Master Year 1 in Economics
| Year |
Master Year 1 |
| Program |
Economics |
| ECTS Credits |
60 |
| Language |
English |
| Course duration |
12 months, full time |
| Orientation |
Research & Industry |
| Location |
Palaiseau Campus |
| Course duration |
12 months, full time |
| Course start |
September |
| Degree awarded |
Master’s degree obtained on completion of the second year of the Master |
Institut Polytechnique de Paris and HEC Paris offer a two-year research-oriented program in economics entirely taught in English, that offers advanced training in economics through coursework and supervision by faculty. It is aimed at students who want to become professional economists working in government, central banking, international organizations, consulting, finance or in academic research.
The program heavily relies on advanced quantitative methods for both theoretical and empirical analysis. During the first year, students take advanced core courses in microeconomics, macroeconomics and econometrics. They also engage in research projects under the supervision of faculty and acquire a first hands-on contact with research. During the second year, students can specialize within subfields of economics. By the end of that year, they should be at the research frontier within their main area of specialization and have gained successful research experience. They also write a first research paper for their PhD thesis.
A small subset of students may enter the program as "PhD Track" students. This program is aimed at students with a strong desire for research in quantitative economics who intend to continue towards a PhD in Economics at CREST and IP Paris.
At the end of the second year, students who has achieved sufficiently good grades, have written a research proposal and found a potential PhD supervisor within CREST may progress to the dissertation period (three years) of the PhD program. Progress is conditional on securing funding and IP Paris and CREST will do their best to help candidate to obtain such funding (e.g., IP Paris provides a limited number of three-year doctoral fellowships). During the second year of the program, students who specialize in financial economics or economic theory and decision sciences may also apply to the PhD program at HEC Paris. Students who entered the Master program may also progress to the research phase of the PhD program.
- Language of instruction: English
- ECTS: 120
- Oriented: Research
- Duration: 2 years
- Courses Location: IP Paris – Ecole polytechnique and ENSAE - and HEC Paris
In partnership with:
Goals
The goal of this program is to provide an advanced training in economics at the highest international level with a strong emphasis on advanced quantitative methods for both theoretical and empirical analyses.
In the first year, students get acquainted with the most important analytical techniques used in economics. The training is mostly devoted to acquiring the most important tools in microeconomics, macroeconomics and econometrics through a complete core course training, as well as completing a research internship.
During the second year, students can specialize within a sub-area of economics. Fields of excellence and potential areas of specialization, include:
- Econometric theory,
- Environmental and development economics,
- Finance,
- Game and decision theory,
- Industrial organization and digital economics,
- International economics,
- Labor economics,
- Macroeconomics,
- Public economics.
Throughout the second year, students conduct a research project and write a master’s dissertation under the direction of a faculty member.
Career prospects
The wide variety of courses, seminars, projects and internships proposed during the master offers the possibility, for every student, to build his/her own curriculum in economics. There are many job opportunities available immediately after the master, for instance in government agencies, international organizations, consulting, finance. Students may join PhD programs in international universities.
3 years after completion of the Master in Economics:
- 42% of former students work for a research institution, (36% PhD candidates and 6% in other positions);
- 17% work for the French high administration (ministry);
- 19% work for a private firm (Consulting, Bank, Multinational Firms);
- 6% work for NGO specialized in the economic analysis of the climate change;
- 6% work for International Institutions (OECD, European Central Bank, World Bank, IMF, …);
- 23% of the former students work outside of France (12% in the US, 6% in Europe and 4% in Pacific Region).
PhD candidates pursuing an academic career after a PhD in Economics at IPParis find placement in the best universities (Princeton, Cornell, Bocconi, LMU Munich, Paris School of Economics, Chicago, …). Other PhD candidates join International Institutions (World Bank, ECB, IMF, …) or private firms.
Institutional partners: HEC Paris
Industrial partners
Industrial partners: The internship program at the end of the first-year gives students an opportunity to apply their quantitative skills and knowledge to real-life problems at well-known national and international institutions, companies, and organizations. Examples of such institutions having hired interns in the past include BNP-Paribas, EDF, Lafarge, the IMF, the World Bank, the OECD, DG Trésor, etc. Our department also has long-term research partnerships with EDF, AXA, Deloitte, Société Générale, etc.
Outline of the First Year: M1
All courses are mandatory.
S1 First Semester
Courses:
- ECO_51650_EP - Microeconomics 1: 8 ECTS.
- ECO_51651_EP - Macroeconomics 1: 8 ECTS.
- ECO_51652_EP - Advanced Econometrics 1: 5 ECTS.
- ECO_51658_EP - Introduction to Time Series Econometrics: 3 ECTS.
