Research Areas in Business and Economics

Richly interdisciplinary

The research done in business and economics tackles broad questions in the social sciences. Economics departments, business schools, and government agencies that do economics research aren't just hiring economists: their scholarly communities include policymakers, historians, computer scientists, sociologists, engineers, statisticians, psychologists, and others. It's a highly inclusive part of the social sciences, and is growing every day.

Economics can be defined in a few different ways. It’s the study of scarcity, the study of how people use resources and respond to incentives, or the study of decision-making. It often involves topics like wealth and finance, but it’s not all about money. Economics is a broad discipline that helps us understand historical trends, interpret today’s headlines, and make predictions about the coming years.

— The American Economic Association

In partnership with the National Bureau of Economic Researcher, PREDOC is hosting a series of events to give an overview of different sub-fields in economics. These events, led by researchers from a variety of career paths, are great introductions to the breadth of economics research and economics careers.

Health

Health economists study the economic determinants of health, the consequences of unhealthy behaviors such as substance abuse and obesity, and the demand for "health capital" more generally.

Environment

Environmental economists study the economics of the energy sector, the determinants of pollution and other actions that affect the environment, and the effects of public policies in both of these areas.

Economics and Business have multiple sub-fields. Here are some of the major ones, which are used to categorize research, as well as predoctoral postings.

Accounting

Accounting is a means of communicating information about individuals or organizations. Accounting research includes the impact of accounting information on capital markets, the use of accounting information for contracting purposes, corporate disclosure practices, executive compensation, and taxation.

Behavioral Science

Behavioral Science explores the complex ways in which people make decisions and interact with one another. Behavioral science research draws on theory and methods from cognitive and social psychology, economics, and other related fields.

Econometrics and Statistics

Econometrics and Statistics provides the scientific tools to create meaning from data in areas such as forecasting, analyzing demand and cost, model building, analyzing big datasets, and testing empirical implications of theories.

Economics

Economics studies the complex relations between households, firms, and governments as they interact with each other in a world with scarce resources. Economists use large datasets, analytical models, and econometric methods to explore such interactions, and guide policymakers.

Finance

Finance studies the financial interactions between households, firms, and governments. There are three main subfields. Asset pricing, studies the valuation and the fluctuations of finance assets. Corporate finance studies the capital structure and actions of corporations. Household finance studies the financial decisions of households.

Management and Operations

The reality of business management requires solutions to complex optimization problems and risk management of complex systems. MS/OM leverages mathematics and computer methods to generate research that helps managers develop better systems and make better decisions.

Marketing

Research in marketing leverages psychology and behavioral science and/or on quantitative methods and large datasets to study consumer preferences; consumer demand and decision-making; the strategic interaction of firms, pricing, promotion, targeting, product design/positioning; and channel issues.

Organizational Behavior

Organizational behavior uses research and methods from psychology and sociology to study the interaction among people in complex organizations. The research from organizational behavior informs managers about the best practices to optimize people organization inside their firms.