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Wharton’s highly selective Ph.D. program in Applied Economics offers students many resources not available at other institutions, such as a 1:1 faculty to student ratio and an up-front guarantee of five years of funding with minimal teaching requirements. Combining the faculties of the departments of Real Estate and Business Economics & Public Policy, Wharton’s Applied Economics program leverages the breadth and depth of its faculty to prepare students for careers doing frontier theoretical and empirical research. Students can focus on a variety of areas including Behavioral Economics, Development Economics, Energy and Environmental Economics, Industrial Organization, Market Design, Public Economics, Risk Management, and Urban Economics and Real Estate. Students may also develop an inter-disciplinary focus by taking courses and working with faculty in some of the other departments at Wharton such as Finance, Health Care Management, Management, and Marketing.

All admitted students are granted a fellowship, including tuition, fees, and stipend.  Details about the application process, deadlines and requirements are available here

Program Requirements

Prospective students interested in pursuing a degree in Applied Economics  must apply for admission to the Wharton Doctoral Programs in Applied Economics.

Applicants may, if they wish, indicate a preferred field of study in their application. All applicants must provide valid test scores — the Applied Economics program accepts only the GRE. We do not require a minimum GRE score, however math scores among students admitted in the last few years were all above the 90 th percentile. In making our decision, we look at your GRE scores as well as the rest of your application: grades, coursework, work and research experience, essays, and recommendation.

We recommend at least three courses in mathematics, such as calculus, linear algebra, and real analysis, and at least three courses in statistics/econometrics. We prefer an economics undergraduate degree along with the math requirements noted above or a math/statistics degree with several courses in economics (at least up through intermediate microeconomics and macroeconomics).

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The 10 best schools for finance in the world.

Stanford Graduate School of Business is among the best schools for finance worldwide ©Stanford GSB / iStock

What are the best schools for finance across the globe? Find out the top destinations to study finance including the likes of Oxford Saïd and Harvard

By  Fay Nyberg

Fri May 10 2024

For those seeking the competitive advantage of attending a business school that’s highly-acclaimed for finance education, the annual QS MBA by Career Specialization Rankings places nine out of the top 10 best finance schools in the world in the US.

Read on to find out which business schools rank at the top of this year's list, and explore some of the unique characteristics that make the top business schools for finance stand out.

The 10  Best Schools For Finance

10. university of michigan ross school of business.

The University of Michigan’s Ross School of Business is a top 10 ranking b-school when it comes to finance. With a fast-track finance MBA program, the accelerated course prepares ambitious students for summer internship positions at the end of the first year. 

The curriculum includes valuation, corporate financial policy, and financial modeling. There’s also a student-run MBA Investment Banking Club to support applications for internships and help Michigan Ross financiers’ careers progress. Ross MBA graduates are hired by the likes of Goldman Sachs, Barclays and BlackRock. 

9. Cornell University Johnson Graduate School of Management

The Johnson School is part of the University of Cornell, one of the largest universities in the US Ivy League. It ranks among the 10 best finance schools at number nine in this year's list. 

The two-year MBA course incorporates a summer internship and students can focus on finance by choosing a semester-long corporate finance immersion, which includes a mix of theory and practice.

Leading S&P 500 companies across a wide range of industries including finance hire Johnson’s MBA students for internships, including the likes of American Express and Bank of America.

Check out the  Cornell Johnson MBA Class Profile

8. Northwestern University Kellogg School of Management

The Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University offers a full-time MBA with a finance major. All MBA students begin their studies by looking at the basic tools and skills needed for a finance career. 

They can then hone their finance skills further by selecting electives such as value investing, or experiential learning courses with simulation elements such as impact investing and sustainable finance.

Faculty members here serve as editors of leading professional publications. Some like Professor Dean Karlan are founders of nonprofits dedicated to finding and promoting solutions to global poverty issues.

Check out the  Northwestern Kellogg MBA Class Profile

7. University of Oxford Saïd Business School

If you’re looking to study a top finance MBA outside of the US, the University of Oxford’s Saïd Business School is a top 10 ranking school that's based in England. The MBA curriculum includes core courses examining the foundations of business, plus elective options like corporate valuation and financial management for banks and insurers. 

MBA students at Oxford Saïd can apply to the MBA Finance Lab for the opportunity to work through case studies. The school also offers a DPhil in Finance and MSc in Financial Economics, with an option to combine a master’s degree with a one-year MBA. 