S2 Second Semester
Courses:
- ECO_52660_EP - Microeconomics 2: 8 ECTS.
- ECO_52661_EP - Macroeconomics 2: 8 ECTS.
ECO_52662_EP - Advanced Econometrics 2: 8 ECTS.
S1 & S2
- ECO_50P11_EP - Project in Applied Economics: 4 ECTS.
S3 Third Semester
Research Internship: 8 ECTS.
First Semester
(end of August, beginning of September)
Mathematics, Optimization, Probability, and Statistical Inference - 36 hours
Nicolas Vieille, Michele Fabi
- Basic calculus.
- Linear algebra.
- Static and dynamic optimization.
- Basic probability theory.
- Statistical inference.
Introduction to R - 8 hours
(end of August, beginning of September)
This crash course is intended to introduce students to the statistical software R. The goal is to teach students how to implement simple data science projects on R and where to look for for more advanced uses.
We will cover the basics of the software and focus on data wrangling, producing descriptive statistics and running regressions. If time permits, we will also learn how to use local and global variables.
At the end of the course the student will know:
- how to work with R
- where to look for for more advanced uses
and they will be able to:
- run some statistical analyses with R
Individual decision-making and market equilibrium - 50 hours
Tristan Tomala, Bruno Biais, Johan Hombert
- Choice theory and introduction to welfare economics.
- Consumer theory.
- Social choice (preference aggregation and manipulability).
- Producer theory.
- Choice under uncertainty (expected utility, risk aversion).
- General equilibrium, fundamental welfare theorems.
- Asset markets and general equilibrium under uncertainty.
- Externalities and public goods.
- No trade theorem, rational expectations.
Economic Growth - 50 hours
Antonin Bergeaud, Alessandro Riboni, Giovanni Ricco
- Neoclassical growth model.
- Public policies in the neoclassical growth model.
- Structural transformation.
- Inequality, political economy of growth.
- The overlapping generations model.
- Public policies and bubbles in the overlapping-generations model.
- Product variety model.
- Schumpeterian growth.
The Linear Regression Model and Extensions - 40 hours
Sebastien Roux, Thierry Kamionka
In this course we introduce the linear regression model and its theoretical foundations. We present and discuss the methods to estimate such models, i-e to define the parameters of interest, estimate them and test their statistical significance, under different sets of assumptions (homoskedasticity or heteroscedasticity, exogeneity or endogeneity), specifications (simple or multiple regression) or types of data (cross-sectional, panel data, time series).
Outline:
1. Introduction to econometrics
2. The Simple Regression Model
3. Multiple Regression Analysis:
A. Estimation
B. Inference
C. Asymptotics
4. Qualitative Information in Linear Regression
5. Heteroskedasticity
6. Repeated Cross Section and Panel Data
7. Instrumental Variables
Literature:
Angrist and Pischke: (2009): Mostly Harmless Econometrics, Princeton University Press.
Wooldridge (2013): Introductory Econometrics: A Modern Approach, 5th Edition, South-Western College Publishing.
Jean-Michel Zakoian, 24h
- Generalities on univariate second-order stationary processes
- Autocovariances, partial autocorrelations
- Innovations
- Wold theorem
- Asymptotic properties of empirical moments.
- AR, MA, ARMA, SARIMA processes
- Canonical representation - Identification, estimation, tests and forecasting
- Model building
- Nonstationary models, Unit root tests.
- Stationary vector processes
- Multivariate AR models
- Statistical Inference
- Causality tests, impulse-response analysis.
- Non-stationary vector processes and definition of cointegration
- Cointegrated VAR models and error-correction models (ECM)
- Estimation of cointegrated VAR
- Testing for Cointegration.
Second Semester
Strategic Interactions and Information 50 hours
Yukio Koriyama, Yuki Tamura
- Normal form games, pure and mixed strategies, equilibrium concepts (dominance, rationalizability, Nash).
- Imperfect competition (Cournot, Bertrand, Hotelling).
- Extensive form games with perfect information, backwards induction.
- Extensive form games with imperfect information (information sets), normal form representation.
- Bayesian games, auctions, adverse selection, signaling, screening.
- Equilibrium refinements (Perfect Bayesian equilibrium, sequential equilibrium).
- Social choice and introduction to mechanism design.
- Contract theory, principal agent models, risk sharing.
Business cycles - 50 hours
Jean-Baptiste Michau
- Traditional macroeconomics: The IS-LM AD-AS model.
- Consumption.
- Investment; The ramsey model.
- Determination of the price level.
- Real business cycle theory.
- The new Keynesian framework.
