Year 2

Semester 1 (1 Sep - 31 Dec 2022)

  • Independent Activities Period (1 Sep - 24 Oct 2022)

Completion of a term paper under the guidance of a faculty member.

  • Course work (25 Oct - 4 Dec 2022) 

Empirical Corporate Finance 

(Andrew Ellul, Indiana and Federico II)

Financial Intermediation 

(Ettore Panetti, Federico II)

Social and Economic Networks 

(Matteo Bizzarri, Federico II)

Development Economics and Policy Evaluation 

(Michele Giannola, Federico II)


Semester 2 (1 Jan - 30 Jun 2023)

Course attendance in one of the partner universities

  • Host universities include Harvard, Indiana, Johns Hopkins, MIT, Montreal, Stanford and Yale in America, Essex and UCL in Great Britain, and Amsterdam, Bielefeld, EHESS, Essex, Frankfurt, Nova, Louvain, Mannheim, Paris 1, UPF and WU in Europe. The allocation of students across these universities will depend on their year-1 performance and research interests, as well as on approval by the host university.

By June 2023, each 2nd year student will present a "thesis proposal", including the first outline of a research paper. 

In September 2023, each 2nd year student will present his/her research paper.

In October 2023 he/she will submit a complete draft of his/her research paper.

Subject to the approval of this research paper, the student will be admitted to the thesis-writing stage of the program, from October 2023 to June 2025.


Doctoral students are expected to participate to all the weekly seminars organised by the Centre for Studies in Economics and Finance (CSEF), which is located within DISES and collaborates closely with it.