1st Year (2022/2023) is organized as follows:
1. Pre-courses (online) | Before the starting of the first term, Phd students attended to online pre-courses in statistics (all) and mathematics (curriculum MatStat).
2. I Term courses | During November-January, PhD students attended to the following optional courses:
- Statistics | curriculm: Geo, Mat, Stat | M. Geraci
- Probability | curriculm: Geo, Mat, Stat | B. Liseo
- Mathematics | curriculm: Mat, Stat | A. Palestini
- Econometrics | curriculm: Geo, Mat, Stat (optional) | V. Patella
First Term courses ended with a final exam. Those who failws the exams repeated them on the following months. Those PhD students that are already familiar with the contents of I term courses have asked, via their tutor, to be exempted.
3. II Term courses | Between February and early july, PhD students attended to the following courses:
- Computational Tools for Statistics | curriculum: Stat, Mat, Geo (optional) | A. Arcagni
- Computational Tools for Finance | curriculum: Mat, Stat (optional) | I. Oliva
- Economic Geography | curriculum: Geo | F. Celata et al.
- Spatial Data Visualization Analysis & Mapping | curriculum: Geo, Stat (optional) | F. Celata et al.
- Spatial Econometrics | curriculum: Geo, Stat | B. Martini
- Multivariate Statistics with R | curriculum: Stat, Mat, Geo (optional) | N. Deliu
- Risk Measures | curriculum: Stat, Mat | V. Bignozzi
- Bayesian Data Analysis and Computation | curriculum: Stat, Mat | Liseo & Tancredi
- Financial Risk Modeling and Forecasting Using Quantile Regression Methods | curriculum: Mat, Stat (optional) | L. Merlo
- Credit Risk | curriculum: MAT | C. Ceci
- Qualitative Research Methods | curriculum: GEO | Di Feliciantonio et al.
- Networks, Complex Networks and Problems of Decision-Making on Networks | curriculum: STAT (optional), MAT | F. Ricca
- Introduction to Calculus of Variations and to Optimal Control Theory | curriculum: MAT | S. Patrì
- Microeconometrics & Evaluation Methods | curriculum: GEO, STAT (optional) | Belloc & Cerqua et al.
- Machine Learning for Econometrics (PhD Eco) | curriculum: STAT, MAT (optional) | Ragusa-Bloise
- Economics of Inequality (PhD Eco) | curriculum: GEO (optional), STAT (optional) | Raitano et al.
- Technological change (PhD Eco) | curriculum: GEO (optional) | Guarascio-Cirillo
Poverty in a Dynamic World (PhD DISSE) | curriculum: | GEO (optional) | P. Montalbano
- Public Policy Analysis (PhD DISSE) | curriculum: GEO (optional), STAT (optional) | d'Albergo & Moini
- Urban & Labour Economics (PhD SESS) | curriculum: GEO | G. Croce
- Sustainability (PhD DISSE) | curriculum: GEO (optional), STAT (optional) | Marini et al.
- Casual inference with spatial data (PhD SESS) | curriculum: GEO, STAT (optional) | Sciabolazza
- Environmental Geography | curriculum: GEO | Gemmiti et al.
- Text Mining | II Term (optional) | Pavone
- Advanced topics in policy evaluation | II Term (optional) | Cerqua & Pellegrini
Second term courses are optional. PhD students decided with their tutors which courses to attend, among those included in the courses’ schedule and organized by the PhD MEF, the PhD in Economics, the PhD in Social Sciences and Economics, the European PhD in Socioeconomic Studies and Statistics and others. Students can also agree with their tutors to attend to any other advanced/PhD course organized in Sapienza or elsewhere.
4. Research outline | By the end of September PhD students prepared an outline of their research project, to be approved by their tutors. The document (minimum 2,000 words) includes a brief description of the research, its objectives, the theoretical framework, the expected outcome/findings and their contribution to advance the state-of-the-art of research on the topic, a brief description of the methodology, a preliminary structure of the thesis, and the name(s) of the potential supervisor(s).
On this basis, a workshop was organized in October 2023 for PhD students to present their research project.
2nd Year (2022/2023) | During the second year there is not an ad-hoc course's schedule. PhD students can participate to any of the first year courses which they didn't attend or postponed to the second year, as well as in courses activities of various sorts, both in Sapienza and elsewhere, based on their specific research topic.
From the second year, moreover, attendance to scientific events such as conferences, seminars, workshops, etc., or training, courses, labs, summer schools or institutes, etc., in other universities or departments, is warmly welcome. PhD students are free to choose the activities that are the most appropriate to their research.
In the second year, the topic for the thesis is already outlined and PhD students develop it in collaboration with their supervisors and with other faculties.
To conduct part of the PhD research abroad is highly recommended. This normally takes place during the second year or at the very beginning of the third year, and should be planned in advance. In some cases, a Joint PhD (“tesi in co-tutela”) agreement can be established. When the PhD research is carried out partially abroad, with a stay of no less than three months in a different EU member state, the supervisors are no less than two and affiliated to two European universities in different EU States from where the thesis is discussed, the PhD student can obtain the title of “Doctor Europaeus”.
In all cases, the first step is to establish a personal contact with a faculty and ask his/her willingness to facilitate the visiting and co-supervise at least part of the research.
A necessary pre-requisite is to have a clear and solid outline of the research project - which must be fully in line with the current research interests of the hosting faculty and department - and a clear idea about the specific parts of the research that will be conducted during the visiting.
3rd year (2022/2023) | As for the second year, the third year does not include a structured courses' schedule, but PhD students participate in various types of training activities, both at Sapienza and elsewhere, as well as attend and present their research in conferences, lectures, seminars, workshops, summer schools, both in Italy and especially abroad.
Admission to the final exam is based on the evaluation of the thesis. To this end, the supervisor(s) submits an evaluation form, and a workshop is held in which the entire College participates.
The PhD research can be submitted as either a ‘book’, or in the form of at least three research articles. The articles must be submitted before the end of the 3rd year to international peer-reviewed scientific journals, preferably indexed by the Web of Science and/or Scopus. If the articles are not published yet by the end of the third year, the supervisor should guarantee that the articles are solid enough to be publishable, and this must be confirmed by the external reviewers. Coherence among the chapters/articles is compulsory in any case. In both cases, the submission of articles to scientific journals is strongly recommended.
The results of the above mentioned workshop, together with the supervisor/s' report, contribute to the decision to admit or not the candidate to the final defense of the thesis.
The thesis is then sent to two external reviewers who establish if and when the thesis can be discussed in front of the final commission, and after which revisions and changes.