- Asset pricing; The Aiyagari model.
- Search models of the labor market.
- International macroeconomics.
- The Great Recession.
Nonlinear, Qualitative Data, and Panel Methods - 40 hours
Christian Belzil
- Extremum Estimators 1st part: M-Estimators (Maximum Likelihood, Nonlinear Least squares).
- Extremum Estimators 2nd part: GMM.
- Hypothesis Testing: Wald, Lagrange Multipliers, Likelihood Ratio Statistics.
- Instrumental Variables, 2SLS, Multiple-Equation GMM (if time).
- Dynamic Panel Data: Instrumental Variables and GMM.
- Binary Choice Models.
- Multinomial and Ordered Choice Models.
- Non-linear Panel Data Models.
- Censored Regressions.
- Duration Models.
Over the whole year
Coordinators: Alessandro Riboni
Students must work in groups of 2 or 3. They should rely on a statistical software, such as Stata, to apply econometric methods to a dataset. This work leads to the writing of a small dissertation and to an oral presentation.
Third Semester
During the third term (March to August) , students must complete a research internship of at least 16 weeks in one of the fields below:
- ECO_52991_EP Internship in Microeconomics, Corporate, Environmental Sector
- ECO_52992_EP Internship in International Economics, Public Policy
- ECO_52993_EP Internship In Banking, Finance
Academic Prerequisites
Bachelor in economics, mathematics or social sciences (or the equivalent). A GRE certificate is strongly recommended. This allows students to demonstrate the strength of their quantitative skills.
In exceptional circumstances, students who have already completed the first year of an equivalent program with very good grades, may be directly admitted to the second year. In case of doubt, do not hesitate to apply for admission at both M1 and M2 level and/or to contact the program directors before applying.
Language Prerequisites
A certificate of competence in English (TOEFL, IELTS, TOEIC, Cambridge ESOL) Level B2. (Students who studied in English speaking Colleges are exempted).
Procedure
List of Documents
- A CV.
- A photocopy of your ID.
- A photocopy of your transcripts (Translated into English or into French for foreign candidates).
- A GRE certificate is strongly recommended. This allows students to demonstrate the strength of their quantitative skills.
- A certificate of competence in English (TOEFL, IELTS, TOEIC, Cambridge ESOL) Level B2. (Students who studied in English speaking Colleges are exempted).
- A cover letter.
- Two academic references (added online directly by your referees).
Fees and scholarships
Registration fees are available here
Find out more about scholarships
Please note that fees and scholarships may change for the following year.
Applications and admission dates
Program Director
Program office
General enquiries
Institut Polytechnique de Paris and HEC Paris offer a two-year research-oriented program in economics entirely taught in English, that offers advanced training in economics through coursework and supervision by faculty. It is aimed at students who want to become professional economists working in government, central banking, international organizations, consulting, finance or in academic research.
The program heavily relies on advanced quantitative methods for both theoretical and empirical analysis. During the first year, students take advanced core courses in microeconomics, macroeconomics and econometrics. They also engage in research projects under the supervision of faculty and acquire a first hands-on contact with research. During the second year, students can specialize within subfields of economics. By the end of that year, they should be at the research frontier within their main area of specialization and have gained successful research experience. They also write a first research paper for their PhD thesis.
A small subset of students may enter the program as "PhD Track" students. This program is aimed at students with a strong desire for research in quantitative economics who intend to continue towards a PhD in Economics at CREST and IP Paris.
At the end of the second year, students who has achieved sufficiently good grades, have written a research proposal and found a potential PhD supervisor within CREST may progress to the dissertation period (three years) of the PhD program. Progress is conditional on securing funding and IP Paris and CREST will do their best to help candidate to obtain such funding (e.g., IP Paris provides a limited number of three-year doctoral fellowships). During the second year of the program, students who specialize in financial economics or economic theory and decision sciences may also apply to the PhD program at HEC Paris. Students who entered the Master program may also progress to the research phase of the PhD program.
- Language of instruction: English
- ECTS: 120
- Oriented: Research
- Duration: 2 years
- Courses Location: IP Paris – Ecole polytechnique and ENSAE - and HEC Paris
In partnership with:
Goals
The goal of this program is to provide an advanced training in economics at the highest international level with a strong emphasis on advanced quantitative methods for both theoretical and empirical analyses.
In the first year, students get acquainted with the most important analytical techniques used in economics. The training is mostly devoted to acquiring the most important tools in microeconomics, macroeconomics and econometrics through a complete core course training, as well as completing a research internship.
