Programs

The Becker Center on Chicago Price Theory, founded by Richard O. Ryan, MBA ’66, operates several programs as part of an effort to realize its mission.

The Becker Fellows Program is designed to attract the most talented, freshly minted PhDs with an interest and aptitude in combining innovative empirical work with theoretical tools in the price theory tradition of the University of Chicago. Becker Fellows conduct their own research, attend seminars, advise PhD students, and mentor Becker Center research professionals. During their appointment, they work closely with Becker Center faculty, who advise and mentor the Becker Fellow with specific focus on the scholar's research.

The Research Professionals Program provides individuals with an opportunity to learn the most innovative techniques and methods of the economic sciences by working on the research projects of Becker Center faculty and Becker Fellows before entering a graduate program in Economics.

The Graduate Scholars Program was established in order to provide promising graduate students with guidance and a means to pursue their theory-related research. By working alongside Becker Fellows and faculty in the early stages of their own independent research, students gain valuable insight into economics. Graduate Scholars are granted a research budget for the year to be spent on research-related items in pursuit of their research proposal.

The Becker Brown Bag Series offers an informal setting where prominent economists present cutting-edge research and engage MBA students in discussion. These talks highlight the practical use of economics for answering real-world questions pertinent to business leaders and policy makers.

The Price Theory Scholars Program was established in 2006 with the support of the Searle Freedom Trust. The program is geared towards PhD students in economics who are in their third or fourth year of study. The goal of the program is to expose students in the early stages of independent research to price theory in the Chicago tradition, which emphasizes the application of simple economic principles to important real-world problems.

The Price Theory Summer Camp is an intensive, one-week program to introduce PhD students from outside the University of Chicago to the discipline of price theory. This program consists of lectures, workshops on problems sets, and a series of "Chicago-style" seminars featuring the research-in-progress of University of Chicago faculty.

The Project-Based Research Support Innitiative was created to support price theory-based projects with the goal of promoting price theory research in a broad range of topics. Rather than providing support to a particular researcher, the initiative lets researchers apply for support for a particular project or aspect of a project. In providing research funding for a particular project rather than an individual, it creates an avenue for researchers to pursue good examples of price theory.

UC Experiments is under development in order to establish a research lab for running behavioral and economics experiments. Currently, the program is in the process of running experiments and creating a pool of participants who are willing to participate in experiments. Please visit the UC Experiments website for more information about signing up to participate.

The Center holds conferences to bring together top economists, policy makers, and business leaders to discuss important economic questions.