UNIVERSITE CATHOLIQUE DE LOUVAIN
I. Organization
II. Research Activities
III. Finance and Fees
IV. Members of the Program Committee
Introduction
Initiated in 1979 and concentrating on modern (quantitative) economics,
the European Doctoral Program (or EDP) was the first multi-university doctoral
program of its kind. A testimony to its success is that it has since been
emulated by several similar university networks across Europe. At Louvain,
it is part of the regular economics doctoral program, but is distinct from
it in that the EDP has
(i) separate admissions procedure, requirements and application forms,
(ii) somewhat different course and minimum grade point average requirements
(see below).
(iii) a mandatory stay abroad at one of the partner universities
(for at least 6 months.)
The preliminary (or first) year of the EDP is the Master of Arts (or MA)
in economics; this covers one year of course work in economics after a basic
degree (BA, License, Diploma) in economics or a related discipline. For
holders of an MA degree from another university who wish to join the EDP,
admission is usually granted conditional on fulfilling some MA courses here,
the selection of which depends on the applicant's prior background.
While the standard requirement for admission to the EDP is the MA degree
from Louvain with honors (i.e. an overall grade average of at least 75%
and 80% on the MA thesis), preliminary admission may also be granted
when applying to the MA degree. Those applicants seeking preliminary admission
to the EDP must apply directly to the EDP. If they wish to be considered
for the regular MA program in case admission to the EDP is declined, they
must include the UCL application
form along with their EDP application. If admission to the EDP is declined at this stage, applicants may re-apply
at the end of the MA year if their grade performance satisfies point (ii)
above. Admission to the regular graduate program, both for the MA and the
PhD, is separate from the EDP.
I. Organization
The entire economics graduate program is in English, as are research
seminars, theses, academic correspondence, etc.
1. Preliminary year
During the first, preliminary year, students should complete work for a Master
of Arts in Economics with emphasis in quantitative economics. In 2004-2005,
the requirements are:
i) Five compulsory courses :
ECON
3501 Advanced Microeconomics I [45]
ECON
3502 Advanced Macroeconomics I [45]
ECON
3503 Advanced Econometrics [45]
ECON
3504 Advanced Microeconomics II [30]
ECON
3505 Advanced Macroeconomics II [30]
ii) One course with a critical content, chosen in the following list :
ECON
3580 Ethics and Social Choice [30]
EDEA
3101 Foundations of Capitalism [30]
iii) One seminar :
iv) Two courses chosen in the following list :
ECON
3340 Dynamical Methods in Economics [30]
ECON
3420 Industrial Organization [30]
ECON
3440 Labour Economics [30]
ECON 3506 Econometrics of Time Series [30]
ECON
3510 Public Economics [30]
EDEA 3103 Monetary Economics [30]
ECON
3540 Micro-Econometrics [30]
ECON
3830 Econometrics Workshop [30]
ECON
3530 Capital Market Theory [30]
ECON
3400 Théories du Développement [30]
v) A master's thesis (or memoire)
The EDP program committee evaluates students' performance at the end of each
semester and decides upon promotion to the second, advanced year. By the end
of the first year, every student must have found a PhD thesis adviser whether
s/he intends to spend the advanced year in Louvain-la-Neuve or elsewhere.
2. Advanced year
Students in the advanced year at UCL do course work and follow seminars
under the guidance of the faculty members associated with the EDP. They enroll
in the doctoral school (Inter-University Graduate School in Economics) and they must choose courses totalizing 120 hours within
the courses offered by the three universities. In addition, doctoral students
must participate to at least one research seminar per week (see below).
During 2003-2004, the following courses are offered:
o Courses at UCL (Louvain-la-Neuve):
ECON 3901 General Competitive Equilibrium (Minelli)
ECON 3902 Game Theory (Mertens)
ECON 3903 Microeconomics (d'Aspremont)
ECON 3912 Econometrics (Bauwens & N.)
ECON 3916 Auction Theory (Grimm)
o Courses at KUL (Leuven):
KUL 3903 Cooperative Game Theory (Lauwers)
KUL 3904 Development Economics
(Van Biesebroeck)
o Courses at FUNDP (Namur):
FNDP 3001 Development Economics (Platteau)
FNDP 3003 Collective Choice Theory II (Maniquet & Bochet)
o Courses at ULB (Brussels):
Students are allowed to take second year courses in the Doctoral Program
in Economics and Statistics (DPES). This program is organized by ECARES
(European Center for Advanced Research in Economics and Statistics).
3. Dissertation stage
At the thesis level, students working towards a degree at Louvain should
find a dissertation director and register for the "confirmation"
examination. This comprises the approval of a dissertation project by the
Department of Economics, as well as regular attendance and presentation of
work in progress at the doctoral research seminar. Thereafter, these students
are admitted to the dissertation submission procedure.
Doctoral students at the dissertation stage are required to attend two research
seminars per week.
There are four research seminars:
Each of them meets every week during the academic year. Research seminars
are presented mostly by guest speakers from other universities, but also by
local people. Whenever possible, manuscripts are distributed before or during
the seminar. Attendance of the seminar(s) related to a student's research
interests is an important aspect of the advanced level work under the European
Doctoral Program.
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II. Research Activities
The main research interests of the faculty involved in the European Doctoral
Program are very broad and include:
Game theory and its economic applications; Public economics, political economy
and social choice; Industrial organization and imperfect competition; Economics
of uncertainty; General equilibrium theory; Microeconomic foundations of macroeconomics.
Non- and semi-parametric, Bayesian and simulation-based methods of inference
in econometrics; Computational techniques (Monte Carlo, bootstrapping); Applications
of econometrics to finance, micro and macro data.
Macroeconomic dynamics and growth theory; labor economics; Welfare economics;
Economics of Inequality and Poverty.
These research activities are conducted at the Center
for Operations Research and Econometrics, CORE, and at the
Institut de Recherches Economiques et Sociales (IRES). The faculty members'
web pages may be consulted via these links.
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III. Finance and Fees
Tuition for students attending courses (first year) amounts to 739 euros.
A limited number of grants for highly qualified students are available directly from CORE (including the first year).
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IV. Members of the Program Committee
Luc Bauwens
Econometrics and statistical methods
Paul Belleflamme
Industrial organization
Raouf Boucekkine, Graduate director
Dynamic economics, macroeconomics, growth theory
Bart Cockx
Welfare economics, economics of inequality and poverty
Claude d'Aspremont
Theory of games and imperfect competition, social welfare theory, incentives
theory and public economics
David de la Croix
Macroeconomics, dynamics models of labor market, growth theory
Jean Hindriks
Public economics and political economy
Jean-François Mertens
Mathematical economics and game theory
Enrico Minelli
General equilibrium theory
Michel Mouchart
Statistics and econometrics
Jacques Thisse
Imperfect competition, spatial and regional economics
Vincent Vannetelbosch, EDP director
Microeconomics and game theory
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