Find out how to successfully  apply to the Oxford Saïd MBA

6. University of Chicago Booth School of Business

Just missing out on the top five in this ranking of the best finance schools, the University of Chicago Booth School of Business offers both an MBA in Analytic Finance and a  Master in Finance Program. Following up on the MBA with a concentration in finance means you select four finance-focused courses from options such as portfolio management and financial markets and institutions.

Esteemed faculty members here include Nobel Prize winners like Professor Eugene F. Fama , who is widely considered the ‘father of modern finance' and fellow Nobel Laureate,  Professor Lars Hansen . 

Find out how to successfully  apply to the Chicago Booth MBA

5. NYU Stern School of Business

The NYU Stern School of Business is number 5 in the QS MBA’s rankings of the best finance schools for 2023. The school takes a ‘flexible first’ approach to its MBA program, which is highly customizable. 

MBA students following the finance curriculum can select up to three specializations in related fields like financial systems and analytics, accounting, or supply chain management. There are also opportunities for real-world learning through participation in programs like the Michael Price Student Investment Fund, which offers hands-on asset management experience. 

Read the  NYU Stern MBA  Jobs & Salary Review

4. Columbia Business School

New York’s Columbia Business School has the lure of being located in the city that’s the center of global financial markets. Beyond the nearby bustle of Wall Street, this Ivy League school has more guest lectures and speaker visits to its campus than any other top business school. 

The MBA’s core finance elements focus on the foundational topics of value, financial accounting, and corporate finance. There are over 300 electives to choose from, with recommended courses to follow for a finance career path. The school also offers an MS in Financial Economics and a Finance PhD.  

Read the  Columbia MBA  Jobs & Salary Review

3. Stanford Graduate School of Business

Studying a finance MBA can give you a broad range of opportunities both within finance and beyond. For those who aspire to work with the biggest names in tech, Stanford's Graduate School of Business campus is located in the heart of Silicon Valley in California.

The first-year MBA curriculum includes the foundations of finance, financial accounting, and microeconomics. Those following a finance pathway can select year two electives including economics of the private equity industry, money and banking, and angel and venture capital financing for entrepreneurs and investors. 

Check out the  Stanford GSB MBA Class Profile

2. Harvard Business School 

Boston-based Harvard Business School has a dedicated finance MBA curriculum and boasts a busy calendar of seminars delivered by top global names in finance.

The MBA program’s core modules in finance develop student’s ability to make financial and managerial decisions. Year two electives include investment management and field courses such as value creation in small and medium firms.

Among the key factors that make this Ivy League school standout are its award-winning faculty members. For example, professor Lauren J.Cohen was invited to brief US congress on policy matters and delivered a keynote address at the launch of Nigeria’s Central Bank digital currency.

Dive into the  Harvard MBA Notable Alumni

1. The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania

Wharton is the leading school for an MBA for finance in the QS list, coming out on top against the other best finance schools in the US.

The b-school has been a leading name in finance education and research for over 120 years. Global names in finance hire Wharton MBA students as staff and interns, including the Bank of America, Barclays, and Goldman Sachs & Company.

The Wharton MBA curriculum includes core modules such as corporate finance and macroeconomics, and the global economic environment. 

The wide variety of electives means you can customize the program to support a financial career pathway. Examples of options include international financial markets and cryptocurrencies or data science for finance. 

Read the  Wharton  MBA  Jobs & Salary Review

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Boston University offers striking PhD students 12-month stipends if they work summers

In its latest efforts to help end a nearly two-month strike by graduate student workers, Boston University proposed granting all PhD students access to a 12-month stipend, a university leader said Tuesday.

The proposal came during the 25th bargaining session between the university and the graduate workers union, said university provost Kenneth Lutchen in an email to BU community members. The strike by graduate workers, who teach classes, grade student work, and conduct research, has impacted classes and university life since late March.

The new 12-month stipend policy would enable all PhD students who were previously on eight-month stipends to work or conduct research over the summer to receive a minimum of $42,159 annually, Lutchen said.

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“Students have repeatedly spoken of the challenges of living with an eight-month stipend and how it affects their financial security,” Lutchen said, adding: “We hope that this move at the bargaining table signals our goodwill and seriousness of purpose in moving toward resolution with [Boston University Graduate Workers Union] and reaching an agreement that supports our students.”

The union, which formed in 2022, represents about 3,000 masters, professional, and PhD students and is part of Service Employees International Union Local 509. Its strike calls for stronger health care coverage, pay, and benefits.

David Foley, president of SEIU 509, told the Globe that while the proposal is a “step in the right direction,” it’s a long overdue effort to address the economic insecurity experienced by graduate workers. It excludes hourly workers and does not address the needs of the many graduate workers already struggling to live in Boston on 12-month stipends, Foley said.