During the second year, students can specialize within a sub-area of economics. Fields of excellence and potential areas of specialization, include:
- Econometric theory,
- Environmental and development economics,
- Finance,
- Game and decision theory,
- Industrial organization and digital economics,
- International economics,
- Labor economics,
- Macroeconomics,
- Public economics.
Throughout the second year, students conduct a research project and write a master’s dissertation under the direction of a faculty member.
Career prospects
The wide variety of courses, seminars, projects and internships proposed during the master offers the possibility, for every student, to build his/her own curriculum in economics. There are many job opportunities available immediately after the master, for instance in government agencies, international organizations, consulting, finance. Students may join PhD programs in international universities.
3 years after completion of the Master in Economics:
- 42% of former students work for a research institution, (36% PhD candidates and 6% in other positions);
- 17% work for the French high administration (ministry);
- 19% work for a private firm (Consulting, Bank, Multinational Firms);
- 6% work for NGO specialized in the economic analysis of the climate change;
- 6% work for International Institutions (OECD, European Central Bank, World Bank, IMF, …);
- 23% of the former students work outside of France (12% in the US, 6% in Europe and 4% in Pacific Region).
PhD candidates pursuing an academic career after a PhD in Economics at IPParis find placement in the best universities (Princeton, Cornell, Bocconi, LMU Munich, Paris School of Economics, Chicago, …). Other PhD candidates join International Institutions (World Bank, ECB, IMF, …) or private firms.
Institutional partners: HEC Paris
Industrial partners
Industrial partners: The internship program at the end of the first-year gives students an opportunity to apply their quantitative skills and knowledge to real-life problems at well-known national and international institutions, companies, and organizations. Examples of such institutions having hired interns in the past include BNP-Paribas, EDF, Lafarge, the IMF, the World Bank, the OECD, DG Trésor, etc. Our department also has long-term research partnerships with EDF, AXA, Deloitte, Société Générale, etc.
Outline of the First Year: M1
All courses are mandatory.
S1 First Semester
Courses:
- ECO_51650_EP - Microeconomics 1: 8 ECTS.
- ECO_51651_EP - Macroeconomics 1: 8 ECTS.
- ECO_51652_EP - Advanced Econometrics 1: 5 ECTS.
- ECO_51658_EP - Introduction to Time Series Econometrics: 3 ECTS.
S2 Second Semester
Courses:
- ECO_52660_EP - Microeconomics 2: 8 ECTS.
- ECO_52661_EP - Macroeconomics 2: 8 ECTS.
ECO_52662_EP - Advanced Econometrics 2: 8 ECTS.
S1 & S2
- ECO_50P11_EP - Project in Applied Economics: 4 ECTS.
S3 Third Semester
Research Internship: 8 ECTS.
First Semester
(end of August, beginning of September)
Mathematics, Optimization, Probability, and Statistical Inference - 36 hours
Nicolas Vieille, Michele Fabi
- Basic calculus.
- Linear algebra.
- Static and dynamic optimization.
- Basic probability theory.
- Statistical inference.
Introduction to R - 8 hours
(end of August, beginning of September)
This crash course is intended to introduce students to the statistical software R. The goal is to teach students how to implement simple data science projects on R and where to look for for more advanced uses.
We will cover the basics of the software and focus on data wrangling, producing descriptive statistics and running regressions. If time permits, we will also learn how to use local and global variables.
At the end of the course the student will know:
- how to work with R
- where to look for for more advanced uses
and they will be able to:
- run some statistical analyses with R
Individual decision-making and market equilibrium - 50 hours
Tristan Tomala, Bruno Biais, Johan Hombert
- Choice theory and introduction to welfare economics.
- Consumer theory.
- Social choice (preference aggregation and manipulability).
- Producer theory.
- Choice under uncertainty (expected utility, risk aversion).
- General equilibrium, fundamental welfare theorems.
- Asset markets and general equilibrium under uncertainty.
- Externalities and public goods.
- No trade theorem, rational expectations.
Economic Growth - 50 hours
Antonin Bergeaud, Alessandro Riboni, Giovanni Ricco
- Neoclassical growth model.
- Public policies in the neoclassical growth model.
- Structural transformation.
- Inequality, political economy of growth.
- The overlapping generations model.
- Public policies and bubbles in the overlapping-generations model.
- Product variety model.
- Schumpeterian growth.
The Linear Regression Model and Extensions - 40 hours
Sebastien Roux, Thierry Kamionka
In this course we introduce the linear regression model and its theoretical foundations. We present and discuss the methods to estimate such models, i-e to define the parameters of interest, estimate them and test their statistical significance, under different sets of assumptions (homoskedasticity or heteroscedasticity, exogeneity or endogeneity), specifications (simple or multiple regression) or types of data (cross-sectional, panel data, time series).
