Current Postgraduate Students

Applying:

University of St. Andrews Admissions (postgraduate)

Contemporary Research in Economics & Finance

The School is active in advanced scholarship and research. We have an excellent record of research publications over a wide range of areas, with twenty three research students at various stages of the doctoral level. These students often work in areas related to the themes of our Masters programmes, or to the research agenda of our various research centres and seminar groups. We do not adopt an open-ended policy on research topics, but aim to tailor them to active research areas of School academics and their various units.

Topics of research currently include models of state-dependent pricing, fiscal theory of the price level, fiscal-monetary interaction in stochastic, dynamic general equilibrium, credit constraints and the business cycle, open economy macroeconomic models, models of endogenous growth, determinants of corporate growth, high-technology clusters, long-lived small firms, modal travel choice, market efficiency in emerging markets, social costs of environmental degradation, measurement and change in manufacturing productivity, speed of decision making in oil independents, monetary frameworks in developing countries, fast-growing small firms. Research students are encouraged to be part of the School's research culture, and they fully participate in seminars, brown bag research meetings, contact with visiting academics, and research events. They are all involved in further research training.

All the above research activities are supported by the presence of adjunct Research Centres, devoted to rigorous research in specialist areas: the Centre for Research into Industry, Enterprise, Finance and the Firm (CRIEFF); and the Centre for Dynamic Macroeconomic Analysis (CDMA). Several members of staff are actively involved in the Money Macro and Finance (MMF) group, a UK/European research network.

Entry is competitive and entrance standards are high. For entry to further research degrees like the MPhil and PhD candidates should typically have a good Master's degree in one or more of the core areas and high research potential, as attested by referees and evinced by submitted written work. Research areas should be chosen by reference to existing staff interests. Recent supervisions include research into the Scotch whisky industry, entrepreneurship and new business, the handover in Hong Kong, and the socio-legal analysis of corporate and host country relations, and the South Sea Bubble.

The School of Economics & Finance can provide supervision in selected areas for the research degrees of MPhil and PhD by thesis, over normal periods of two and three years respectively. Under part-time registration, this period can be extended up to six years. Modest financial support is available for outstanding applicants, in terms of limited number of scholarship. Competition for these is fierce.

Research Student Handbook: PhD-H'book 2011-12