The Center for Economic Policy seeks to educate students and wider audiences about economic policy and markets, providing students with training in economic tools to analyze the regulatory and legal framework in which markets operate. Markets and government policies regulating them have always been central to economic growth, social welfare, and civil society, with policy decisions and legal frameworks inextricably tied to economic outcomes.

Whether it is the government debt consolidation undertaken by the South Sea Company (and Bank of England) in the early 1700s or the rise in mortgage debt and the 2008 financial crisis, financial markets and their functioning are inextricably linked with both household behavior and larger economic outcomes and policy decisions. The core Certificate courses teach basic finance tools necessary for understanding financial instruments and markets. Electives provide a broader range of topics related to household finance, international finance, and banking.

Learning Outcomes

Harris students earning the certificate often go into either the government financial sector (state & local government or central banking) or the private financial sector. Both place a high premium on the following skills and attributes:

• Subject-area or field knowledge: Knowledge and familiarity with financial markets, financial instruments, and finance theory

• Analytical and quantitative skills: Data analytics, statistics, programming

• Practical application of the knowledge and skills to real-world situations

This certificate teaches the field knowledge but also builds on the substantive analytic training that all Harris students acquire in their core statistics and economics courses, while trying to focus on the practical applications.

Application Process

The certificate is open to any University of Chicago graduate student. Harris students please indicate your intent to pursue this certificate using the Harris Certificate Application Form. If you are a non-Harris student and intend to complete the requirements for the Finance and Policy certificate please submit the Harris Certificate Application for Non-Harris Students to indicate you are pursuing this certificate.

For certificate registration questions, please reach out to harrisregistration@uchicago.edu.

Planning for the Certificate

For information on which quarter(s) each course will be offered see the Harris Courses page and filter by certificate. For courses offered by other divisions the typical quarter the class will be offered will vary. 

Certificate Requirements

The certificate requires completion of two required courses, along with one additional elective course. Students must achieve at least a B- grade in each course with the exception of the last term prior to graduation. No certificate course may be taken on a pass/fail grading basis. Students should complete the formal signup process to indicate their intention to pursue the certificate.

Required course

Students must complete one of the following courses to fulfill the requirement:

• PPHA 42510 Applied Financial Management 
• BUSN 35000 Investments
• BUSN 35001 Introductory Finance (may be counted only once toward a requirement)
• PPHA 36101 Financial Investments for Public Policy (not offered in 2022-2023) 

Required course

Students must complete one of the following courses to fulfill the requirement:

• PPHA 34410 Corporate Finance 
• BUSN 35200 Corporate Finance 
• BUSN 35001 Introductory Finance (may be counted only once toward a requirement) 

Elective courses

Students must complete one of the following courses to fulfill the requirement:

• PPHA 34241 Household Finance: Theory and Applications
• PPHA 34500 Macroeconomics for Public Policy or BUS 33040 Macroeconomics
• PPHA 35310 International Trade, Banking and Capital Markets
• PPHA 36150 Environmental, Social, Corporate Governance, and Impact Investing
• PPHA 39404 Practicum on Inequality, Household Finance, and Tax Policy
• PPHA 39530 Macroeconomic Policymaking
• PPHA 42521 History of Financial Crises
• PPHA 42550: Cryptocurrencies, DeFi and the Blockchain: Markets, Regulation and Policy
• PPHA 60000 Policy Lab (with permission of the Certificate Director)
• BUSN 30131 Advanced Financial Analysis and Valuation of Global Firms 
• BUSN 33502 International Financial Policy 
• BUSN 35210 International Corporate Finance
• FINM 32600 Computing for Finance in C++ (Autumn)
• Not offered in 2022-2023
  • PPHA 42535 Bank Regulation and Management
  • PPHA 42540 Fiscal and Monetary Policy in the 21st Century

Recommended Co-Curricular Activity

• Students are recommended to attend two events in the “Harris Speakers on Economic Policy and Markets” or “History of Chicago Economics” speaker series during their second year.

Certificate Contact

Thomas Coleman, Certificate Director