About
The Graduate Program at EIEF focuses on four fields: Applied Microeconomics, Econometrics, Finance, and Macroeconomics. It consists of courses and reading groups taught by EIEF faculty, topics courses and special lectures taught by EIEF visitors, the weekly seminars, and EIEF Summer Lectures.
The program is organized into three terms: Fall, Spring and Summer. The Fall and Spring terms each consist of 13 weeks divided into two equal parts of 6 weeks, separated by a mid-term break of one week. The Summer term is shorter, and comprises June and July.
The courses taught by EIEF faculty consist of 20 hours of lectures each, with an “hour” conventionally defined as 50 minutes of actual lecturing plus 10 minutes of pause between lectures. Taught courses may be organized over either 5 or 10 weeks (with, respectively, 4 or 2 hours of lectures per week). Topics courses and reading groups usually consist of about 10 hours each, while special lectures do not have a fixed format. There are two regular weekly seminars, one in Economics and one in Econometrics and Empirical Economics, plus a lunchtime seminar that meets less regularly. The Summer Lectures consists of special lectures offered by EIEF visitors, plus workshops/seminars. The Summer term also includes the MOOD doctoral workshop. Attendance to the workshop by students in the EIEF program provides a valuable learning experience.
In the first part of the Fall Term (from mid September to the end of October), EIEF offers review courses in Econometrics, Macroeconomics, Microeconomics and Finance, followed by a final exam. These courses are meant to review, at an advanced level, key methods and results from each of the four fields. They cover material that the students should already know, and should allow students to self-assess their own background training and possibly identify those areas where they need to catch up. Each review course consists of 20 hours of lectures distributed over 5 weeks. Although attendance of the review courses is not compulsory, all students must take the final exam.
By the end of October, students must select two fields of concentration and agree with the field coordinators on which courses they take for credit within each field. To avoid excessive burden, students are encouraged not to take more than 12 hours of taught courses each week. To test progress in the program, one-week take-home exams are given at the end of January and in mid June.