Strenghtening our PhD program

Jorge Ponce - Researcher (Banco Central de Uruguay)

PhD testimony

To choose a graduate school is not an easy task. Many years of your life and your entire professional career depend on that decision. By the time I made such a decision, I had got acceptation letters from several, well-known departments of Economics in the United States and Europe.

I chose Toulouse School of Economics for two reasons: academic quality and standard of life. Toulouse School of Economics offers high quality courses, which provide students with an updated treatment of Economics and all the necessary tools to have a fruitful professional life. In addition to a rigorous treatment of subjects like microeconomics, macroeconomics and econometrics, Toulouse offers tens of specialized courses (e.g., finance, industrial organization …) through its many Master degrees. Leading economists, most of them actively publishing in top journals in Economics, are part of the large faculty of the School. Moreover, Professors from other leading economic departments in the world are continuously attending seminars, workshops and conferences in Toulouse. All together makes the dissertation’s work an encouraging, challenging and enjoyable experience. But not all is study and work; you also have to live in the place you choose to make your graduate studies. Believe me, Toulouse is a very living place!

I wrote my dissertation on “the design of banking supervision institutions” in September 2009. Now I am back in my country, Uruguay, working as a researcher at Banco Central del Uruguay (the central bank), and as a Professor at Universidad de la República and Universidad de Montevideo. Here, I continue the line of research I started in Toulouse: microeconomics of banking, banking regulation and the institutional organization of banking supervision.

Paulo Cox - PhD Student (Chile)

PhD testimony

I chose TSE to pursue a PhD in economics because it assembles a numerous and reputed group of economists carrying out cutting-edge scientific research in an increasingly broader spectrum of issues that are of interest for Economics. TSE is, without doubt, among the best centers of Economic research in the world.

Of this I am aware at least since I was an under-graduated student of Economics at the Universidad de Chile, where professors of IO used works by Jean-Jacques Laffont and Jean Tirole as main textbooks when teaching this subject. These works were also cornerstones in any discussion on regulation among the staff of economic advisors at the Ministry of Economy of Chile, were I worked for about a year after obtaining my undergraduate degree in Economics. The School of Economics of Toulouse and its people -especially its founders - were also highly regarded by Senior Economists of the Banco Central of Chile, where I worked for two years before beginning my PhD studies abroad. Some of them had attended courses taught by Jean Tirole and Jean-Jacques Laffont at the MIT, and others had been classmates of some of the researchers that today are affiliated to TSE and that belonged to that leading department of economics.

On more personal grounds, I had chosen TSE for its strength in economic modelling and economic theory, which is essential to any scientific endeavour. Although I had been relatively well prepared in empirical research, I was always motivated to complement empirical findings with better understanding of the underlying forces that caused them. Thorough comprehension of what are the drivers of the phenomena we observe is a key step in our acquisition of knowledge, and the TSE is indeed an ideal place for that purpose, as it assures in great extent acquisition of good training in economic modelling, critical thought, and the selective use of analytical tools in order to analyse economic phenomena.

I am engaged in a very challenging research agenda in the sphere of Political Economy.  I am studying the effect of strategic public information manipulation by better informed agents, as found in work by Roland Bénabou and Guy Laroque in 1992, but in the context of Political Economy problems. There are 3 types of problems I am focussing on. These are monetary and fiscal policy, and the political economy of reform. Experts à la Bénabou and Laroque (1992) induce the formation of beliefs across agents that induce changes in their actions, that in turn change the equilibrium values of variables that affect the economy as a whole, such as prices or the type of elected politicians. I study the conditions under which this manipulation is likelier to take place, and to what extent it can persist and generate cycles in the economy. I also apply my research to the study of the role of the media industry in public affairs.