Program Overview

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Overview

The Ph.D. program in economics at UBC owes its strength to the quality of its research faculty, extensive opportunity for student-faculty interaction, and a diverse offering of specializations for thesis work. Our faculty members specialize in a wide range of topics, including development economics, economic history, applied and theoretical econometrics, economics of inequality and gender, environmental economics, industrial organization, international finance, international trade, labour economics, macroeconomics, applied and theoretical micro, political economy, and public economics.

What makes the program unique?

The Vancouver School of Economics at UBC is one of the world's best: in a recent ranking based on research publications, the department ranked in the top 20 worldwide, and number one in Canada. Each year, we typically admit about 15 new students to our program. As a result, our program is small enough to provide extensive research supervision, yet large enough to offer expertise in a wide range of fields.

Quick Facts

• Faculty: Faculty of Arts
• Academic Unit: Vancouver School of Economics
• Specialization: Economics
• Mode of delivery: In person at UBC Vancouver
• Program Components: Dissertation
• Tuition (First Year):
  • Domestic: $5,626.02
  • International: $9,883.98
• Median Funding: 50% of students receive $43,909 or more funding per year in the first 4 years, before tuition and fees

Admission Information & Requirements

Check Eligibility

Minimum Academic Requirements

The Faculty of Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies establishes the minimum admission requirements common to all applicants, usually a minimum overall average in the B+ range (76% at UBC). The graduate program that you are applying to may have additional requirements. Please review the specific requirements for applicants with credentials from institutions in:

• Canada or the United States
• International countries other than the United States Each program may set higher academic minimum requirements. Please review the program website carefully to understand the program requirements. Meeting the minimum requirements does not guarantee admission as it is a competitive process.

English Language Test

Applicants from a university outside Canada in which English is not the primary language of instruction must provide results of an English language proficiency examination as part of their application. Tests must have been taken within the last 24 months at the time of submission of your application.

• TOEFL: Test of English as a Foreign Language - internet-based
  • Overall score requirement: 93
  • Reading: 22
  • Writing: 22
  • Speaking: 22
  • Listening: 22
• IELTS: International English Language Testing System
  • Overall score requirement: 6.5
  • Reading: 6.0
  • Writing: 6.0
  • Speaking: 6.0
  • Listening: 6.0

Other Test Scores

Some programs require additional test scores such as the Graduate Record Examination (GRE) or the Graduate Management Test (GMAT). The requirements for this program are:

• The GRE is required by some applicants. Please check the program website.

Prior degree, course and other requirements

Meet Deadlines

• Program Name: Doctor of Philosophy in Economics (PhD)
• Intake: September 2026
  • Canadian Applicant Deadline: 15 December 2025
  • International Applicant Deadline: 15 December 2025
• Program Name: Doctor of Philosophy in Economics (PhD)
• Intake: September 2027
  • Canadian Applicant Deadline: 15 December 2026
  • International Applicant Deadline: 15 December 2026

Prepare Application

Transcripts

All applicants have to submit transcripts from all past post-secondary study. Document submission requirements depend on whether your institution of study is within Canada or outside of Canada.

Letters of reference

Applicants have to submit 3 references to apply to this graduate program. Please review our general information on reference letters, including the types of references (e.g. academic, professional) that you may be asked for and how the references will be collected. Additionally, you can view short videos on how to identify and approach reference writers.

Statement of Interest

Many programs require a statement of interest, sometimes called a "statement of intent", "description of research interests" or something similar.

Supervision

Students in research-based programs usually require a faculty member to function as their thesis supervisor. Please follow the instructions provided by each program whether applicants should contact faculty members.

Instructions regarding thesis supervisor contact for this program

The program will review research interests of applicants and recommend/match faculty members during the application/evaluation process. Applicants should not reach out to faculty members directly.

Research Information

Facilities

The school houses the Centre for Labour Studies and manages the British Columbia Inter-University Research Data Centre. As a result, unique training opportunities, research funding, and access to data and computing resources are available to our Ph.D. students.

Tuition & Financial Support

Tuition

• Fees:
  • Canadian Citizen / Permanent Resident / Refugee / Diplomat
    • Application Fee: $118.50
    • Tuition per year: $5,626.02
  • International
    • Application Fee: $168.25
    • Tuition per year: $9,883.98
• Int. Tuition Award (ITA) per year (if eligible): $3,200.00
• Other Fees and Costs:
  • Student Fees (yearly): $1,144.10 (approx.)
  • Costs of living: Estimate your costs of living with our interactive tool in order to start developing a financial plan for your graduate studies.

Financial Support

Applicants to UBC have access to a variety of funding options, including merit-based (i.e. based on your academic performance) and need-based (i.e. based on your financial situation) opportunities.

Program Funding Packages

Virtually all of the School's research faculty hold grants from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council and other funding agencies, implying that opportunities for research assistantships and dissertation support are ample.

