"Having the Barcelona GSE Master's on your CV sends an important message to potential employers."
Carola Ebert '16
Manager, BearingPoint (Frankfurt)
Carola Ebert '16
Manager, BearingPoint (Frankfurt)
Program Director
Scientific Director
While a thorough understanding of aggregate economy dynamics is necessary for success, it is not entirely sufficient. Organizations must also be knowledgeable of the many sources of aggregate risk and uncertainty, and must rely on the analytical tools available to study the aggregate economy.
Financial and consulting firms increasingly utilize complex economic theories. Students will not only learn how to use these modeling and statistical techniques, but will conduct an independent master's project to learn how to apply these new skills to real empirical work.
A closing conference will be held as an interactive forum between the academic and professional worlds. The presentation and discussion of students' applied work will be combined with expert talks covering both institutional topics as well as the presentation of original academic research.
This program covers economic models such as the dynamic stochastic general equilibrium (DSGE), vector autoregression (VAR), and autoregressive conditional heteroskedasticity (ARCH). Our graduates are prepared with an expert grasp of aggregate economy and financial function fundamentals, able to build macroeconomic and market forecasts - skills that consulting firms, investment banks, and government agencies are all in need of.
Given the applied, quantitative nature of this program, students will need to furnish their own laptop computer.
By the end of the program, students must complete 60 ECTS (a total of 6 mandatory courses and 9 elective courses)
A master project, which will be supervised in regular meetings with an advisor, will allow each student to put their knowledge into practice and improve their writing and exposition skills.
A limited number of places will be available to practitioners who would like to enroll in specific courses.
The course offer displayed is for next year's edition (2021-22). Course offer is subject to change.
Course list for current students (2020-21)
The master project is a required component of all Barcelona GSE Master's programs. Working individually or in groups, students use the tools and knowledge they've acquired during the entire year to explore a topic of their choice. A professor supervises throughout the project.
Examples of master projects from recent Macroeconomic Policy and Financial Markets cohorts
Select a project to view a summary on the Barcelona GSE Voice, our student and alumni blog:
The Macro Program brings leading practitioners to campus to speak exclusively to Barcelona GSE students. Speakers include:
Rafael Domènech
Head of Macroeconomic Analysis, BBVA Research
Rafael Doménech is Head of Macroeconomic Analysis of BBVA Research and Professor of Economics at the University of Valencia. He holds an MSc in Economics from the London School of Economics. He was Director General at the Economic Bureau of the Spanish Prime Minister (2007-8). He was also appointed by the Spanish Government as a member of the Expert Committee on the Sustainability Factor of the Public Pension System. He has published numerous articles in well-known international scientific journals on economic growth, human capital, business cycles, and fiscal and monetary policies. His most recent book on the Spanish economy, titled En Busca de la Prosperidad, was jointly written with Javier Andrés.
Atanas Kolev
Senior Economist, European Investment Bank
Atanas Kolev is a Senior Economist at the Economics Department of the EIB. He joined the EIB in 2005 and over the years has worked on a wide range of topics related to investment and investment financing at the firm-, sector- and economy-wide level. He has been an organizer and contributor to the annual economics conference of the EIB on topics such as investment in the energy sector, in adaptation to climate change, public investment and infrastructure investment. Over the past two years, he has been economic editor of the EIB’s Economics department flagship publication on investment and investment finance. He holds a PhD in Economics from Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona.
Apurva Sanghi
Lead Economist for the Russian Federation, The World Bank
Apurva Sanghi is Acting Country Director for the Russian Federation (since August 2019), and Lead Economist for the Russian Federation, based in Moscow. Prior to that, he was based in Nairobi, Kenya as the Lead Economist for Kenya, Rwanda, Uganda and Eritrea. Before Kenya, Apurva was based in Washington DC where he led the Economic Growth Cluster of the World Bank’s Poverty Reduction and Economic Management Department. He is a selective commentator on economic issues with views expressed in the pages of major international media outlets such as the Financial Times; the Economist; Project Syndicate, and popular blog sites such as the World Bank’s and Brookings. Apurva holds college degrees in physics and economics from the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) and a PhD from the University of Chicago, where his core training was in growth and macroeconomics.
Upon successful completion of the Barcelona GSE Macroeconomic Policy and Financial Markets Program, students will receive a Master's Degree in Specialized Economics Analysis awarded jointly with Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (UAB) and Universitat Pompeu Fabra (UPF).
All Barcelona GSE Master's degrees have been recognized by the Catalan and Spanish Education authorities within the framework of the Bologna Process (in Spanish, “Master Universitario o Master Oficial”).
Examples of recent placements:
Macro Student Profile 2020-21
19 students from 12 countries (68% international)
Most represented countries in this year's Macro cohort:
One student each from China, Colombia, France, Iceland, Italy, Malaysia, Mexico, Peru, Poland, Romania
Most common academic backgrounds:
Macro alumni career paths
An overview of Macro career paths for recent cohorts
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