“Forty-two thousand dollars is still far from a living wage for any of our members, and we remain committed to fighting for a meaningful end to rent burden and financial insecurity,” Foley said in a statement. “The university has the means — and the obligation — to do better.”

The union said it expects to see more movement from the BU administration now that it has acknowledged graduate workers’ complaints about underpayment.

Currently about 560 grad students remain on strike, according to Rachel Lapal Cavallario, a BU spokesperson. That makes up 20 percent of salaried grad students and 10 percent of hourly ones, she said, according to student and faculty attestation data and hours submitted for hourly students.

As of May 8, about 80 percent of bargaining unit members that receive stipends have been working each week throughout the strike, according to BU’s negotiations team .

Graduate students are currently paid stipends between $27,000 to $40,000, according to the union. The university said those wages are for 20 hours of work per week, while grad workers claim to work more than that.

When the students began striking in March, they asked the school for about a $62,000 stipend, the union said, to which BU said it offered about $42,000 . The union declined to counteroffer, BU said. The students are still advocating for the $62,000 stipend, according to the union.

In March, the school also offered to raise the minimum wage to $18 from $15 for hourly workers and add children under age 6 to the health insurance plan for full-time PhD students.

Graduate workers help grade quizzes and teach lab sessions and supplementary class meetings known as discussion sections. Their absence throughout the strike caused classes and labs to be canceled throughout the semester, several students told the Globe. BU’s spring semester concluded earlier this month, with the summer term beginning on May 21, according to Lapal Cavallario.

The proposal for 12-month stipends came about in part because faculty cited difficulties recruiting PhD students in humanities and social sciences, Lutchen said.

“We appreciate the dedication and patience of everyone involved and are hopeful these efforts will produce significant progress as we head into the summer,” Lutchen said.

Another bargaining session is set to occur in the coming weeks.

Material from prior Globe coverage was used in this report.

Esha Walia can be reached at [email protected] .

A business journal from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania

Has Music Become Less Misogynistic?

May 14, 2024 • 5 min read.

If music reflects culture, what do misogynistic lyrics say about society? Wharton’s Jonah Berger uses AI to determine whether modern music has become less biased toward women over time.

• Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion

When 19th-century poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow wrote that music was “the universal language,” he hadn’t heard “Blurred Lines,” a song so misogynistic that it’s still controversial more than a decade after it climbed to the top of the Billboard charts.

Music has always been an expression of culture. But unlike the classical tunes of Longfellow’s day, modern music often has been criticized for lyrics that are sexist, derisive, and demeaning to women. Whether rock, pop, rap, or country, few genres have spared women from being the object of aggression.

In his study, “ Quantifying Cultural Change: Gender Bias in Music ,” Wharton marketing professor Jonah Berger used machine learning to answer the question: Has modern music become less misogynistic over time?

Berger and co-author Reihane Boghrati , information systems professor at Arizona State University’s W.P. Carey School of Business, analyzed more than 250,000 songs spanning 50 years and six genres — pop, rock, country, rap, dance, and R&B. They found improvement up until the mid-1990s, and then a leveling off or reversal. Male artists were mostly responsible for the downshift, because female artists were less biased to begin with.

“Culture is a self-reinforcing system.” — Jonah Berger

“While things have certainly improved over the last 50 years, they haven’t become neutral,” Berger said. “Lyrics are still biased against women.”

It’s hard to pinpoint a single reason for the decline in bias, although Berger attributes it in part to changing cultural values and perceptions. Musicians today risk backlash for songs filled with derogatory lyrics, no matter how catchy. Pharrell Williams , who co-wrote and sang on “Blurred Lines,” later said the controversy educated him about chauvinism and that he “didn’t realize that some of my songs catered to that.”

Music as a Measure of Culture

Berger, who’s an expert on social influence and how language shapes behavior, said music is an important measure of culture because of its prevalence. It’s a shared experience that influences the audience, much like popular books and movies.

“People sing along to lyrics without thinking about what they are saying,” he said. “Even though we may not realize it, the ideas, associations, and content that is reinforced in music shapes the next generation and what society thinks moving forward.”

Bias in lyrics can shape behavior in the same way as language in other forms of communication, the professor said. In business, that could be advertising and marketing materials, or hiring and training materials. For example, if managers are always referred to as male, people unconsciously associate leadership roles with men. Similarly, a 2022 paper found that hiring female CEOs and board members changes organizational language so that the words used to describe women become similar to words that describe agency, such as “independent” and “confident.”

