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GPEF Curriculum

The programme is divided into a coursework phase and a research phase.

Courses totalling 52 credits (max. 10 Semesters) ensure that as a graduate of the Graduate Programme in Economics and Finance (GPEF), you will possess the required in-depth knowledge in your main specialisation.

 

During the coursework phase students achieve a broad and advanced knowledge of key areas of Economics, Econometrics and Finance, including theoretical and empirical research methodology. During the course phase students must complete compulsory courses, compulsory elective courses and a research proposal.

To help the students with the finance courses, the programme offers a two-week intensive course in mathematics as preparation at the beginning of the Ph.D. studies (applicants without a strong mathematical background may be required to complete this course).

A maximum of four semesters is planned for the coursework phase.

COURSE PHASE
You begin your studies with the coursework phase, which consists of compulsory courses and compulsory elective courses.

 

SPECIALISATION: ECONOMICS

Students have to take three compulsory, Master level courses.

CourseLecturerSemester
Advanced Macroeconomics IIProf. Winfried KönigerAutumn
Advanced Microeconomics IIProf. Alia GizatulinaAutumn
and one of the following:
MicroeconometricsProf. Michael LechnerSpring
Time Series EconometricsProf. Matthias Fengler Spring
Asset PricingProf. Gan CaoSpring
Financial VolatilityProf. Francesco AudrinoSpring
 

SPECIALISATION: ECONOMETIRCS

Students have to take three compulsory, Master level courses.

CourseLecturerSemester
MicroeconometricsProf. Michael LechnerSpring
Time Series EconometricsProf. Matthias Fengler Spring
and one of the following:
Advanced Macroeconomics IIProf. Winfried KönigerAutumn
Advanced Microeconomics IIProf. Alia GizatulinaAutumn
Asset PricingProf. Can GaoSpring
Financial VolatilityProf. Francesco AudrinoSpring
 
SPECIALISATION: FINANCE

Students have to complete four compulsory Ph.D. courses

CourseLecturerSemester
Econometrics for FinanceProf. Paul SöderlindAutumn
Microeconomics for FinanceProf. Michèle Müller-IttenAutumn
Asset PricingProf. Matthias FenglerAutumn
Corporate FinanceProf. Marc ArnoldAutumn
ECONOMETRICS SPECIALISATION    
CourseLecturerSemester  
Causal panel methods (in FS25)Prof. Scott Cunningham, GP SEPSSpring 2025  
Topics in Econometrics and Finance (not in HS24)Prof. Lyudmila GrigoryevaAutumn & Spring  
Time Series Methods in Financial Econometrics Prof. Patrick GagliardiniAutumn  
Recent Advances in Optimal Policy Design Prof. David PreinerstorferSpring  
(GSERM) Computational StatisticsProf. Francesco AudrinoSpringPEF / GSERM*
(GSERM) Causal Machine Learning (in FS25 and again HS26)Prof. Michael LechnerAutumnPEF / GSERM*
Econometric Methods for Social Spillovers and Networks (again in HS26)Prof. Bryan GrahamAutumn  
ECONOMICS SPECIALISATION  
CourseLecturerSemester

Advanced Public Economics (previously "Designing Redistributive Policies")

Prof. Domink SachsAutumn
Macroeconomics and InequalityProf. Arno Valadarez-Esteban / Prof. Winfried KoenigerAutumn
Political Economics of DevelopmentProf. Roland HodlerSpring
Empirical Health and Labor Economics (not in HS24)Prof. Beatrix EugsterAutumn
Quantitative Macroeconomics: a practical approach for all Prof. Guido Cozzi and Dr. Maria Iordache-BolboacaAutumn
Topics in EconomicsProf. Bruno CaprettiniAutumn & Spring
FINANCE SPECIALISATION  
CourseLecturerSemester
Behavioral Finance (in FS25)Prof. Sebastian Ebert, GP SoFSpring 2025
Empirical Corporate Finance Prof. Markus SchmidSpring
Topics in Insurance Economics (not in FS24 & FS25)Prof. Hato SchmeiserSpring
Banking and Contract EconomicsProf. Anastasia Kartasheva and Prof. Steven Ongena (University of Zurich & SFI)Spring
Blockchains and Cryptocurrencies (only in FS24)Prof. Bruno Biais, Guest Professor SoF FS24Spring 2024
Selected Recent Research Directions in Theoretical and Empirical Asset Pricing (only in FS23)Prof. Fabio Trojani Spring
Please note that you may take only "A" level GSERM courses for credits.

During the course phase students have to hand in a detailed research proposal for their Ph.D. thesis and present it to their thesis committee in a colloquium. In the research proposal, Ph.D. students provide the thesis outline and discuss preliminary results. The research proposal is not graded, but it has to be accepted. Following the acceptance of the research proposal, students are admitted into the research phase. All courses have to be completted and passed. The research phase starts in the term when the research proposal is successfully defended.

RESEARCH PHASE
During the research phase you will focus on writing your doctoral thesis. In addition, you will attend and present your work in the Ph.D. seminars. The compulsory seminars can only be attended after having submitted the research proposal.

In the Ph.D. seminars students present their research papers. They receive feedback from faculty and fellow Ph.D. students. The seminars offer a forum for an active scientific debate.

The finance Ph.D. seminars take place weekly, the schedule can be found  here.

The Ph.D. thesis is written in English as a cumulative thesis. It consists of (at least) three articles that represent the quality standards of good international refereed journals. At least one of the articles has to be single-authored by the Ph.D. candidate.

At the end of the research phase, students have to submit the thesis and present it to the members of their Ph.D. Thesis Committee in a pre-defence examination. At this stage the Thesis Committee can ask for changes or corrections to the submitted manuscript. After having successfully passed the pre-defence, the public defence is held. The final version of the thesis is printed according to the HSG regulations.

After the acceptance of the thesis, the dissertation is presented in a public Ph.D. defence which concludes the doctoral studies. Students who successfully had their public defense, are awarded the degree Doctor of Philosophy in Economics and Econometrics or Doctor of Philosophy in Finance from the University of St.Gallen (Ph.D. HSG).

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