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Industrial Organization

Northwestern has an impressive presence in the field of Industrial Organization (IO), offering one of the best and largest IO groups in the world. Indeed, we are currently ranked #2 among graduate IO programs by U.S. News and World Report. Graduate students at Northwestern University specializing in IO interact with a remarkably large and diverse set of faculty, whose research interests span an incredibly wide array of areas in IO. They also have access to the unique resources of the Center for the Study of Industrial Organization (CSIO).

The IO community at Northwestern is large, strong, and vibrant. Currently there are five faculty members in the Department working mainly in IO, and many more working on IO-related topics. Several IO faculty members are or were in the past, on the editorial boards of numerous top IO journals including the Review of Economic Studies, the RAND Journal of Economics, the Journal of Industrial Economics and the American Economic Journal: Microeconomics.

The breadth of IO expertise available to students is expanded by our cooperation with the Kellogg School of Management faculty, with whom we share a building. Currently there are at least seven Kellogg faculty members working mainly in IO with many more working in related areas including economic theory, strategy, organizations, marketing, finance and health economics. Our students regularly take Kellogg Ph.D. classes and many have Kellogg faculty on their dissertation committees.

IO faculty members are heavily involved in advising graduate students. This is reflected in superb placement over the past 20 years. Placements in the last six years include Stanford University, The University of California at Berkeley, New York University's Stern School of Business, the University of Pennsylvania, Duke University and University College London.

Dissertation-oriented training starts very early at Northwestern through mentoring and advising, which includes a third-year informal meeting group (for students interested in IO related areas), followed by student lunch presentations (typically for fourth-year students).

The Center for the Study of Industrial Organization provides funding for research assistantships, travel, and data sets, as well as a visitor program that regularly brings to campus the top IO researchers in the world. These visits, which range from week-long to year-long stays, provide faculty and students additional exposure to cutting edge research done elsewhere.