Doctoral students who are interested in business economics work with faculty engaged in many different kinds of research. Some of this research is interdisciplinary, involving colleagues at other institutions as well as colleagues from other departments within Washington University.

"The doctoral program in Business Economics prepares students for an academic career in economics. The training is rigorous and similar to what you would get in an economics department, with grounding in all the central areas of the field. In addition, and unlike in an economics department, there are opportunities for cross-disciplinary work, combining economics with, for example, strategy, finance or marketing. As in any doctoral program, your success depends on a number of intangibles, but the Business Economics faculty takes an active interest in supporting your learning, and in advising and supervising your overall research efforts to realize your potential." Siddhartha Chib Harry C. Hartkopf Professor of Econometrics and Statistics

One strength of the faculty in this group is in empirical and theoretical industrial organization. There is a wide range of research from industry studies, incentives in organizations, organizational design and the determinants of industry structure. Another strength is in game theory, whether it is applied to auctions and other market mechanisms or to political processes. An area of long-standing strength is Bayesian statistics and Econometric theory with focus on simulation-based methods of estimation and model choice for categorical data, time series, and panel data, with applications to all areas of business, economics and other fields.

"The program at Olin is very flexible and easy to personalize. After you pass the core courses, you focus on topics that are most interesting to you. PhD studies require independent work skills, but there's plenty of mentoring. You need to take the initiative, but once you do, the professors are very open to working with you." Anatoliy Belaygorod, PhD Business Economics 2006 Reinsurance Group of America, Inc.

Projects recently undertaken by the faculty include

• development of new methods of statistical inference for semiparametric models, stochastic differential equations, and models of volatility with leverage
• investigation of the roles of teams in providing incentives
• the effects on ATM charges of competition
• research on the economics of "has beens" in career structures
• research in both applied and theoretical game theory

Journals in which faculty members publish include American Economic Review, Biometrika, Econometrica, Econometric Theory, Journal of the American Statistical Association, Journal of Econometrics, Journal of Economic Theory, Journal of Political Economy, Journal of the Royal Statistical Society, Quarterly Journal of Economics, Review of Economic Studies, and Journal of Business and Economic Statistics..

See Economics Working Papers