“Culture is a self-reinforcing system,” Berger said. “Both as producers of language and consumers of language, the more we are aware of these biases and try to correct them, the more we can make a more equitable future.”

“The good news is it has gotten better; the bad news is there is still work to do.” — Jonah Berger

Measuring Gender Bias with AI

There have been previous studies on gender bias in music, but they have been limited in scope. Older research looked at a small number of songs, a single genre, or an isolated time period that doesn’t establish long-term trends. And the data had to be manually coded.

Berger has conducted many studies using automated textual analysis, which allows data to be objectively analyzed at scale, so he knew it would be a perfect tool to parse information from a quarter-million songs. But the professors faced another challenge in deciding how to measure bias. Some song lyrics are explicitly violent against women, but most are subtle or open to interpretation.

They decided to focus on whether, compared to men, women are talked about as competent and intelligent or merely warm or kind.

“These subtle linguistic choices have pernicious impacts,” Berger said. “Sure, being nice, warm, and kind are all good things. But when making important decisions, like who to hire or give raise, competence often matters more than warmth.”

When it comes to the pervasiveness of sexism, there is plenty of blame to go around. Berger noted previous research that found protagonists in children’s books tend to be male, while female characters tend to be more passive. He also mentioned a study that found roughly 70% of questions posed to female tennis players weren’t about the sport, like when Serena Williams was asked in 2015 why she wasn’t smiling. Berger writes about similar forms of bias in his most recent book, “ Magic Words: What to Say to Get Your Way .”

“Music isn’t the only place where there is still bias,” he said. “Given how these biases exist in other domains, what we found is not surprising. The good news is it has gotten better; the bad news is there is still work to do.”

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Changing the world of business, powerful analytical tools.

Wharton began teaching and researching marketing before the field even existed, initiating courses in 1909 in what was then known as “merchandising.” Later, Wharton marketing Professor Paul Green created the powerful tool called “conjoint analysis,” a research method that revolutionized 20th century marketing by focusing on what to sell in the future, rather than on what appealed to consumers in the past. An icon of 20th century marketing, he transformed business practices around the world, from lodging and transportation (including the creation of Courtyard by Marriott hotels and the EZPass highway toll system) to medical research, public policy, and industrial engineering.

This focus on methodologies to better measure preferences and anticipate what people want has long been a hallmark of the department. Other key strengths include consumer behavior, decision-making theory, modeling and measurement, and marketing strategy.

Wharton’s Marketing professors – the largest, most cited, and most published marketing faculty in the world – specialize in translating their state-of-the-art research into practical tools that managers can use to make better decisions.

Snack-food giant Frito-Lay, for example, needed to know if the billions it spent each year on advertising was working. Marriott wanted to launch a new chain of residence hotels, but wasn’t sure how the market would react to the idea. Shell Oil wanted to redefine product offerings based on customers’ perceptions and needs.These are just a handful of the corporations that have improved performance, launched new products, and refined their pricing and merchandising tactics using the market research tools created by the Wharton Marketing Department.

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Leeds Graduates Heard it Loud and Clear: The World Awaits Their Impact

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Emerging from a sea of bedazzled caps and indigo stoles, over 1,200 undergraduate and 640 graduate students crossed the stage at Leeds’ graduation recognition ceremonies last Saturday, May 10, 2024—a day where they celebrated their achievements and began the next chapters of their lives. But it wasn’t goodbye.

“Commencement does not mean, as many wrongly think, the breaking of ties and the beginning of life apart. Rather, it marks your initiation in the fullest sense into the fellowship of the university,” read Birdie Reznicek, Leeds’ associate dean for culture and community. The Norlin Charge is read at every CU commencement ceremony to remind students of their everlasting connection to CU.

Along a similar vein, Vijay Khatri, Leeds’ Tandean Rustandy Endowed Dean, stressed the value of community in his remarks: “In its essence, Leeds and CU Boulder embody a collective community encompassing all of us, who together, support each other in our endeavor to enrich the world we call home.”

The graduates were reminded that they were joining a community of more than 44,000 Leeds alumni around the world—many of whom are considered globally conscious leaders. 

She shared that she was first inspired to pursue international business when she befriended international business students through a student exchange program at Leeds.

“Leeds gave me the tools and inspiration to become truly a global citizen—someone who deeply appreciates the interconnectedness of our global community, advocates for global issues and embraces cultural diversity.” Today, her mission is to put Denver on the map by transforming it into a global commerce hub.

