phd economics ntu

• Supervisor(s)
• Asst Prof Ru Hong
• Prof Chang Xin
• Bachelor of Science (Information & Computing Science), Xi'an Jiao Tong University, China
• Apr 2014 - Jul 2014 Research Assistant, University of Science & Technology of China

How to Apply for the U.S. Ph.D. Programs in Economics

We are pleased to announce that Dr. Anastasia Zervou, the academic placement director for the Masters of Arts (MA) program in Economics at the University of Texas at Austin, will give us a talk on March 15 (Wednesday) from 4:00 to 6:00 pm at room 609 about the application for the Ph.D. programs in Economics in the US.  Since January 2017, Dr. Zervou has worked with MA students at UT individually, identifying the main barrier(s) to Ph.D. admission in their current profile and suggesting practical and achievable improvements that enhance their skills and application prospects. Since 2018, nearly 100 students at UT have been placed in the Econ Ph.D. programs in the US. Details please see https://ma.eco.utexas.edu/placement/phd/ See the following link for more information about Dr. Zervou. <  https://sites.google.com/site/anastasiazervoupage/mentoring > Who: Dr. Anastasia Zervou Where: Room 609 When: March 15 (Wednesday) Time: 4:00 to 6:00 pm Chairperson: Dr. Jui-Chung (Ray) Yang

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What Material to Read from First Year Undergrad to PhD Candidate?

This is a bit of an odd post, but I have a nephew who is looking to pursue economics as an academic discipline and develop a pathway to earning a doctorate.

He has this idea of creating a "roadmap" of textbooks/journals to learn from, taking him from an introductory understanding to a highly advanced state. He has yet to have a particular area of focus in mind but understands math will be a core component.

What would be your suggested/ideal list of books you would recommend to someone like this? This is purely opinionated, and I hope to offer him suggestions from people who have "been there, done that."

Some general intro books to macro and micro would be suitable, along with calculus and linear algebra. Past that, I have no idea.

If you have recommendations on how to go from being interested in the subject to really understanding it, I'd be excited to pass them along to him.

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Nottingham Business School

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Department of Economics

The Department of Economics at Nottingham Business School offers a distinctive range of courses, applicable research and opportunities to engage in collaborative activities with a wide variety of organisations. It consists of a large international team of scholars and practitioners from diverse backgrounds in industry, professional practice and academia.

Meet the team

Alan collins, head of department, robert ackrill, thorsten chmura, our courses.

Both our undergraduate and postgraduate courses offer students a challenging and vibrant environment to gain an in-depth understanding of economic concepts, principles and techniques.

As a department, we can draw upon the expertise of the Economic Strategy Research Bureau (ESRB). This is uniquely placed to combine proven practitioner expertise with academic excellence. ESRB members contribute directly to our undergraduate and postgraduate portfolio at all levels, enabling our graduates to obtain an economic toolkit that is attractive to potential employers.

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The centre brings together research on economic and policy issues and public management across the whole public sector at international, national, regional and local scales.

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The research within the Centre explores the ways in which leadership and HR practices influence employees’ attitudes and behaviours at work.

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Founded in 2015 with the goal of supporting income generation, publication and business impact within the business school and across disciplines at NTU.

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Bringing together academia and practice in the areas of digital innovation; innovation, organization and strategy; operations and supply chain management; and entrepreneurship and small business management.

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Providing innovative, interdisciplinary studies focusing on the spatial dimensions of contemporary work and employment in sectors such as hand car washes, nail bars, and small-scale garment manufacturing.

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NANYANG EXECUTIVE MBA

Evolving in the face of change.

Even with 20-plus years of experience in the semiconductor industry, NTU alumnus Loon Keong Lew felt there was still much room to grow and learn.

After decades overseeing quality control at the world-leading memory manufacturer Micron, he’s taking on an expanded role as Senior Director for Global Quality at Micron Technology, leading quality improvements in the manufacturing environment.

Nonetheless, Loon Keong felt he needed to fill a few knowledge gaps and expand his understanding of other factors that affect the semiconductor business. This includes mastery of the financial impact on the supply chain and the dynamic nature of artificial intelligence, amongst many different things.

“I thought my business acumen was something I should continue to develop,” he tells us.

Beyond on-the-job learning, Loon Keong felt he needed a more structured learning environment governed by a comprehensive curriculum. He decided the Nanyang Executive MBA (EMBA) programme was the right fit.

Invaluable lessons beyond the classroom

The programme’s innovative and interdisciplinary curriculum and the institution’s exceptional standing in global university rankings year after year, made it an obvious choice for Loon Keong. Nanyang Business School is a premier business school within Nanyang Technological University, which ranks 15th globally in the 2025 Quacquarelli Symonds (QS) World University Rankings.

The Nanyang EMBA’s overseas segments also played a part in sealing the decision. Nanyang EMBA participants spend a few weeks learning at the University of California Berkeley (UC Berkeley), USA, and Tsinghua University School of Economics and Management (Tsinghua), China.