From September 2024 all full-time students in UBC-Vancouver PhD programs will be provided with a funding package of at least $24,000 for each of the first four years of their PhD. The funding package may consist of any combination of internal or external awards, teaching-related work, research assistantships, and graduate academic assistantships. Please note that many graduate programs provide funding packages that are substantially greater than $24,000 per year. Please check with your prospective graduate program for specific details of the funding provided to its PhD students.

Funding Statistics

Based on the criteria outlined below, 53 students within this program were included in this study because they received funding through UBC in the form of teaching, research, academic assistantships or internal or external awards with a mean of $43,679 and a median of $43,909.

This results in a net balance (any funding provided to the student minus tuition and fees) mean of $33,335 and median of $33,174.

• 42 students received Teaching Assistantships. Median TA funding based on 42 students was $14,971.
• 13 students received Research Assistantships. Median RA funding based on 13 students was $5,162.
• 17 students received Academic Assistantships. Median AA funding based on 17 students was $3,539.
• 53 students received internal awards. Median internal award funding based on 53 students was $25,999.
• 5 students received external awards. Median external award funding based on 5 students was $20,000.

Career Outcomes

76 students graduated between 2005 and 2013. Of these, career information was obtained for 75 alumni (based on research conducted between Feb-May 2016):

• RI (Research-Intensive) Faculty: typically tenure-track faculty positions (equivalent of the North American Assistant Professor, Associate Professor, and Professor positions) in PhD-granting institutions
• TI (Teaching-Intensive) Faculty: typically full-time faculty positions in colleges or in institutions not granting PhDs, and teaching faculty at PhD-granting institutions
• Term Faculty: faculty in term appointments (e.g. sessional lecturers, visiting assistant professors, etc.)

Sample Employers in Higher Education

• Wilfrid Laurier University (3)
• Universite de Sherbrooke (2)
• University of Victoria (2)
• University of Ottawa (2)
• York University (2)
• University of Calcutta (2)
• University of Adelaide (2)
• Shanghai University of Finance and Economics (2)
• Simon Fraser University (2)
• Hosei University

Sample Employers Outside Higher Education

• Statistics Canada (2)
• Market Surveillance Administrator
• Volkswagen
• Competition Bureau
• Bank of Canada
• Brattle Group
• Government of Canada
• Digiflex Information Systems
• Analysis Group
• International Monetary Fund

Sample Job Titles Outside Higher Education

• Economist (3)
• Senior Research Analyst (2)
• Chief Economist (2)
• Senior Economist (2)
• Senior Analyst
• Business Analyst
• Senior Associate
• Policy Research Analyst

Career Options

The market for Ph.D. economists is strong and the School actively supports the placement of our Ph.D. job market candidates. Our students have obtained positions at leading research and teaching universities around the world. A number of graduates also obtained excellent positions at government agencies, central banks, non-governmental organizations, and in the private sector.

Enrolment, Duration & Other Stats

These statistics show data for the Doctor of Philosophy in Economics (PhD). Data are separated for each degree program combination. You may view data for other degree options in the respective program profile.

ENROLMENT DATA

	2023	2022	2021	2020	2019
Applications	409	282	405	273	348
Offers	51	49	33	35	34
New Enrolment	15	16	14	13	11
Total Enrolment	87	87	86	86	79

Completion Rates & Times

This program has a graduation rate of 75% based on 46 students admitted between 2011 - 2014. Based on 30 graduations between 2020 - 2023 the minimum time to completion is 5.12 years and the maximum time is 8.58 years with an average of 6.47 years of study. All calculations exclude leave times.

Research Supervisors

Supervision

Students in research-based programs usually require a faculty member to function as their thesis supervisor. Please follow the instructions provided by each program whether applicants should contact faculty members.

Instructions regarding thesis supervisor contact for this program

The program will review research interests of applicants and recommend/match faculty members during the application/evaluation process. Applicants should not reach out to faculty members directly.

This list shows faculty members with full supervisory privileges who are affiliated with this program. It is not a comprehensive list of all potential supervisors as faculty from other programs or faculty members without full supervisory privileges can request approvals to supervise graduate students in this program.

