Admission Spring Semester 2024

Application deadlines:

• External applicants without a research assistant position: 1 September – 30 November
• Applicants with a research assistant position or with an HSG Master's degree: 1 September - 15 January
• Applicants who are currently enrolled as HSG Master students need to register through Compass: 1 September - 30 November. Documents to be submitted: CV, short application letter (choice of specialization; Supervisor available; Research Assistant at the University?), Request for credits, GRE Result (quantitative).

Admitted candidates will start their coursework in February 2024. Admitted candidates may be offered research assistant positions. 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 their research interests.

Application procedure
Please submit your documents at the university’s formal PhD admission portal. Please check which documents you will need to provide. Please note that the application/enrolment fee of 250 CHF needs to be paid.to submit the documents. The reference letters should be sent directly to gpef@unisg.ch by the letter writers. 

Required documents:

• Degree certificates from each university attended (bachelor and master, including exchange programmes and “transcripts of records” from unfinished programmes of study)
• Description of research interests (referring to the list of proposed fields/topics and potential supervisors). Please state your desired specialization (Economics or Econometrics) and indicate whether you already contacted a potential supervisor.
• GRE/GMAT (some applicants may be exempted from having to present a GRE or GMAT result; a PDF of the scores is enough) [recommended, can also be provided later]
• CV

Other necessary documents:

• Evidence of English language proficiency (can be provided later)
• Two reference letters, sent directly by the letter writers to gpef@unisg.ch

Review of applications:

The first review of applications will take place after 15 December 2023. 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.

GPEF Ph.D. 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 Ph.D. In addition, the GPEF PhD Programme offers generous funding for conference attendance.