Program Details

Preparatory Semester

Core Study: First and Second Years

Specialized Study (PhD Students Only): Dissertation Research and Preparation

Teaching Fellowships

Student Mobilities

Time-Line

Prior to the first year - Preparatory Semester

1st year - Core Study: Required courses

2nd year - Core Study: Elective courses, Seminars

3rd year - Specialized Study: Dissertation Proposal and Research

4th year and up - Specialized Study: Dissertation Research, Mobility, Teaching Fellowship, Dissertation Defense

For details please see also Academic Calendar for Academic Year 2013/2014.

Preparatory Semester

Before the start of each academic year, some applicants must attend a summer Preparatory Semester, where they receive intensive training in intermediate Microeconomics,  Macroeconomics, and Mathematics. Other applicants, who have been offered direct admission, may attend the Preparatory Semester at their option but their performance in these classes will not affect their eligibility for the program.

The Preparatory Semester addresses the fact that many applicants' knowledge of modern Economics and Mathematics varies. It provides potential students with a common knowledge base on which to build their graduate work, and allows them to gain  a sense of how Economics is taught at CERGE-EI.

Core Study: First and Second Year

First Year

There are three semesters of study in the first year at CERGE-EI: Fall, Spring, and Summer. In this first year, students follow a common core curriculum designed to provide a strong foundation in Microeconomics, Macroeconomics, Statistics/Econometrics and Academic Writing I; there are no electives.

Courses in the first year:

• Fall semester: Microeconomics I, Macroeconomics I, Statistics

• Spring semester: Microeconomics II, Macroeconomics II, Econometrics I, Academic Writing I

• Summer semester: Microeconomics III, Macroeconomics III, Econometrics II

At the end of the first year, students must pass Core General Exams from Microeconomics, Macroeconomics and Statistics/Econometrics.

Second Year

The second year of study at CERGE-EI provides students with the opportunity to investigate more specific fields of interest. Several two-semester sequences of courses (Fall and Spring) are offered each year, and second-year students must enroll in at least three courses each semester. The courses offered in any given year will be chosen from among the following areas depending on student interest and faculty availability:

• Advanced Macroeconomics

• Advanced Econometrics

• Macro Topics

• Industrial Organization

• Labor Economics

• International Trade and International Finance

• Economic Development

• Economics of Transition

• Political Economy and Public Choice, European Integration

• Financial Markets

• Academic  Writing II

• Combined Skills I, II

• Research Methodology Seminar

At the end of the second year, students must take Field General Exams of two specific sub-fields of economics of their choosing. Passing two Field General Exams is required for continued study in the program.

MA degree

Students who successfully complete first- and second-year coursework and pass the General Exams with a grade of PhD Pass or a (somewhat lower grade of MA Pass) are granted a Master of Arts degree, chartered by the New York State Board of Regents (see the listing on the New York State Board of Regents, program code 24734).

Specialized Study (PhD Students Only) : Dissertation Research and Preparation

In the Fall semester of the third year, each student is required to submit and publicly present a Dissertation Proposal, which is evaluated by a faculty committee. The student should choose a tentative Dissertation Chair while preparing his or her proposal.

After the successful defense of the proposal, students select at least two additional members of his or her Dissertation Committee. This committee guides and supervises the student's research work.

In the fourth year of study students are required to submit and present a seminar on the progress of their dissertation work.

The student’s Dissertation Committee recommends when the completed dissertation is ready for defense. Two external opponents (referees) are nominated who certify that the dissertation meets the standards for doctoral work and can be defended.

Defenses are open events attended by any member of the Charles University faculty or student body who desires. The formal approval of the dissertation rests with a Defense Committee composed of local and external faculty. After the student successfully passes the General Exams and defends the dissertation, the Director of CERGE-EI (with the approval of the Graduation Council), proposes to the Dean of the Faculty of Social Sciences at Charles University, Prague, and to the Board of CERGE-EI (a New York State Educational Institution) that the student be awarded a doctoral degree.

During the dissertation stage, students work as Teaching or Research Assistants, working under close faculty supervision in order acquire practical teaching and research experience to develop their professional skills. Students have also possibility to teach at other Universities or abroad under Teaching Fellowship program.

Teaching Fellowships

The purpose of the Graduate Teaching Fellowship is to help improve the quality of economics education in Central and Eastern Europe. The donor who provided funds for the fellowships believes that CERGE-EI can supply high-quality instructors who can make a difference at other universities in the region.

The fellowships will sponsor advanced CERGE-EI students and CERGE-EI alumni to teach economics (broadly defined) courses at other universities. Designed to have a maximum impact on economic literacy, the program focuses on basic undergraduate courses at universities in Central and Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union.

The CERGE-EI Teaching Fellowships offer supplemental income, formal training in classroom teaching and extensive connections to the resources and affiliations at CERGE-EI, including personal mentoring by an experienced professor of economics. The value of these Teaching Fellows was immediately obvious, and each year an increasing number of undergraduate colleges and universities have requested to host Teaching Fellows. For more infomration about the program, see our Teaching Fellowship page.

Student Mobilities

One of the CERGE-EI PhD program uniqueness is that our students are very successful in applying for a mobility stay at a number of prestigious universities in the United States and Western Europe, and in conducting part of their dissertation research there.

CERGE-EI provides partial funding of student mobilities on a competitive basis. Students may also apply for funding from other sources.

Students who go on mobility benefit not only from the advice and knowledge they receive from the faculty members of the host universities, but also from the general experience of living and studying at a different university.

 A selected list of institutions where CERGE-EI students have stayed on mobility in the past few years includes:

Northern American Universities: Princeton University, Harvard University, Columbia University, University of California at Berkeley, Stanford University, Boston University, New York University, University of Pennsylvania and others.

European Universities: Cambridge University, Institute of Advanced Studies (IAS) - Vienna, Tinbergen Institute - Amsterdam, Università Luigi Bocconi - Milan, Université Libre de Bruxelles, University College London, University of Essex, University of Paris I , Pantheon-Sorbonne, University of Tilburg - Center for Economic Research