Via the Cluster of Excellence: "ECONtribute: Markets & Public Policy" we cooperate with the University of Bonn and the Max Planck Institute for Research on Collective Goods. Research centers involving our faculty are The Center for Social and Economic Behavior (C-SEB), the Cologne Laboratory for Economic Research (CLER), and the Key Research Initiatives Behavioural Management Science (BMS), and Sustainable Smart Energy & Mobility. Affiliated research centers are The Institute of Energy Economics and The Institute for Public Economics.

Numerous research seminar series and bag lunches, conferences and workshops hosted by our faculty, and a large offering of courses in topics and methods make our research community vibrant, productive and internationally well-connected. Our graduate students are an integral part of and profit from this community. With ECONtribute's Young ECONtribute Program, we further foster excellence in graduate education. The environment generates many opportunities for collaboration with other senior and junior faculty and with other doctoral students. It enables creative and high-quality research, also at the intersection of different fields.

The first-year program includes PhD-level core sequences in microeconomics, macroeconomics, and econometrics and a first-semester course mathematics. Students can but are not required to choose a full two semester core sequence (as in anglo-saxon-style PhD programmes in Economics), allowing more flexibility in the selection from the extensive set of electives.

The third semester focuses on those electives, selected from a specialisation section (courses specific to the MSc Economic Research) and a supplementary section (from a broad offering of courses from related Master's programmes).

Students are additionally required to participate in two Reading Groups, usually during their 2nd or 3rd semesters, which complete the 90ECTS course work component of the programme and serve to guide students towards their own research: the Master's thesis (30 ECTS) in the 4th semester.

The website M.Sc. Economic Research and the module handbook reference there provide more detailed information about the programme's structure and courses offered in the core, specialisation, and supplementary sections. You can find all offered courses in KLIPS once you are enrolled at the University of Cologne.

There are no tuition fees, but all students enrolled at the University of Cologne have to pay a social contribution fee ("Semesterbeitrag").

A limited number of stipends is available from the CGS to help cover living expenses for all or part of the MSc stage. All applicants are considered for this funding and offers of acceptance to highly qualified students may include a stipend, specifying the duration and amount of funding available.

In addition, research assistant jobs are often available and taken up by our students.

However, students should expect to finance their studies at least to some extent via own funds or third-party funding.

The MSc Economic Research is designed to provide rigorous, in-depth and comprehensive training in economics and to enable students to conduct high-quality original research. Typically, the majority of students will want to transition to the PhD stage after completion of the Master's programme. Some students instead opt for positions in institutions or the private sector, where the skills and knowledge conveyed in the MSc Economic Research are also highly valued.

Students wishing to pursue a PhD after successful completion of the MSc Economic Research can transfer to the PhD-Stage by obtaining the endorsement of a supervisor. Members of the UoC Faculty of Management, Economics and Social Sciences and, in particular, of the Department of Economics are available for PhD thesis supervision. Ideally, but not necessarily, the M.Sc. thesis supervisor will be the PhD thesis supervisor. Students are assisted by the CGS in this transition. Although the transition to the PhD Stage is not formally (and conditionally) guaranteed, all students who wish to continue their studies generally do so, with rare exceptions of students who had enduring or severe difficulties in the Master's programme and for whom PhD studies are deemed counterproductive.

For those students wishing to integrate a semester abroad in their studies, the Faculty of Management, Economics and Social Sciences offers a study abroad programme (STAP) with specific partner universities. The programme structure allows for a generous transfer of credits and provides access to funding sources.For the MSc Economic Research, these partner universities are currently:

Students can also independently arrange a stay abroad at other universities.

Students of the MSc Economic Research have access to a dedicated study room, located in proximity to many of our junior and senior researcher's offices and seminar rooms. A buddy-system ensures close cooperation between cohorts.

Students have access to the university's and faculty's research infrastructure and computer pools.

The PhD-Stage is fully funded. Students receive funding that comfortably covers living expense via CGS scholarships, positions financed via the excellence cluster ECONtribute or doctoral positions at the department or chairs of faculty members.

Students are provided with fully equipped workspaces and funds to finance conference participation and other research-related expenses are available.

Funding is initially provided for three years, with an extension granted to students in good standing for at least one year.

Scholarships are €1.515 per month (tax-free), with an additional child allowance of €400 per month. Positions are usually 50%-75% part-time and TV-L 13 (German public service payscale) and may involve teaching duties.

There are no tuition fees, but all students enrolled at the University of Cologne have to pay a social contribution fee ("Semesterbeitrag"). Scholarship holders must fund a health insurance plan. For positions, health insurance is provided via the employment relationship.

Details of the funding arrangement are communicated in offers to accepted students.

The Faculty of Management, Economics and Social Sciences ensures optimal conditions for the supervision of doctoral research projects. The student and their primary and secondary supervisor sign a supervision agreement within the first year of the PhD Phase. It comprises a time and work plan and determines the rights and obligations of all parties. An ombudsperson is available for assistance in conflict resolution at any pont in the PhD-Stage.

Doctoral students are generally required to finish a dissertation proposal after the first year of the PhD-stage. The dissertation proposal is discussed with several professors in the respective research area, including professors in adjacent fields where possible.

Our extensive and high-quality international research network provides our students with opportunities for research stays that fit their needs and interests. As opposed to an institutionalised exchange programme, these research stays can be tailored specifically to leveraging students' research at the later stage of their dissertation work. Funding sources are usually available.

The dissertation is generally cumulative, i.e. consisting of several papers. One of the papers should be a single-author paper (not necessarily published). On other projects, collaboration with supervisors, other doctoral students or other co-authors within or beyond our research network is strongly encouraged and frequently takes place.

Your dissertation will be reviewed by a committee, followed by an oral examination (defense).

We provide students wishing to go on the academic job market with trainings and support by a job market officer.