Job Placement for Graduate Students

The market for economists remains strong: universities, colleges, business firms, international organizations, and government agencies have numerous openings, and graduates of high-quality PhD programs have no difficulty in finding rewarding positions that pay well.

The Pitt Department of Economics assists its PhD candidates in finding appropriate positions by circulating its candidates' credentials to well over a thousand employers of PhD-level economists, by advising students at every step of the job hunting process (i.e., application procedures, interviews, presentation of research seminars, negotiations, and decisions), and by urging particular employers to consider qualified Pitt students. Each year an established member of the senior faculty serves as a graduate placement officer to coordinate the process and help all students. Furthermore, individual faculty members in the student's field (including the primary dissertation advisor) tend to offer extensive personal help.

During recent years, Pitt students have accepted academic positions at Aarhus University, Carnegie-Mellon University, McGill University, Queens University, University of Michigan and University of Minnesota, University of Toronto among others. Nonacademic positions have been accepted at the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, the International Trade Commission, the International Monetary Fund, and the World Bank. Many foreign students return to their native countries and take important public, private, and university positions.

Below is a listing of recent PhD graduates and their respective first positions.

2007 - 2008

Ana Espínola-Arredondo
Primary Fields: Environmental Economics, Game Theory and IO
Dissertation/Job-Market Paper Title: "Free-riding and cooperation in environmental games"
Advisor: Andreas Blume
First Position: School of Economic Sciences, Washington State University

Dharmarajan Hariharan
Primary Fields: Applied Econometrics, Numerical Methods, Computational Economics
Dissertation/Job-Market Paper Title: "An Efficient Approach for Analyzing State-Space Representations"
Advisor: David N. DeJong and Jean-François Richard
First Position: Bates White, Washington, DC

Helen Lafferty
Primary Fields: Experimental Economics, Microeconomics, Auction Theory
Dissertation/Job-Market Paper Title: "Does the English Auction Near Efficiency with Uncertain Valuation Functions? An Experimental Analysis"
Advisor: Andreas Blume
First Position: Economic Analysis Group, US Department of Justice

Félix Muñoz-García
Primary Fields: Microeconomic Theory, Game Theory, Behavioral Economics and Public Economics
Dissertation/Job-Market Paper Title: "The importance of Foregone Options: generalizing social comparisons in sequential-move games"
Advisor: John Duffy
First Position: School of Economic Sciences, Washington State University

Nabanita Nandi
Primary Fields: Economic Growth, Development Economics, Applied Econometrics
Dissertation/Job-Market Paper Title: "An Investigation of the Contingent Relationship between Financial Development and Income Inequality"
Advisor: David N. DeJong and Marla Ripoll
First Position: Department of Economics and Finance, School of Business and Economics at SUNY-Plattsburgh

Katherine J. Wick
Primary Fields: Experimental Economics, Public Finance, Applied Microeconomics
Dissertation/Job-Market Paper Title: "Public vs. Private Provision: An Experimental Investigation"
Advisor: John Duffy
First Position: Allegheny College, Meadville, PA

Huan Xie
Primary Fields: Microeconomic Theory, Experimental Economics, Public Finance
Dissertation/Job-Market Paper Title: "Bargaining with Uncertain Value Distributions"
Advisor: Andreas Blume and Lise Vesterlund
First Position: Department of Economics, Concordia University

2006 - 2007

Martin Burda
Primary Fields: Econometrics (theoretical and applied), Executive Compensation
Dissertation/Job-Market Paper Title: "Sieve-based Empirical Likelihood under Semiparametric Conditional Moment Restrictions"
Advisor: Mehmet Caner
First Position: Department of Economics, University of Toronto

Yong-Ju Lee
Primary Fields: Networks, Game Theory, Microeconomic Theory, Industrial Organization
Dissertation/Job-Market Paper Title: "Decentralized Information Sharing in Oligopoly"
Advisor: John Duffy
First Position: Samsung Research Institute of Finance

Yong Sui
Primary Fields: Auction Theory, Game Theory, Microeconomics, Industrial Organization, Experimental Economics
Dissertation/Job-Market Paper Title: "Decentralized Information Sharing in Oligopoly"
Advisor: Andreas Blume
First Position: Department of Economics, Shanghai Jiao Tong University

Yang Zhao
Primary Fields: Macroeconomics, Monetary Theory, Growth and Development, Chinese Economy
Dissertation/Job-Market Paper Title: "Decentralized Information Sharing in Oligopoly"
Advisor: Ted Temzelides
First Position: Department of Economics, Xiamen University

2005 - 2006

Ying Fang
Primary Fields: Econometrics, Applied Econometrics, Applied Microeconomics
Dissertation/Job-Market Paper Title: "Estimation and Inference with Weak Instruments and Near Exogeneity"
Advisor: Mehmet Caner
First Position: Department of Economics, Xiamen University

Wayne-Roy Gayle
Primary Fields: Micro-Econometrics, Applied Microeconomics, Labor Economics
Dissertation/Job-Market Paper Title: "Contributions to Structural Modeling and Estimation"
Advisor: Jean-Francois Richard
First Position: Department of Economics, University of Virginia

