PhD in Business Economics

The PhD in Business Economics is a new doctoral specialization that opens for applications September 1, 2026 for Fall 2027 admission. The PhD in Business Economics is designed to cultivate high-level scholars who are equipped to advance applied research at the intersection of urban/real estate economics and international economics. Over 80% of people — in Canada and globally — live in cities, but this urbanization drives complex challenges with consequences connecting city residents across space. Similarly, international trade accounts for roughly 60% of global GDP but resistance to trade and migration is one of the biggest international issues across countries. Understanding these difficult problems and evaluating potential solutions requires rigorous economic analysis paired with modern econometric methods.

This specialization will train you to address these critical, real-world issues impacting Canada and the global community. Our classes will teach you the foundational urban economic theories explaining city structure, housing supply, and real estate values and the core theories of international trade, along with modern approaches to understanding multinational firms operating in a complex global economy. Our faculty specialize in applied research and you will work and learn alongside top scholars investigating major topics in urban/real estate economics (e.g., housing affordability, construction productivity, neighborhood change, congestion, and pollution) and international economics (e.g., tariffs, international migration, supply chain resilience, currency shocks, and the effects of climate change). Moreover, the goal of the program is for students to produce new and innovative scholarship. You will start on your own research agenda from day 1 with an assigned faculty mentor helping you at each step, from refining a topic to implementing the latest empirical methods to publishing your work.

What we offer

  • Impactful applied research: You will gain the tools to do original research that directly addresses the socioeconomic forces shaping cities and global markets.
  • Expert mentorship: Work alongside leading business faculty members dedicated to helping students publish, innovate, and lead in their field.
  • A career launchpad: Over the past ten years, 92 per cent of students in our Business PhD specializations have been employed upon graduation, with 86 per cent in academia.

Length of program

This doctoral program is full-time on campus, and the expected completion timeline is within five years. 

Join a Thriving Academic Community

When you join our PhD program, you enter an active, deeply collaborative environment designed to elevate your research in urban and international economics and to connect you directly with world-class scholars. From formal seminars given by top international scholars, to internal department workshops, to informal brown bag talks on developing research, faculty and students are continually presenting work and receiving feedback to improve research. Additionally, the department hosts high impact conferences and events and works closely with an interdisciplinary research hub dedicated to building efficient, prosperous, inclusive, and sustainable cities.

Academic Excellence

Curious about our graduates and their placements? 

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Recent Conferences: RMURE and InsTED

In June 2026, the Department of Marketing, Business Economics and Law at the Alberta School of Business launched its inaugural Rocky Mountain Urban and Real Estate (RMURE) Conference. Set in a world-class Rocky Mountain backdrop, attendees engaged directly with leading minds in the field, highlighted by a keynote address from Nathaniel Baum-Snow (University of Toronto), a former Editor of the Journal of Urban Economics. In September 2025 our department and the department of economics co-hosted the Institutions, Trade, and Economic Development (InsTED) conference. This conference was organized around two days of presentations from distinguished researchers in international economics and featured keynotes from Nathan Nunn (UBC) and Daniel Trefler (U. Toronto).

From theory to impact: immersive doctoral internships

Through our research hub — the Cities Institute — you have the unique opportunity to bridge high-level economic theory with actionable, real-world policy. The Cities Institute is a purpose-built, applied, and interdisciplinary hub designed explicitly to solve the grand challenges facing modern cities. An internship here in your first year of the program focusing on urban or international economics questions—embeds you directly into an environment working on providing real-world solutions that can be readily implemented by policy-makers.

  • Interdisciplinary collaboration: Students can engage with over 50 expert researchers spanning six different faculties — including business, engineering, urban planning, health and advanced data/AI — learning to view economic problems through a holistic lens. 
  • Cutting-edge analytics: As research interns, students will harness advanced analytical tools, open data, and smart sensor technology to translate complex economic datasets into data-informed outcomes that actively shape how cities evolve and thrive.

Business economics faculty members in the Marketing, Business Economics and Law department are excited to teach and collaborate with PhD students. At the Alberta School of Business, students create synergies with faculty by expanding research capacity and injecting new ideas, datasets, networks, and diverse viewpoints into the department. Students in our program are expected to be active contributors to our research environment through seminars, conferences, and presentations. 

Specialization course requirements

Our courses cover modern empirical papers on global economic issues — from transit in Colombia to trade in China — supported by an internationally diverse faculty. Courses examine how economic actions and policies can impact groups unequally, including First Nations, Inuit, and Métis. These multiple perspectives offer students insight into real-world trade-offs, such as how urban development benefits newcomers but may have negative effects on existing residents,, or how trade agreements boost aggregate welfare while harming workers in certain industries. 

The following doctoral level courses are normally taken by all students as part of the program’s business economics specialization requirements.

Required courses (12 Units)

This course covers canonical urban economic theory and empirical evidence. Topics may include the spatial structure of cities (monocentric city model and extensions), cross-city location choice (Rosen-Roback model), within city location choice, neighborhood effects, the microfoundations of city productivity (agglomeration), industrial concentration measurement, place-based policies, new economic geography models, and quantitative spatial models.

This course focuses on theories of housing and real estate markets, with a close look at modern empirical work and techniques. Topics may include housing demand and supply, real estate finance, housing tenure choice, regulation of the real estate market (zoning and related policies), hedonic estimation and price indices, structural estimation of real estate spatial models, commercial real estate, and real estate search models.

This course focuses on economic interactions between countries. Topics may include classical theories for trade (comparative advantage, specific factors, resource abundance), modern theories of trade with heterogeneous firms and product differentiation, the gravity model and trade measurement, endogenous markups, international migration, and estimation of quantitative trade models.

This course covers firm decision-making in an international environment. Topics may include the production and location choices of multinational firms, supply chain issues and management, international innovation and entrepreneurship, exchange rate determination, monetary policy and the role of banks in international business.

Research methods (12 Units)

Cognate Courses (12 Units)

Comprehensive and candidacy exams 

  • Students are required to successfully pass their comprehensive exam within the first 24 months of the program.
  • Students are eligible to write the comprehensive exam for their specialization after completing their course requirements. 
  • The candidacy exam (thesis proposal) must be completed within three years.

Thesis

  • To complete the program, students must present and defend a thesis embodying the results of their original research.

Internship and additional requirements

  • An internship with the Cities Institute is a requirement in the Summer term of the first year. Students also have the option of an additional internship term with the Cities Institute later in their studies.
  • Indigenous Canada: This Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) explores the different histories and contemporary perspectives of Indigenous peoples living in Canada. From an Indigenous perspective, this course explores complex experiences Indigenous peoples face today from a historical and critical perspective highlighting national and local Indigenous-settler relations.
    • Students will register in NS 201 to complete this requirement in the first term of their program. 
  • Ethics and Academic Citizenship (INT D 710 and INT D 720): These courses provide foundational knowledge of ethical principles and relevant university policies, including: academic integrity, plagiarism, introduction to research ethics, conflict of interest, and workplace ethics and self-care. All students must complete these courses by the end of their first term in the program.

Ready to make an impact? We are seeking analytical minds, critical thinkers, and passionate researchers ready to drive innovative solutions. Apply today to transform your thinking and launch a career in academia.