy in the broader fields of public economics, labor economics, political economy, the economics of digitalization, and behavioral economics.

The students of the PhD Program are members of the Department of Economics and fully integrated into the Department's research activities. The program is taught in English.

For more information on the program

News

April 2024

We are pleased to announce the Defensio Dissertationis of Elisabeth Wurm on Friday, April 19, 2024 on the topic of„Essays in Labor Economics”.

Find out more here

March 2024

We are pleased to announce the Defensio Dissertationis of Oscar Fernandez on Friday, March 15, 2024 on the topic of "Essays in Quantitative Macroeconomics and Green Finance”.

Find out more here

February 2024

Application for the PhD Economics Programm for the academic year 24/25 is possible now here ! Application deadline is March 27th, 2024

December 2023

We are pleased to announce the Defensio Dissertationis of Anna Schwarz on Friday, December 15th 2023, on the topic of „Essays in Public Economics”. Find out more here.

November 2023

We are pleased to announce the Defensio Dissertationis of Pia Heckl on the topics of„Essays on Gender in the Labor Market“ on Friday, November 24th, 2023. Find out more here

September 2023

Welcome to four new PhD candidates who joined us in the academic year 23/24 ►

September 2023

We are pleased to announce the Defensio Dissertationis of Philipp Poyntner ,„Essays on monetary policy” on Monday, September 18, 2023. Find out more here

June 2023

Our PhD candidates Nikolas Kuschnig and Lukas Vashold co-authored the article "Eroding resilience of deforestation interventions – evidence from Brazil’s lost decade" in Environmental Research Letters with colleagues at the University of Oxford. Find out more here

February 2023

PhD candidate Philipp Poyntner co-authored the article "Quantitative Easing and Wealth Inequality: The asset price channel", which was recently published in the Oxford Bulletin of Economics and Statistics. Find out more here

Older News Items

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INFO

Degree awarded:

Doctor of Philosophy, abbreviated as PhD

WU-Program "PhD Economics"

ECTS:

78+Dissertation

Language of Instruction:

English

Mode of study:

Full-time

Duration of program:

6 semesters

Program start:

Every winter semester

Application:

Admission only in combination with WU-employment (regular position or third-party funding)

Hiring in beginning (approx. January /February) of each year

Name	Purpose	Lifetime	Provider
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hjViewportId	Stores user viewport details such as size and dimensions.	session	Hotjar
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_hjSession_	Holds current session data. Ensures subsequent requests in the session window are attributed to the same session.	30 minutes	Hotjar
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_hjSessionResumed	Set when a session/recording is reconnected to Hotjar servers after a break in connection.	session	Hotjar
_hjCookieTest	Checks to see if the Hotjar Tracking Code can use cookies. If it can, a value of 1 is set. Deleted almost immediately after it is created.	session	Hotjar
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_hjIncludedInSessionSample_	Set to determine if a user is included in the data sampling defined by your site's daily session limit.	2 minutes	Hotjar
_hjAbsoluteSessionInProgress	Used to detect the first pageview session of a user.	30 minutes	Hotjar
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Name	Purpose	Lifetime	Provider
test_cookie	Is set as a test to check whether the browser allows cookies to be set. Does not contain any identification features.	15 minute	Google
IDE	Contains a randomly generated user ID. Using this ID, Google can recognize the user across different websites across domains and display personalized advertising.	1 year	Google
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_gcl_aw	This cookie is set when a user clicks on a Google ad on the website. It contains information about which ad was clicked.	90 day	Google
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fr	Used to serve advertisements and measure and improve their relevance.	90 day	Facebook
m_pixel_ratio	Performance cookie used by Facebook with Facebook pixels.	session	Facebook
wd	Used for analysis purposes. Technical parameters are logged (e.g. aspect ratio and dimensions of the screen) so that Facebook apps can be displayed correctly.	7 day	Facebook
dpr	Used for analysis purposes. Technical parameters are logged (e.g. aspect ratio and dimensions of the screen) so that Facebook apps can be displayed correctly.	7 day	Facebook
sb	Used to save browser details and Facebook account security information.	2 year	Facebook
dbln	Used to save browser details and Facebook account security information.	2 year	Facebook
spin	Cookie for advertising purposes and reporting on social campaigns.	session	Facebook
presence	Contains the "Chat" status of a logged in user.	1 month	Facebook
x-referer	Performance cookie that is used by Facebook in combination with Facebook pixels.	session	Facebook
cppo	Cookie for statistical purposes.	90 day	Facebook
datr	Identifies the browser for security and website integrity purposes, including account recovery and identification of potentially compromised accounts.	2 year	Facebook
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BizographicsOptOut	This cookie is used to determine the rejection status for tracking by third-party providers.	10 year	LinkedIn
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lang	This cookie stores the language settings of a user. This ensures that the LinkedIn.com website appears in the language selected by the user.	session	LinkedIn
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secure_session	This cookie is set when X is embedded on the page. E.g. X's like or sharing functions.	14 year	X
guest_id	This cookie is set by X when a visitor shares content from the WU website on X.	2 year	X
personalization_id	This cookie is set by X to measure the performance of X advertising campaigns in a user's browsers and devices	2 year	X
remember_checked	This cookie is set by when X is embedded on the page. X collects data that is mainly used for tracking and targeting.	4 year	X
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