Teaching staff for economics at the Graduate Institute
The professors are known worldwide in their respective areas and offer first-hand experience in using international economics to address the world’s many problems. Teaching is by professors (not graduate students) using hands-on, problem-solving approaches. In addition to lifelong academics, the faculty includes practitioners such as the Chief Economist of the World Trade Organisation, and faculty members which have spent part of their career working in policy institutions such as the World Bank, the United Nations, the International Monetary Fund, the European Commission, and the US Federal Reserve. In addition to the core economics courses , the department offers an applied course taught by department’s alumni holding senior positions in international organizations. This course provides our students a unique opportunity to better understand how economics is used in policymaking and to get to know personally senior staff at organizations such as the IMF, the World Bank and the OECD.

A gender balanced faculty
from left to right: Profs. Ugo Panizza, Martina Viarengo, Nathan Sussman, Rui Esteves, Cédric Tille, Damien Neven, Lore Vandewalle, Yuan Zi, Imelda, Beatrice Weder Di Mauro
A supportive, collaborative learning environment
The high professor-student ratio, the small class sizes, and the highly diverse student body create a collegial, stimulating, and friendly atmosphere. As Julieta Contreras, a Master student from Mexico who graduated in 2020 put it: “there is an environment of collaboration where you can develop skills together with your classmates. There is solidarity and friendship .”
A critical part of the training stems from constant interactions with bright, open and diverse minds from all over the world. Interdisciplinarity is a core principle of the Graduate Institute so you will be networking with students of international law, international history, international relations, social anthropology, and international development.
Located physically at the centre of Geneva’s numerous international organisations, the Graduate Institute is a global hub for policy-relevant research in international relations in general and international economics in particular. Talks, debates and events are held virtually every evening in the Graduate Institutes ultra-modern building (the ‘Maison de la Paix’). The Graduate Institute has also a close link with the London-based Centre for Economic Research (CEPR), the premier network of economists in Europe: the President of CEPR, one of its vice presidents and the editor in chief of VoxEU (CEPR’s policy portal) are all professors at the Graduate Institute and our students benefit from joint events organized by the CEPR and the Graduate Institute.
Beyond academics, living in Geneva exposes our students to a diverse, cosmopolitan environment, where you cannot help but broaden your horizons while picking up some French. The Graduate Institute is bilingual (English and French), but all economics courses are taught in English.