Our program offers two paths to allow you to acquire a profile. We offer, on the one hand, seven overlapping mentions and you can register for two of them. This way you can improve your professional profile. We also offer a new specialization in the areas of behavior, economics and evolution. This specialization is combined with biology courses at UNIL and offers you the unique opportunity to study the role played by evolution in key economic questions. This specialization will allow you to acquire an interdisciplinary mindset, often necessary to tackle today’s global challenges.
You can specialize by choosing one or two mentions from the following list:
Data Science
The Data Science and Analytics specialization is centered around leveraging computational techniques, machine learning, statistical analysis, and big data technologies to unearth valuable insights from datasets. It emphasizes acquiring both theoretical as well as hands-on skills in data mining, deep learning, natural language processing, and visualization, aimed at addressing real-world challenges. This program equips you for roles in sectors that prioritize data-driven decision-making, such as technology, finance, healthcare, and government.
Development Economics
Development economics addresses the fundamental issues of reducing poverty, improving living conditions and social equity. It aims to design effective strategies for economic and social development. It equips you with the necessary tools to make significant and lasting changes, by equipping you with analytical (understanding the mechanisms at work), technical (collection and processing of data) and practical (implementation of public interventions) skills. By exploring the dynamics between economic policies, available resources, and social impacts, this major prepares you for a career where you will contribute to solving the most pressing development problems, in international organizations, NGOs, or government agencies.
Environmental Economics
Environmental economics is at the forefront of the response to local, national and global environmental problems and as such it has become an essential part of the thinking and actions of national and regional governments, international agencies, and firms. The goal of this mention is to introduce the theory and tools necessary to address environmental problems using the economic approach. The mention has a strong focus on applied empirical analysis and pragmatic solutions to address society’s most pressing environmental issues.
Macroeconomic Policy: understanding business cycle stabilization and growth
Macroeconomic policy has two main purposes: stabilizing unemployment and inflation using policy tools such as government spending and the interest rate, and fostering growth and development through the reform of institutions. This mention provides you with state-of-the-art analytical tools, both theoretical and empirical, to design, analyze and evaluate macroeconomic policy. It will expand your carrier prospects in the area of policy-making in the public sector (central banks, governments, NGOs...) and in the private sector (consultant, securities trader...).
Microeconomic Policy: understanding markets, incentives, and human behavior
Policy-makers affect individuals’ incentives and behavior when they regulate markets or when they design a tax scheme. This alters the economic environment and potentially affects the outcome of policies. This mention provides you with the state-of-the-art analytical tools, both theoretical and empirical, to analyze how policies affect behavior, to design appropriate policies and evaluate them. This mention will expand your career prospects in the area of policy-making in the public sector (central banks, governments, NGOs...) as well as in the private sector (consultant, pricing analyst, strategy departments...).
Public Economics
Public economics emphasizes on the provision and financing of goods and services by the government sector in market economies. We study the relevance as well as the optimal response of economic agents to these interventions. In particular, we analyze cases where decentralized allocations are suboptimal and require state intervention and how incentive distortions can affect the optimality of this intervention.
Quantitative Economics: mastering models and data
Economic problems faced by firms and researchers often involve complex modeling and data. You will learn how to solve these problems by using modern statistical and modeling techniques. These techniques are introduced from a theoretical point of view, but they are also applied to actual problems. This way, you will become an accomplished quantitative economist by improving your analytical abilities and training your use of software. This mention will expand your career prospects in multiple areas (e.g., marketing, finance, insurance, policy-making...).
