The selection process is competitive. Only excellent students will be admitted to our Ph.D. Programmes. Admission is based on the Programme Committee’s evaluation of your submitted application documents (‘sur dossier’).
Admitted candidates will start their coursework in September 2025. Admitted candidates may be offered research assistant positions.
Vacancies for Research Assistant positions & PhD in Economics and Econometrics (PEcon), intake September 2025, is listed below (this list is subject to regular updates):
Supervisor | Topics | No. positions |
Francesco Audrino | Financial Econometrics, Financial Economics, Computational Statistics with applications in Finance | 1 |
Paolo Piacquadio | Normative economics, Public economics, and Behavioral/Experimental economics | 1 |
Please refer to this list when you write the description of your research interests and explicitly state your most preferred PhD supervisor(s) at the beginning of this description.
You may also bring your own funding, for example via a national grant (please explicitly state this in your application). In this case, consider also the list of all potential PEcon supervisors and of our faculty and their research interests.
Application procedure
1. The first and main step of the application is to submit the documents to the University’s job portal (except for the reference letters, which should be sent directly by the letter writers to gpef@unisg.ch). No application fee needs to be paid at this point. University of St.Gallen master's students may apply if they expect to graduate in autumn 2025).
Required documents:
Other necessary documents:
Review of applications:
The first review of applications will take place after 31 January 2025. Please make sure to submit your application by this date for full consideration. Thereafter, applications may still be accepted subject to availability of free spaces.
2. In a second step:
Admitted candidates will start their coursework in September 2025. Admitted candidates may be offered research assistant positions. Vacancies for research assistant positions & PhD in Finance (PiF), intake September 2025, is listed below (this list is subject to regular updates):
Supervisor | Topics | No. positions |
Francesco Audrino | Financial Econometrics, Financial Economics, Computational Statistics with applications in Finance | 1 |
Christian Biener | Behavioral Economics of Risk Management and Insurance | 1 Link |
Martin Eling | Cyber risk, Risk management, Insurance | 1 |
Markus Schmid | Household Finance, Sustainable Finance | 1 |
Tereza Tykvova | Empirical corporate finance, Private equity, Venture capital | 2 |
Please refer to this list when you write the description of your research interests and explicitly state your most preferred PhD supervisor(s) at the beginning of this description.
You may also bring your own funding, for example via a national grant (please explicitly state this in your application). In this case, consider also the list of all potential PiF supervisors.
Application procedure
1. The first and main step of the application is to submit the documents to the University’s job portal (except for the reference letters, which should be sent directlyby the letter writers to gpef@unisg.ch ). No application fee needs to be paid at this point. University of St.Gallen master's students may apply if they expect to graduate in autumn 2025). Please refer to this list when you write the description of your research interests and explicitly state your most preferred PhD supervisor(s) at the beginning of this description.
Required documents:
Other necessary documents:
Review of applications:
The first review of applications will take place after 31 January 2025. Please make sure to submit your application by this date for full consideration. Thereafter, applications may still be accepted subject to availability of free spaces.
2. In a second step:
Application procedure
1. First main step: Application via the SFI platform for St.Gallen Campus.
Deadlines:
1 November - Application start on SFI platform
15 January - 1st round review applications
31 March - 2nd round review applications
SFI students must have an SFI supervisor and an SFI senior chair in their thesis committee.
You will find a list of PiF supervsiors who are also SFI faculty under PiF Supervisors & SFI Faculty. Please refer to this list when you are asked to state your most preferred PhD supervisor(s).
Admitted candidates will start their coursework in September 2025. Admitted candidates may be offered research assistant positions. Vacancies for Research Assistant Positions & Ph.D. in Finance (PiF), intake September 2025, can be found below (this list is subject to regular updates):
Supervisor | Topics | No. positions |
Francesco Audrino | Financial Econometrics, Financial Economics, Computational Statistics with applications in Finance | 1 |
Christian Biener | Behavioral Economics of Risk Management and Insurance | 1 Link |
Markus Schmid | Household Finance, Sustainable Finance | 1 |
Tereza Tykvova | Empirical corporate finance, Private equity, Venture capital | 2 |
Admitted candidates will start their coursework in September 2025. Admitted candidates may be offered research assistant positions. Vacancies for Research Assistant Positions & Ph.D. in Finance (PiF), intake September 2025, may be be find below (this list is subject to regular updates). You may also bring your own funding, for example via a national grant (please explicitly state this in your application).
2. In a second step:
GPEF PhD students are funded via research assistant positions at the supervisors chair. Actual salaries vary by the employment contract and typically start between 30.000-40.000 CHF in the first year, and reach 60.000 CHF towards the end of the PhD. In addition, the GPEF PhD programme offers generous funding for conference attendance.