Through these segments, EMBA participants gain direct access to the professors, insights and learning environments of two leading universities in both East and West. “We get to listen and interact with business leaders in the US and China,” Loon Keong explains. “We’re able to understand their perspectives, giving us real-world insights about the current business climate.”

In the Tsinghua segment, Loon Keong was exposed to China’s innovative business ecosystem. Nanyang EMBA participants studied the interrelationships between the government and private sectors and explored how Chinese government decisions have impacted major international business decisions.

“I can appreciate the thinking process behind government actions,” Loon Keong shares. “That actually helped me react and explain those decisions to my team.”

Loon Keong shares. “That actually helped me react and explain those decisions to my team.”

Reshaping leadership approaches

At UC Berkeley, Loon Keong participated in a leadership accelerator module giving him “a better understanding of why my leadership style is the way it is, and what I can change to be a better leader,” Loon Keong explained.

Loon Keong’s previous leadership style reflected a traditional Asian tendency to avoid conflict and shy away from confrontation. At the leadership accelerator, he learned that a bit of conflict was necessary to spark innovation within his team. “That was an ‘aha’ moment for me,” he says.

Both segments “definitely gave me very real-world insights about the current business climate,” Loon Keong says, a particularly valuable takeaway given his industry’s VUCA (volatility, uncertainty, complexity, and ambiguity) business environment.

“The semiconductor business is very fast-paced, dynamic, and even unpredictable,” he explains, using the example of generative AI. “Two years ago, nobody even thought about that,” he recalls. “Suddenly, this trend starts picking up and affecting everyone, including my company! As a leader, how do we prepare our workforce for it?”

Thinking outside his department

Three modules in the Nanyang EMBA stood out the most to Loon Keong due to their relevance to his career: Knowledge and Technology Management, led by Prof. Vijay Sethi ; Cultural Intelligence, taught by Prof. Ng Kok-Yee , and Talent Management, led by Prof. Olexander Chernyshenko .

“Knowledge and Technology Management taught us what kind of business logic we should apply based on different situations,” he explains. “Cultural Intelligence prepared me to navigate through different cultural situations, while Talent Management changed my perspective on internships and showed me how it’s one way to build up human capital quickly.

“Cultural Intelligence prepared me to navigate different cultural situations, while Talent Management changed my perspective on internships and showed me how it’s one way to build up human capital quickly.”

Modules like these have helped Loon Keong to think beyond his forte in quality control and study other angles, including the industry’s supply chain and financial aspects. As a Senior Director, he acknowledges how important it is to consider different points of view on board, not just his own.

“By being able to appreciate their pain points and all these things, I’m able to provide a better solution to address the needs from all sides,” he asserts.

Learn, unlearn and relearn

In the ever-changing semiconductor industry, professionals must be committed to upgrading their skills to move with the times. Loon Keong has been leading the charge for upskilling at Micron and taking it further by encouraging colleagues and direct reports to consider joining the Nanyang EMBA programme.

“After the EMBA, I was able to share the things that I learned, which I find very useful,” he says. “I think that prompted them to consider taking up the EMBA as well.”

As an added incentive, Loon Keong tells them about Micron’s Advanced Education Program for upskilling, which underscores the company’s commitment to providing opportunities for higher learning and continuous employee development. Through such arrangements, employees can worry less about the financial aspects and focus more on the Nanyang EMBA experience.

When asked what advice he offers colleagues who wish to follow in his footsteps, Loon Keong emphasizes how the Nanyang EMBA is about challenging one’s assumptions.

About the Nanyang Executive MBA 

The Nanyang EMBA has allowed working executives to gain the insights, skills and knowledge they need to stay agile and relevant in this fast-paced business climate.

This 13-month part-time programme serves more senior executives looking for more flexibility in terms of schedule, with the option to stretch the programme duration to two years to meet work demands.

To learn more about the programme and the funding options available, visit our website or download the brochure to find out more. ###

Download the Nanyang Executive MBA brochure

Click here to learn more about the Nanyang Executive MBA programme or contact us at [email protected] .

Nanyang Executive MBA

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A/p suzanne choo & phd students present their research at the association for research in l1 education (arle) and international federation for the teaching of english (ifte) conference.

A/P Suzanne Choo delivered a keynote presentation titled “Interpretive Justice in a Post-truth Age: A New Impetus for Cosmopolitan Literacy” at the Association for Research in L1 Education (ARLE) and International Federation for the Teaching of English (IFTE) conference hosted by the University of Melbourne in June 2024. A/P Choo's keynote address discussed the importance of interpretive justice given that questions about fairness, equity, and other notions of justice arise first from interpretations of communities and sociopolitical contexts. She discussed the importance of being aware about different paradigms of justice by comparing critical, post-structuralist traditions with virtue-oriented perspectives. The presentation was developed from a recent paper “ Hermeneutical justice as the foundation of cosmopolitan literacy in a post-truth age ” that she published earlier this year in the Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy.

