PhD in Economics
Pisa, Italy
PhD
DURATION
4 years
LANGUAGES
English
PACE
Full time
APPLICATION DEADLINE
EARLIEST START DATE
Oct 2026
TUITION FEES
STUDY FORMAT
On-Campus
Key Summary
The PhD in Economics is a 4-year programme designed for highly qualified and motivated students who wish to acquire the research and analytical skills of the international scientific community in Economics. The Programme is offered in close cooperation with UCA-University of Cote d’Azur (Nice, France), and an agreement for the exchange of students and faculty is also in place with the University of Strasbourg (France) and IMT-School Lucca. Students attend one year and a half of intensive coursework, part of which (2-3 months) is hosted at the UCA. After the training period, students will proceed to supervised research work, yielding an original dissertation to be discussed in a final, public examination. It is expected that students produce articles publishable in international journals.
PhD students are exposed to the vivid research environment and participate in various ongoing research activities at the Institute of Economics at Scuola Sant’Anna (seminars, conferences, research projects).
The Programme is also part of a large international network of institutions and scholars, supporting exchanges of research students and faculty.
At least 4 scholarships, for 4 years, of which:
- 3 positions funded by Scuola Sant'Anna
- 1 position funded under L'EMbeDS Project
Further positions may be made available before the start of the program, depending on external funding
Scholarships are for the duration of the relevant Ph.D. Programmes and confirmed annually upon admission to the following year by approval from the Advisory Board of the individual Programme. Ph.D. scholarships are awarded following the ranking order, except for scholarships linked to specific topics or research projects, which may be awarded to the first eligible candidate(s) identified by the Selection Committee.
The annual budget for each student comprises a scholarship of € 16,243.00 (€ 18,800.00 for the PhD Programmes in robotics and Emerging Digital Technologies), including social security charges payable by the recipient and paid in monthly instalments in arrears, and housing grant of € 2,200/year.
Scholarships cannot be combined with other scholarships for any reason whatsoever, except for those granted by national or foreign institutions, aimed at supplementing the student's research activities with visits abroad. Doctoral students who have previously received a Ph.D. scholarship in Italy, even partially, are not eligible for another Ph.D. scholarship.
The training covers traditional domains of economic analysis (micro, macro, econometrics) but also offers the unique opportunity to study and get involved in research fields often neglected in standard PhD Courses. In line with the core research interests and expertise of the Institute of Economics at Sant’Anna and associate institutions, Advanced and Field topics encompass: evolutionary perspectives on economic change, firm-industry dynamics, economics of innovation, agent-based computational economics, economic networks and complexity, economic history and history of economic thought, and a broad range of quantitative tools for the analysis of big-data and economic dynamics.
Ph.D. students have access to research facilities (software, hardware, data) available via the Scuola library, the Institute of Economics, and the computational infrastructure of the Department of Excellence EMBEDS.
The coursework is structured in 6 main modules (Syllabi of the courses are available here):
- Mathematics for Social Sciences
- Statistics and Econometrics
- Microeconomics
- Macroeconomics
- History of Economic Thought and Economic History
- Advanced Courses
Each module is organized into several courses, with compulsory attendance and final exams.
Some courses are assigned to external experts, while the Internal Faculty is heavily involved in courses reflecting the areas of expertise of the Institute of Economics at Sant'Anna and associated partners (IUSS-Pavia, UCA-Nice, IMT-Lucca, Strasbourg).
Here is the list of modules/courses scheduled in a recente academic year (this is essentially replicated every year with small adjustments):
Mathematics for Social Sciences:
- Advanced Mathematics (20 hours)
- Static and Dynamic Optimization (20 hrs)
- Markov processes (15 hrs)
Econometrics:
- Econometrics (30 hrs)
- Time Series (20 hrs)
- Microeconometrics (20 hrs)
Microeconomics:
- Consumption and Production (15 hrs)
- Partial/General Equilibrium and Market Failures (15 hrs)
- Information and Uncertainty (10 hrs)
- Game Theory (20 hrs)
- Industrial Organization (15 hrs)
Macroeconomics:
- Business cycle theories (15 hrs)
- Growth Theories (15 hrs)
- Representative agent macroeconomics (15 hrs)
- Advanced Growth: theories and facts (15 hrs)
History of Economic Thought and Economic History:
- Introduction to Economic History (20 hrs)
- History of Economic Analysis (15 hrs)
Advanced Courses @Sant'Anna-Pisa:
- Intro to Agent-based Computational Economics (10 hrs)
- Agent-based Macroeconomics (25 hrs)
- Causality in Macroeconometrics (12 hrs)
- Financial Economics (20 hrs)
- Economics of Innovation (30 hrs)
- Evolutionary foundations of innovation and industrial dynamics (20 hrs)
- Firm-Industry Dynamics (25 hrs)
- Advanced general equilibrium (6 hrs)
- Non-Parametric Statistics (12 hrs)
- Statistical Methods for Large, Complex Data (12 hrs)
Advanced courses @UCA-Nice:
- Advanced industrial dynamics and innovation (40 hrs)
- International trade (15 hrs)
- Technology-gap trade (6 hrs)
- Labour & Technology (15 hrs)
- Topics in Monetary Economics (20 hrs)
- Organization Theory (10 hrs)
- Intro to Experimental Economics (20 hrs)
- Advanced econometrics I - Causal inference (10 hrs)
- Advanced econometrics II - Advanced panel methods (10 hrs)
- Complexity in Economics (10 hrs)
- Economic and Financial Networks (15 hrs)
- Inequality and income distribution (10 hrs)
- Classical development theories (10 hrs)
- Topics in institutions and economic policy (10 hrs)
Additional modules may be activated during the year.
Starting from the academic year 2017/18, part of the advanced and field courses are held at Universitè de Cote d'Azur, Nice, France, where students are hosted for about two months at the beginning of their second year. Modules taught in Nice encompass Advanced industrial dynamics and innovation, International trade, Labour & Technology, Introduction to Experimental Economics, Complexity in Economics, Topics in Monetary Economics, Economic and financial networks, Advanced econometrics, Inequality and income distribution, Classical development, Topics in institutions and economic policy.
Currently, the coordinators and contact persons for the courses are Prof. Giulio Bottazzi and Dr. Daniele Giachini (Math), Prof. Laura Magazzini (Statistics and Econometrics), Prof. Giorgio Fagiolo and Prof. Daniele Moschella (Micro), Prof. Andrea Roventini and Dr. Francesco Lamperti (Macro), Prof. Alessandro Nuvolari (History and History of Economic Thought), Prof. Federico Tamagni and Dr. Maria Enrica Virgillito (Advanced and Field).
The Programme is primarily intended for students willing to pursue an academic career but also provides professional research skills to work in public and private research institutions. Former PhD candidates now work as post-doc, research fellow or tenure track in well-reputed Italian and international universities (Paris-Sorbonne, Utrecht University, University of York, New School New York, Sciences Po, University of Strasbourg, Cattolica Milano, CNR Florence), institutions (UN-ECLAC, ECB, Bank of Italy, STATEC-Luxembourg, OECD-Paris, JRC-Seville, Italian Ministry of Economic and Finance), and in the private sector (UBS).