Course teacher(s)
Luca Paolo MERLINO (Coordinator), Bram DE ROCK and Philip VERWIMPECTS credits
5
Language(s) of instruction
english
Course content
Objectives (and/or specific learning outcomes)
- Being exposed in depth to state‑of‑the‑art academic literature in economics.
- Critically read, assess, and discuss recent research papers.
- Gain awareness of research expertise and ongoing work at Solvay Brussels School and Economics and Management.
- Interact with Belgian PhD students and learn about the school's research network.
Prerequisites and Corequisites
Required and Corequired knowledge and skills
Core competencies in advances microeconomics, macroeconomics, statistics, mathematics and econometrics.
Teaching methods and learning activities
The course is organized along four core components:
- ULB-ECORES PhD Lecture Series
- Mandatory attendance to two ULB-hosted lecture series (6–8 hours each).
- These lectures are part of the ECORES PhD lecture framework taking place at Solvay Brussels School and Economics and Management (ULB), CORE (UCL) and the Department of Economics of KULeuven.
- Additional ECORES lecture series (UC Louvain or KU Leuven)
- Attendance of at least one ECORES lecture series offered at UC Louvain or KU Leuven (6–8 hours each). Students are strongly encouraged to take advantage of this opportunity and attend more than one lecture series.
- Expert Lecture Series
- A focused lecture series (6–8 hours) delivered by a researcher affiliated with Solvay Brussels School and Economics and Management
- Oral presentations and discussion of frontier papers in Economics.
References, bibliography, and recommended reading
Given in each of the lectures.
Contribution to the teaching profile
This course contributes to the development of PhD students' core research competences by exposing them to state-of-the-art academic work across multiple fields of economics and by embedding them in our school's research network. Through mandatory lecture series and the associated presentation and discussion requirements, students strengthen their ability to critically read, assess, and communicate research, to engage constructively with peers' work as discussants, and to situate their own research interests within the broader academic community. As such, the course supports the program's objectives of fostering independent research skills, academic rigor, and integration into the professional research environment.
Other information
Contacts
Luca.paolo.merlino@ulb.be
Bram.de.rock@ulb.be
Campus
Outside campus ULB, Solbosch
Evaluation
Method(s) of evaluation
- Personal work
- Oral presentation
- Written report
Personal work
Oral presentation
Written report
Attendance of the lectures and oral presentation.
Mark calculation method (including weighting of intermediary marks)
50% participation in the lectures and/or reports on them, 50% oral presentation
Language(s) of evaluation
- english