ELL’s PhD students, Ow Yeong Wai Kit and Dominic Nah also delivered the following presentations at the conference: 

ELL PhD student, Ow Yeong Wai Kit delivered a presentation titled "Learning by Heart in L1 Pedagogy: Envisionment-Building through Memorisation and Recitation of Poetry in English in Singapore". Synopsis of his paper presentation: Learning poetry by heart—historically criticised as rote learning—has the potential to enrich individuals' lives. This study examines the 2023 National Poetry Recitation Competition in Singapore, demonstrating how poetry memorisation can support envisionment-building by promoting the joy of learning and fostering deeper engagement and passion for English/Literature, while championing student agency and choice.

ELL PhD student, Dominic Nah delivered a presentation titled “Towards a Dialogic Ethical Criticism: A Framework for Examining Student Responses to Referent Others in Literature Classroom Interactions of Ethical Meaning-making”. While other-oriented Literature pedagogies sensitise students to inclusivity and injustice, teachers remain concerned about managing student resistance, discomfort and safety. Dominic proposed an ethical-hermeneutical framework of Dialogic Ethical Criticism to help educators map the range of student responses, and what opens and closes ethically sensitive discussions in the Literature classroom.

Dominic also delivered a presentation titled “Scribbles & murmurs: Collaborating on/in the margins of qualitative method & the student experience of ethically challenging literature” with Allayne Horton (University of Melbourne, Australia). In this collaborative paper, they argued that new approaches are needed to attune to the personal and peripheral moments in classrooms, murky and troublesome they may be, they provoke difficult ethical and methodological questions. 

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Join our team! Apply now for Assistant/Associate Professor, English Language and Literacy Education (Primary level/Young learners) in the ELL Department

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• Masters Programme
• PhD Programme
• Publications

PhD programme on Innovation, Economics, Governance and Sustainable Development (IEGSD)

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Introduction

Our PhD programme on Innovation, Governance and Sustainable Development (IEGSD) offers high-quality education, training and supervision to our PhD candidates, leading to a doctoral degree from  Maastricht University .

Through our disciplinary and multidisciplinary research, our ambition is to contribute to the academic debate and to societal policy and innovation solutions at all stages of the policy process: from the policy agenda setting to the delivery and evaluation of public policy.

In meeting these aims, we ensure that our research maintains the highest standards of academic and scientific excellence and rigour, while remaining policy relevant.

The PhD programme is part of the  UNU-MERIT Graduate School  and hosts over 100 PhD fellows working on a doctoral dissertation within the core disciplines of UNU-MERIT:

The Economics of Innovation  

Topics of interest include: 

• The process of technological change and innovation
• The economics of knowledge and new technologies
• Structural change and economic development
• Economic complexity and innovation.

Public Policy and Governance  

• Development Economics
• Inequality and Social Protection
• Migration and Development

Full-time track

Typically attracting fellows as residents to Maastricht to work most of their time (0.8-1.0 FTE) on their PhD research, funded by a UNU-MERIT fellowship, an external grant or scholarship, or an employment contract.

Dual career (part-time) track

Typically attracting professionals and researchers with full- or part-time jobs that allow them to combine their careers with obtaining a PhD. They secure their own funding and work mainly on their dissertation from the country where they live and/or work and come to Maastricht at least twice a year for training and interaction with peers and supervisors.

PhD positions and programmes at UNU-MERIT

There are several types of PhD positions within UNU-MERIT, and Maastricht University more broadly, depending on the type of funding (with an employment contract from Maastricht University, through a research grant or fellowship or using other external sources of funding) and the time available for the doctoral research (full-time or part-time, in combination with work responsibilities). See also  PhD information from Maastricht University .

Salaried PhD positions at UNU-MERIT are less common, but not excluded, and are mainly recruited by way of externally funded projects. Vacancies are usually only advertised when a professor has obtained an external grant and the topic of the PhD dissertation is more or less fixed.  In coordination with the PhD programme director, these fellows can be allowed to participate in one of the PhD programmes in a flexible manner, depending on their time available for PhD research and training needs.

To accommodate the need for a large community of scholars active in the core areas of the institute and the increasingly hybrid type of PhD positions held to conduct the PhD trajectory, the UNU-MERIT PhD programme is composed of two different PhD tracks, each appealing to PhD fellow profiles with different education and supervision needs, funding alternatives and time involvement.

Applications are invited from highly motivated and talented fellows, especially from the Global South, who want to join a thriving and collaborative community of scholars focusing on pressing global challenges, including migration, climate action, digital transformation, poverty and inequality, and particularly their impact on human and economic sustainable development.

Point of contact

• For more information about our PhD programme, please contact  [email protected]

Information about modes of study

Full-Time Phd

Full-Time Phd, Full-time PhD programme

Dual Career Phd Track

Dual Career Phd Track, Dual Career PhD Programme