Education on Economics
Our economics degree gives you an understanding of how the economy works and answers questions such as how the government and the Riksbank conduct economic policy and the consequences of their decisions. Or how companies make strategic decisions about products and prices.
Studies in economics provide you with theoretical and empirical tools to analyse and investigate important and interesting social issues. Economics can be studied as the main subject in a degree, as a minor part of a program or as a single stand-alone course.
Economics is a traditional academic and theoretical subject and as an economist you are a social scientist with extensive analytical and investigative skills. The job market for those with an advanced degree in economics is usually good. The Economics Unit offers a program that aims to prepare students for qualified analytical work as social scientists. Based on the decisions of individuals, companies and politicians, economists analyse and investigate a wide range of national and international social issues.
Some examples of economics areas typical of the unit are climate and environmental issues, society's use of natural resources, energy supply and competition issues. Other issues such as poverty, aid policy, income distribution, the role and tasks of the public sector and financial markets are also of interest to our students. Macroeconomic issues such as growth, unemployment, inflation and economic policy are also areas in which our students have good analytical skills.
Economists have a broad field of work and can be found in the private sector, government offices, government agencies, municipalities and county councils, industry and employee organizations and in international organizations.
Research Programme
The Economics Unit has a PhD programme which leads to a PhD degree after four years full time study. The research focus of the economics group is in natural resource, environmental and energy economics, and PhD students normally write their theses within one or several of these fields.
The aim of the PhD programme is to give research students a deeper understanding of the field of economics, a thorough training in research methodology and a good insight into the problems that arise in research and its empirical applications. Students who have completed their doctorates should be critical and independent researchers with the ability to plan and complete a research project.
The programme consists of a total of 240 credits (60 credits per year) of which 105 credits are taken as courses and 135 credits consist of a thesis.
A total of 60 course credits must be in core subjects which includes microeconomic theory, macroeconomic theory, econometrics, and mathematical economics. The remaining course credits are in thesis-specific courses given by the Luleå University of Technology or other universities.
Some advanced courses completed in a two-year masters’ programme can be credited in the PhD degree, after a supplementary examination or research oriented assignment.
All courses in the Graduate Program are given in English.
The thesis
The research focus of the economics group is in natural resource, environmental and energy economics, and PhD students normally write their theses within one or several of these fields. The PhD thesis is usually written as a collection of separate papers together with an introduction. These papers should either have been published in a refereed international journal, or they should have a format and quality that makes them publishable in such a forum. The thesis usually consists of three papers if they are all single-authored, while the number increases if more than one paper is co-authored. At least one paper must be single-authored. All theses are publicly discussed and defended.
Requirements for admission
In order to be accepted to the PhD program students must either have completed a Masters’ degree, or have completed 240 credits of studies, of which at least 60 credits are at the advanced level. In either case, students must have at least 90 credits in economics of which at least 15 credits must be independent thesis work.
Financial support
Tuition is free of charge. The Economics Unit provides financial support by way of appointment as a graduate student (doktorandanställning). Students are in general expected to participate in departmental work (e.g. teaching) for up to 20% of the time from the second year of studies and onwards.
Master's degree courses
Courses at the advanced level can be taken both as stand-alone courses and as part of a master's program. Advanced courses are largely based on the courses offered at the advanced level and students specialize in one of the research areas of the Economics Unit.
The Economics Unit offers a number of courses at advanced level, some of which build on courses at first level. The aim of the program is to provide in-depth knowledge of economic theory in the chosen field and to provide the ability to independently and critically deal with empirical material and apply a scientific method of analysis and to clearly organize and present the results of the analysis in final essays.
Advanced level studies are required to obtain a master's degree with economics as the main subject.
Basic education
The undergraduate program in economics consists of a package of core courses (1-30 credits), advanced courses (31-90 credits) and a bachelor's thesis.
The basic courses in economics aim to give the student a broad insight into economics as a subject and therefore include courses in different parts of the subject: micro theory, macro theory, applied microeconomics and applied macroeconomics. The course is taken as a whole block or individually, comprising 30 credits. All courses are given in Swedish.
At the advanced level, general courses are offered as well as courses in various specific specializations, which gives the student a good opportunity to combine courses based on their own area of interest. The course offerings are reflected in the unit's research areas, which have a clear focus on natural resource, energy and environmental economics. Courses at the advanced level are normally studied within the framework of a program or as individual courses of 7.5 credits that the student can choose. All courses are given at half speed. Courses at the advanced level are normally given in Swedish but some may be given in English.
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