• Anderson, Siwan (Micro-level institutions, role of gender, studies of rural governments)
• Baylis, Patrick (Climate Changes and Impacts; Economic Planning of Energy; climate change economics; energy economics; environmental economics; Climate Changes and Impacts, Economic Planning of Energy, Climate change economics, Energy economics, Environmental economics)
• Beaudry, Paul (National and International macroeconomic issues, Business cycles, inflation, financial markets, the macro-economic effects of technological change and globalization, and the determinants of aggregate employment and wages)
• Bostanci, Gorkem (Firm Dynamics; Input Allocation and Productivity; Labor Demand; intellectual property; Firm Dynamics, Input Allocation and Productivity, Labor Demand, Intellectual Property)
• Copeland, Brian (International trade, environmental economics, interaction between globalization, the environment, and the sustainability of renewable resources)
• Devereux, Michael (Economics, Macro and Monetary Economics Economic Policy, Monetary and Fiscal Policy, Deficits, Exchange Rates, Capital Flows, Financial Crises, International, monetary)
• Drelichman, Mauricio (Economic history, Spain, Argentina)
• Farinha Luz, Vitor (Microeconomic Theory,)
• Ferraz, Claudio (governance and accountability in developing countries; how politics affect public service delivery; the effects of electoral rules on political selection; the role of the state in high crime and violence environments; Governance and accountability in developing countries, How politics affect public service delivery, The effects of electoral rules on political selection, The role of the state in high crime and violence environments)
• Fortin, Nicole (Wage inequality and its links to labour market institutions and public policies, including higher education policies economic progress of women, gender equality policies, and gender issues in education)
• Francois, Patrick (African Autocracies, Economics of Developing Countries, Indian Village Governance, Macro, development, problems in development economies, political economy and non profits)
• Gallipoli, Giovanni (Economic Policies; Economic Phenomena on a National or International Level; Economic Phenomena on an Individual or Organizational Level; applied microeconomics; computational economics; Labor markets; macroeconomics; Consumption theory and measurement; Trade; Insurance; Economic Policies, Economic Phenomena on a National or International Level, Economic Phenomena on an Individual or Organizational Level, Applied microeconomics, Computational economics, Labor markets, Macroeconomics, Consumption theory and measurement, Trade, Insurance)
• Gao, Ying (Microeconomic theory; Signaling Games; Information Design; Microeconomic Theory, Signaling Games, Information Design)
• Green, David (Antibiotic Resistance, Infectious Disease, Epidemiology, Determinants of the wage and employment structure bridging between macro labour and micro labour identification issues)
• Hnatkovska, Viktoriya (International finance, macroeconomics, development economics in India)
• Hoffmann, Florian (Labor Economics, Macro Economics, Income Inequality, Education, Mobility)
• Hwang, Il Myoung (empirical industrial organization and market design; evaluating different school choice mechanisms)
• Jaccard, Torsten (international trade; International Trade)
• Juhasz, Reka (international trade; Economic History; Development and Growth; industrial policy and industrialization; International Trade, Economic History, Development and Growth, industrial policy and industrialization)
• Kasahara, Hiroyuki (Econometrics and international trade)
• Lahiri, Amartya (Exchange rates and monetary policy, growth and development, international economics, macroeconomics, and development economics)
• Lemieux, Thomas (labour market issues, Applied, labour, earnings inequality in Canada and other countries I am also interested in econometric methods used to analyze the earnings distribution and regression discontinuity designs)
• Li, Wei (Contract theory, applied game theory, and information economics I am deeply interested in the interaction of information and incentives in various economics and political environments)
• Li, Hao (Microeconomic theory, theory of contracts and organizations, and games and decisions)
• Lowe, Matthew (preference formation; social integration; political selection; Political selection, Preference formation, Social integration)

Sample Thesis Submissions

• Essays on firms and workers
• Essays on the economics of crime and conflict
• The long shadow of development and political transformations : essays on social outcomes in India
• Essays in macro and development economics
• Essays in applied microeconomics
• Essays in labor economics and deep learning
• Essays on the economic development of the Americas
• Essays in public finance and the economics of multi-level governance
• Shifting tastes, advancing technologies, and managerial influence : essays on forces shaping economic inequality
• Three essays on labor economics
• Essays in displacement, infrastructure, and spatial inequality
• Essays on intellectual property and innovation
• Essays on local political economy
• Essays in economics of education
• Essays on labor economics and applied econometrics
• Essays in development economics
• Essays in labor economics
• Partition estimation : theory and application
• Essays on household finance
• Trade credit, yield spreads, and supply chain vulnerabilities : insights into economic distortions and firm stability
• Essays in development economics : language, firms and information in Africa
• Essays in behavioral economics
• Three essays on industry and the environment
• Essays on worker mobility, spatial labor markets, and urban real estate markets
• Production network economies with household heterogeneity : a sufficient statistics approach
• Essays on the economics of crime and violence
• Essays in economic history and development
• Essays in optimal monetary policy
• Essays in labour economics

Related Programs

Same specialization

• Master of Arts in Economics (MA)

Further Information

Specialization

Economics

Economics covers many fields including: macroeconomics, labour economics, international trade and finance, environmental economics, industrial organization, information and incentives, economic theory, health economics, development economics, and economic history.

Program Website

graduate-and-postdoctoral-studies/degree-programs/economics

Faculty

Faculty of Arts

Academic Unit

Vancouver School of Economics

Program Identifier

VGDPHD-GR

Classification

Social sciences » Economics and business administration » Economics

Program Website

graduate-and-postdoctoral-studies/degree-programs/economics

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