Economics serving society

Writing a thesis at PSE

PhD students are registered at the Ecole Doctorale 465; this program is very demanding and the thesis must be completed within a three year period.
Students can enroll in this Doctoral program once they have successfully completed one of the three PSE Masters programs: APE, EP or PPD. In order to enroll in the PhD program, a student must first have a staff member from the Paris School of Economics who has agreed to be their thesis supervisor. It is this future thesis supervisor who submits the student’s application. Please, note that direct applications from external candidates are not considered.

The PhD student is affiliated to PSE if he fulfills all the conditions:

  • being registered at ED465,
  • following the doctoral programme and respecting his/her annual obligations,
  • having a thesis director who is a member of PSE when the student registers for the first time,
  • working full time on his/her thesis.

This affiliation is explicited through a bilateral agreement between PSE and the PhD student.


PhD Grants

There are a number of different sources of funding for PhD students. Some of these cover the first three years of the PhD: PhD contracts (attributed by the State via the École Doctorale d’Économie (ED465)), the PhD grants of the région Ile-de-France, the specific establishment grants for students from their original research establishment (ENS, École Polytechnique etc.), grants from the Erasmus Mundus European Doctoral Programme in Economics, and grants in partnership with a firm or a private research fund (Fonds AXA pour la recherche: see http://www.axa-research.org/, and CIFRE contracts).

Other grants are of shorter duration, providing finance for a period of a few weeks or a number of months: Eiffel grants fund foreign PhD students in French research centres and the “Aires culturelles” (Cultural Area) grants of the EHESS provides part-funding for short-duration research trips which are essential for the preparation of the PhD (both of these are administered by the Foreign Ministry), Student Mobility Grants from the Île-de-France Region (AMIE-RIDF), the PED – CNRS mobility grants for foreign students, ERASMUS Doctoral Mobility Grants (especially those from the city of Paris), “Entente cordiale” grants from the British Council, CIERA Study Trip grants to German-speaking countries, and grants from the Agence Universitaire de la Francophonie (AUF).

NB: Obtaining PhD funding is a prerequisite for entry into the APE PhD programme.


After the thesis

Most new PhDs enter the academic world: 50% find a job in Higher Education (the majority of them abroad) and 10% are recruited by the French public research sector (CNRS, INRA, INRETS etc.). Around 25% of PhDs find a job in Public Administration, both in France and abroad (Ministries, National Institutions, European and International Organisations etc.), and 15% are recruited by the private sector.

> The Job Market
Starting in 2009, PSE has established a communication training programme for Job Market candidates, including mock interviews and personalised supervision in order to provide good preparation for job market interviews.

Here, you can access the list of all PSE candidates: follow this link