Cagri Seda Kumru
Primary Fields: Public Economics, Behavioral Economics, Experimental Economics
Dissertation/Job-Market Paper Title: "Essays on Behavioral Public Economics and Microeconomic Theory"
Advisor: Lise Vesterlund
First Position: Department of Economics, Celal Bayar University

Virginie Masson
Primary Fields: Evolutionary Game Theory, Game Theory, Networks, Experimental Economics
Dissertation/Job-Market Paper Title: "The Evolution of Coordination Problems in an Asymmetric Environment"
Advisor: Alexander Matros
First Position: School of Economics, University of Adelaide

Yadviga Semikolenova
Primary Fields: Applied Microeconomics, Industry Studies, Economics of Information, Energy Economics, Post-Socialist Transition, Development, Policy Analysis
Dissertation/Job-Market Paper Title: "Ownership, Privatization and Investment Fads: Theory and Evidence from Russia and the Caspian Region"
Advisor: Daniel Berkowitz
First Position: Division of Economics and Business at the Colorado School of Mines

Hadi Yektas
Primary Fields: Auction Theory, Game Theory, Microeconomic Theory, Industrial
Dissertation/Job-Market Paper Title: "Essays on Auction Theory"
Advisor: Andreas Blume
First Position: Department of Economics, University of Guelf

2003 - 2004

Chetan Dave
Primary Fields: Macroeconomics, Experimental Economics
Dissertation/Job-Market Paper Title: "Expectations Formation and Capacity Utilization: Empirical Analyses"
Advisor: David N. DeJong
First Position: Virginia Tech (Visiting)

Wei-Li Ding
Primary Fields: Economics of Education, Public Economics, Applied Microeconomics, Chinese Economy
Dissertation/Job-Market Paper Title: "Three Essays in the Economics of Education"
Advisor: Dennis Epple, Thomas Rawski
First Position: Queen’s University (tenure track)

Li Qi
Primary Fields: Microeconomics, Financial Economics, Experimental Economics, Asian Economies and Transitional Economies, Development & Comparative Economics
Dissertation/Job-Market Paper Title: "Three Essays on China’s Emerging Capital Markets"
Advisor: Thomas Rawski
First Position: Columbia University, East Asian Studies (Post-doc)

Baozhi Qu
Primary Fields: Financial Economics, Corporate Governance and Finance, Development Economics
Dissertation/Job-Market Paper Title: "Tunneling, Investor Protection, and Ownership Concentration"
Advisor: : Daniel Berkowitz
First Position: Dept of Economics and Finance, City University of Hong Kong (tenure track)

Ayla Yilmaz
Primary Fields: Macroeconomics, Economics of Distribution, Computational Economics, Education and Human Capital, Public Economics, Technological Change, International Economics
Dissertation/Job-Market Paper Title: "Three Essays on Distribution on Earnings, Income, and Wealth"
Advisor: John Duffy
First Position: Department of Economics, Indiana University-Purdue University (visiting)

2002 - 2003

George-Levi Gayle
Primary Field: Microeconometrics
Dissertation/Job-Market Paper Title: "Essays in Structural Econometrics"
Advisor: Jean-Francois Richard
First Position: Carnegie-Mellon University

Kristin Kleinjans
Primary Field: Applied Microeconomics
Dissertation/Job-Market Paper Title: "Social Security Reform and Pension Choice: The Case of Colombia"
Advisor: Carmelo Mesa-Lago
First Position: Rand Post-Doc, then University of Aarhus

2001-2002

Claudia Landeo
Primary Field: Applied Microeconomics
Dissertation/Job-Market Paper Title: "Three Essays on Bargaining Institutions in Labor and Legal Settings"
Advisor: John Duffy
First Position: University of Alberta

Vasiliki Skreta
Primary Field: Mechanism Design
Dissertation/Job-Market Paper Title: "Essays in Mechanism and Market Design"
Advisor: Phil Reny
First Position: University of Minnesota

2000-2001

Anthony Dukes
Primary Field: Industrial Organization
Dissertation/Job-Market Paper Title: "The Economics of Advertising with Inclusion of Media"
Advisor: Esther Gal-Or
First Position: Carnegie Mellon University (Post-Doc), now at Aarhus University

Tatiana Kornienko
Primary Field: Micro/Macro Theory
Dissertation/Job-Market Paper Title: "Macroeconomic Foundations of Microeconomics: Concern for Status"
Advisor: John Duffy
First Position: University of Manitoba, now at University of Stirling

Steven Lehrer
Primary Field: Applied Microeconometrics
Dissertation/Job-Market Paper Title: "Three Essays in Applied Microeconometrics"
Advisor: John Kagel
First Position: Wharton Business School (U. of Penn., Post-Doc), now at Queen's University

Wei Xiao
Primary Field: Macroeconomics
Dissertation/Job-Market Paper Title: "Indeterminacy in International General-Equilibrium Models"
Advisor: Dean Corbae
First Position: University of New Orleans