Outline:
1. Introduction to econometrics
2. The Simple Regression Model
3. Multiple Regression Analysis:
A. Estimation
B. Inference
C. Asymptotics
4. Qualitative Information in Linear Regression
5. Heteroskedasticity
6. Repeated Cross Section and Panel Data
7. Instrumental Variables
Literature:
Angrist and Pischke: (2009): Mostly Harmless Econometrics, Princeton University Press.
Wooldridge (2013): Introductory Econometrics: A Modern Approach, 5th Edition, South-Western College Publishing.
Jean-Michel Zakoian, 24h
- Generalities on univariate second-order stationary processes
- Autocovariances, partial autocorrelations
- Innovations
- Wold theorem
- Asymptotic properties of empirical moments.
- AR, MA, ARMA, SARIMA processes
- Canonical representation - Identification, estimation, tests and forecasting
- Model building
- Nonstationary models, Unit root tests.
- Stationary vector processes
- Multivariate AR models
- Statistical Inference
- Causality tests, impulse-response analysis.
- Non-stationary vector processes and definition of cointegration
- Cointegrated VAR models and error-correction models (ECM)
- Estimation of cointegrated VAR
- Testing for Cointegration.
Second Semester
Strategic Interactions and Information 50 hours
Yukio Koriyama, Yuki Tamura
- Normal form games, pure and mixed strategies, equilibrium concepts (dominance, rationalizability, Nash).
- Imperfect competition (Cournot, Bertrand, Hotelling).
- Extensive form games with perfect information, backwards induction.
- Extensive form games with imperfect information (information sets), normal form representation.
- Bayesian games, auctions, adverse selection, signaling, screening.
- Equilibrium refinements (Perfect Bayesian equilibrium, sequential equilibrium).
- Social choice and introduction to mechanism design.
- Contract theory, principal agent models, risk sharing.
Business cycles - 50 hours
Jean-Baptiste Michau
- Traditional macroeconomics: The IS-LM AD-AS model.
- Consumption.
- Investment; The ramsey model.
- Determination of the price level.
- Real business cycle theory.
- The new Keynesian framework.
- Asset pricing; The Aiyagari model.
- Search models of the labor market.
- International macroeconomics.
- The Great Recession.
Nonlinear, Qualitative Data, and Panel Methods - 40 hours
Christian Belzil
- Extremum Estimators 1st part: M-Estimators (Maximum Likelihood, Nonlinear Least squares).
- Extremum Estimators 2nd part: GMM.
- Hypothesis Testing: Wald, Lagrange Multipliers, Likelihood Ratio Statistics.
- Instrumental Variables, 2SLS, Multiple-Equation GMM (if time).
- Dynamic Panel Data: Instrumental Variables and GMM.
- Binary Choice Models.
- Multinomial and Ordered Choice Models.
- Non-linear Panel Data Models.
- Censored Regressions.
- Duration Models.
Over the whole year
Coordinators: Alessandro Riboni
Students must work in groups of 2 or 3. They should rely on a statistical software, such as Stata, to apply econometric methods to a dataset. This work leads to the writing of a small dissertation and to an oral presentation.
Third Semester
During the third term (March to August) , students must complete a research internship of at least 16 weeks in one of the fields below:
- ECO_52991_EP Internship in Microeconomics, Corporate, Environmental Sector
- ECO_52992_EP Internship in International Economics, Public Policy
- ECO_52993_EP Internship In Banking, Finance
Academic Prerequisites
Bachelor in economics, mathematics or social sciences (or the equivalent). A GRE certificate is strongly recommended. This allows students to demonstrate the strength of their quantitative skills.
In exceptional circumstances, students who have already completed the first year of an equivalent program with very good grades, may be directly admitted to the second year. In case of doubt, do not hesitate to apply for admission at both M1 and M2 level and/or to contact the program directors before applying.
Language Prerequisites
A certificate of competence in English (TOEFL, IELTS, TOEIC, Cambridge ESOL) Level B2. (Students who studied in English speaking Colleges are exempted).
Procedure
List of Documents
- A CV.
- A photocopy of your ID.
- A photocopy of your transcripts (Translated into English or into French for foreign candidates).
- A GRE certificate is strongly recommended. This allows students to demonstrate the strength of their quantitative skills.
- A certificate of competence in English (TOEFL, IELTS, TOEIC, Cambridge ESOL) Level B2. (Students who studied in English speaking Colleges are exempted).
- A cover letter.
- Two academic references (added online directly by your referees).
Fees and scholarships
Registration fees are available here
Find out more about scholarships
Please note that fees and scholarships may change for the following year.