After receiving their diplomas, students filtered out of the CU Events Center onto the business school lawn, where large white tents awaited them packed with festivities and refreshments. Throughout the crowd, brightly colored lei adorned graduates’ necks, given to them by family and friends.

Originating on the Hawaiian islands, the long-standing tradition of giving flower garlands to graduates has symbolized pride, accomplishment and congratulations. The custom has spread past the islands and become ubiquitous throughout the world.

Now, graduates face the question of how they will make their impact on the world. Gerwitz assured them they were ready. “Leeds gave you all the tools you need to succeed.”

See which faculty won distinguished awards.

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Meet some of the graduates from the Class of 2024.

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Over 1,200 undergraduate and 640 graduate students crossed the stage at Leeds’ graduation recognition ceremonies. But it wasn’t goodbye.

Class of 2024 Graduates Jumpstart Their Journeys

From chasing childhood dreams to traveling their own academic paths, Leeds 2024 graduates are ready to take on the world. 

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OpenAI wants you to think GPT-4o is your new best friend

• The new AI model powering ChatGPT is doing its most to become your new best friend.
• GPT-4o, unveiled by OpenAI on Monday, can have conversations with you in a very human tone.
• It's a sign that Sam Altman plans on making AI a companion that stays by your side.

Whether you like it or not, Sam Altman just let you know you're getting an AI best pal.

At a livestreamed event on Monday, the OpenAI chief sent out his top technology lieutenant Mira Murati to unveil GPT-4o, a powerful new AI model that looks set to turn ChatGPT into a pocketable buddy.

The new model, which Altman hyped up as feeling like "magic" ahead of the event, was presented as a realization of the AI voiced by Scarlett Johansson in Spike Jonze's 2013 movie "Her," as demo after demo showed it interacting with you just as a friend would.

A simple "hey, how's it going?" can now trigger ChatGPT — newly powered by GPT-4o — to ask how you're doing in return, elicit comments about the clothes you're wearing, and offer opinions on any number of other things it fancies.

"I see you're rocking an OpenAI hoodie, nice choice," ChatGPT told a user in one demo. "What's up with that ceiling though? Are you in a cool, industry-style office or something?"

In another demo, an OpenAI engineer managed to get a helping hand from ChatGPT by getting it to tell a bedtime story about robots and love to a colleague named Barrett — after being told he'd been struggling to sleep.

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"I got you covered!" the AI bot said, before delivering a story about a robot named Bite in dramatic, singing, and robotic voices, depending on the request from the user.

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It also proved to be a quick and nimble by translating Murati's Italian in live conversation.

Much of this has been enabled by something OpenAI's previous models have lacked: an ability to "reason across audio, vision, and text in real time."

That it has a voice similar to Joaquin Phoenix's AI pal Samantha from "Her" goes a long way towards elevating ChatGPT engagements towards more human-like experiences too.

Taken together, these demos offered the strongest sign yet of Altman's ambitions for AI chatbots: turning them into entities that users begin to engage with in a more continuous way, like they might when hanging out with a friend for the day.

Ethan Mollick, an associate professor studying AI at Wharton University, has seen signs of this coming for some time.

After the event, he wrote that GPT-4o marked an "important shift" in which newer AI features rolled out by the likes of OpenAI seem targeted at "making AI more present and more naturally connected to human systems and processes."

"If an AI that seems to reason like a human being can see and interact and plan like a human being, then it can have influence in the human world. This is where AI labs are leading us: to a near future of AI as coworker, friend, and ubiquitous presence," Mollick wrote on Substack.

OpenAI is not the first company to try to position its AI as a buddy. Inflection AI, for instance, revealed its bot Pi a year ago as "a kind and supportive companion that's on your side."

Though Inflection struggled to gain traction for the idea ( the company lost its CEO Mustafa Suleyman and a bunch of engineers to Microsoft in March), OpenAI's reveal this week has shown that technical advances can start to make an AI bot feel like a more human partner.

It's something its rivals will pay close attention to, with the possibility of a new battle emerging between companies trying to release the most human, friendly AI bot they can. A recent report suggested Apple is racing to improve Siri with generative AI features.

What kind of future this all might lead us to, however, remains to be seen. As Mollick put it: "I don't think anyone, including OpenAI, has a full sense of all of the implications of this shift, and what it will mean for all of us."

Axel Springer, Business Insider's parent company, has a global deal to allow OpenAI to train its models on its media brands' reporting.

Watch: What is ChatGPT, and should we be afraid of AI chatbots?

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