This creates an environment which is especially conducive to close integration between the various management studies and economics. GSIA has long played a pioneering role in the application of new ideas and techniques in economics to financial problems. The curriculum in financial economics reflects the close relationship between finance and economics. Students take most of the core economic courses, such as microeconomics, general equilibrium theory, econometrics, dynamic competitive analysis, and contract theory. In addition, they typically elect courses from the mathematics and statistics departments and take the doctoral seminars in finance.
Students take exams at the end of the first year and at the end of the third semester.
The first exam covers microeconomics, general equilibrium theory, dynamic competitive analysis and econometrics. The second exam covers game theory, contract theory and finance. The faculty reviews each student's progress and performance in the program at the end of the third semester. Students are also required to write a summer paper in each of their first two years of the program. The purpose of the summer papers is to give students the opportunity to conduct original research on their own.