Welcome to the website of the Doctoral School in Social Sciences and Economics
Basic information
The Doctoral School trains expert analysts able to understand social, cultural, economic, political and technological problems of contemporary societies, in contexts characterized by differentiated development levels. To address these problems there is a widespread demand for applied knowledge. Knowledge and skills related to the objects of investigation of the social, economic and statistical sciences are acquired by learning both theories, methods and scientific models, and applied tools and techniques for empirical analysis. The final goal is to acquire both scientific and practical skills and abilities to independently design and carry out research activities in an academic and non-academic environment, as well as in corporate or institutional organizations, at the local, national and international levels.
At the end of this doctoral program, with reference to each ones’ disciplinary and thematic fields, the PhDs will be able to:
- analyze scientific and research literature;
- critically reflect on theories, methods and results of research and on the intersections between disciplines
- build original interpretative models to understand the social, political and economic trends
- carry out research with high methodological quality and propose interpretative scenarios to address the complexity of social, economic, political, cultural and technological phenomena of contemporary societies.
- produce original and applicable scientific results, proposing alternative policies and actions
The PhD is structured in five curricula:
1. Finance and Institutions (Coordinator: Rita D’Ecclesia)
2. Economics and Development (Coordinator: Pierluigi Montalbano)
3. Sociology and applied social research (Coordinator: Assunta Viteritti)
4. Statistics and social data science (Coordinator: Pierpaolo D’Urso)
5. Public policy analysis and evaluation (Coordinator: Guido Pellegrini)
CURRICULUM 1: Finance and institutions
The Finance and Institutions curriculum specializes in financial economics, quantitative finance and market regulations. The teaching activity performed during the first year is shared with the PhD school of Economics at Sapienza and is dedicated to core courses that include microeconomics, macroeconomics, stochastic calculus, econometrics, mathematics, finance, corporate finance and asset pricing. The PhD Board research interests cover most aspects of quantitative finance, corporate finance and financial economics, asset pricing, corporate finance, continuous-time models in finance, information economics, economics of resources and the environment, econometric models in finance, international finance, the intersection of macro economics, and finance and banking.
CURRICULUM 2: Economics and Development (SECS-P/01-P/02)
The curriculum in Economics and Development provides students with advanced theoretical and empirical knowledge in the fields of development economics and international economic policy. The teaching activity performed during the first year is shared with the PhD school of Economics at Sapienza and is dedicated to core courses that include microeconomics, macroeconomics, and statistics. Then students carry out advanced scientific training in the fields of international economics, development economics; public policies, advanced quantitative analyses in development contexts. Additional subjects and advanced courses are offered to the students, thanks to agreements with international institutions and universities overseas.
CURRICULUM 3: Sociology and applied social research
The curriculum provides students with advanced theoretical and empirical knowledge in the area of political and social sciences (14), in particular as regards sociological disciplines. The first-year advanced courses are divided into thematic and disciplinary areas referring to: general sociology, contemporary social systems, as well as epistemological and methodological knowledge for social research; the analysis of cultural processes, of communicative & knowledge practices, economic and work processes and regulation, territorial and urban phenomena (SPS/10) as well as topics regarding politics, public action, and governance. This is accompanied by an advanced multidisciplinary training that draws on the skills of areas 11 and 13, both present in the College, and activated ad hoc.
CURRICULUM 4: Statistics and social data sciences
The curriculum provides students with advanced theoretical, methodological, computational and empirical knowledge in the area of economic and statistical sciences (13), with particular reference to statistical disciplines. The first-year advanced courses are divided into thematic and disciplinary areas. In particular, they concern the following topics: multivariate statistics, sampling theory and techniques, social network analysis; official statistics and composite indicators; methodologies and techniques for social research (SPS/07). In all courses both methodological, computational and applicative aspects will be addressed. All this is accompanied by advanced multidisciplinary training that draws on the skills of areas 13 and 14, both present in the College and activated ad hoc.
CURRICULUM 5: Public policy analysis and evaluation
The curriculum, unique in Italy, provides the tools for the analysis and evaluation of public policies by integrating the political-social approach with the economic-statistical one. The students are provided with advanced theoretical, methodological, statistical-econometric and empirical knowledge both in the area of economic and statistical disciplines (13) and in that of sociological disciplines (14). The integration between mastery of analytical-methodological tools and application experiences in the economic and social field represents the priority in the training of the PhD student. This approach is reflected in the highly multidisciplinary first-year courses, which includes both advanced quantitative methods, such as Probability and Statistics, Statistical modeling for economy and Policy Evaluation Methods, Social Research Methods and Techniques, as well as methods and models of policy analysis, such as Advanced Policy Analysis, Political Economy and Corruption Economics and case analysis of evaluations of public interventions in different sectors, also through specific skills in areas 13 and 14, both present in the College and activated ad hoc.
In the first year, most of the teaching program is delivered through advanced of 6 or 3 university credits, each of which held by one or more professors (both members of the research board and experienced researchers from national and international universities, research bodies, international organizations).
In the second year, the training activities are mainly of a seminar type and aimed at multidisciplinary enrichment and to support the design and implementation of individual research of the PhD students.
In the third year, tutoring is specifically aimed at finalizing the research activities.
In order to encourage and assess the acquisition of skills by doctoral students and to strengthen tutoring, in the second and third year of the course, the board of professors (or research board?) will plan specific activities aimed at monitoring the relevance (including at the international scale) of the research topics chosen by the candidates and the progress of research activities.
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