Doing Your PhD in Energy and Environmental Economics at Harris

If you are considering a PhD in energy and environmental economics, or if you are a professor advising such a student, we encourage you to consider a PhD in Public Policy from the University of Chicago Harris School of Public Policy. Between the large (and still growing!) energy and environmental faculty group within Harris, related faculty in other units, and the intellectual hub provided by the Energy Policy Institute at the University of Chicago (EPIC), we believe that Harris is one of the very best places for PhD students to come study research problems at the intersection of energy and the environment, in both the developed and developing world.

The faculty group focused on energy and the environment has grown substantially in the past few years. At Harris, you will have the opportunity to take courses from and work with Fiona Burlig, Steve Cicala, Eyal Frank, Michael Greenstone, Koichiro Ito, Amir Jina, Ryan Kellogg, and Bob Rosner. We are currently on the market for yet more faculty in this area.

The total size of a Harris PhD cohort is modest—roughly 10 students per year total—so that admitted students receive a level of personal attention from faculty that is unusual for programs of this caliber. Beyond the core Harris energy faculty, students also have the opportunity to work with and learn from Harris’s deep bench of applied microeconomists and political economists, including faculty such as Oendrila Dube and Austin Wright who have studied the relationship between energy resources and conflict. Outside of Harris, our students can work with and learn from faculty in other units who work on energy and the environment, including Thom Covert, Elizabeth Moyer, Mark Templeton, and Bob Topel.

Like all Harris PhDs, students focusing on energy and the environment take a rigorous first-year course sequence on economics, econometrics, and political science. In their second year, students then take a three-quarter sequence on energy and environmental economics. This sequence is currently taught by Professors Greenstone, Kellogg, and Ito. These second-year courses are complemented by a suite of options for additional coursework in other economic subfields and in applied econometrics. Our students regularly enroll in PhD courses offered by the University of Chicago’s Kenneth C. Griffin Department of Economics.

New for 2018-2019, students will be able to apply for a traineeship program in Data Science for Energy and Environmental Research, funded by a $3 million grant from the NSF. This program is aimed at Harris PhD students who are particularly interested in learning frontier data science methods and applying these tools to interdisciplinary problems at the intersection of food, energy, water, and the environment. Harris PhD students who are admitted as trainees will receive two years of tuition and stipend support through this program. All Harris PhDs will have access to courses and workshops offered through this traineeship, which will include interdisciplinary offerings in data science and the geosciences.

Beyond formal classroom training, the rich seminar culture at Chicago offers many opportunities to see presentations of cutting-edge research. Options include the EPIC energy and environment lunch workshop, Harris public policy and economics workshop, Harris development lunch, Becker-Friedman workshop, and Booth applied economics workshop, among others. Students have opportunities to obtain feedback on their own work at both the EPIC lunch and the Harris Monday PhD workshop.

We encourage students from diverse backgrounds to apply. Our diverse faculty is a complementary resource that enables students to explore a wide range of research questions in energy and the environment. While we do expect our entering students to have a strong math background—multivariate calculus and statistical coursework are minima—do not let doubts about your technical training prevent you from applying. If we admit you, it’s because we think you’re smart enough to handle our technical PhD courses, and because we’re committed to providing the mathematical training you need.