Areas of Study

Accounting

Taking a decidedly quantitative approach, the Accounting Ph.D. prepares students for academic careers at top research universities. A hallmark of our program is the close mentorship between our faculty and each Ph.D. candidate. UCLA Anderson accounting faculty specialize in empirical and theoretical financial accounting research and rigorous coursework in the areas of economics, statistics, econometrics, accounting and finance.

Behavioral Decision Making

Behavioral Decision Making became a formal academic area in 2016, and offers an interdisciplinary Ph.D. program in Behavioral Decision Research that gives students broad training and flexibility to enter a number of possible job markets. Investigating the many facets of human judgment and decision making behavior, the degree exposes students to behavioral economics, cognitive and social psychology, marketing, organizational behavior, behavioral finance, behavioral strategy and public policy.

Decisions, Operations and Technology Management

The Decisions, Operations and Technology Management (DOTM) area seeks to combine the process view of operations with analytical approaches in conducting research in the service and manufacturing sectors. Our Ph.D. students master the art and science of modeling, data analysis, quantitative methods and effective interpersonal communication.

Finance

The UCLA Anderson Finance area is recognized as one of the world’s top 10 programs. With a remarkable tradition of collaboration, the area is eclectic in its research scope, from rational-expectations macro-asset-pricing empirical models to behavioral and experimental theory. Ph.D. students enjoy the highest quality academic experience in a congenial environment where top-ranked faculty are accessible. Approximately 10 percent of our graduates have been placed in tenure-track positions at top-five universities.

Global Economics Management

The UCLA Anderson Ph.D. in economics is designed for scholars aiming at careers in top academic institutions. The Global Economics and Management area focuses on applied economics with a particular emphasis on international economics, political economy and economic development. The small size of the program facilitates strong cohesion among students and faculty, continuous scholarly interactions among all members of the area, and an intellectually active and stimulating environment.

Management and Organizations

Ph.D. students in the Management and Organizations area concentrate exclusively on their research, studying topics that range from individual psychology to team behavior to how organizations operate on a large scale. Our faculty conduct research in the aeras of decision making, interpersonal and group conflict, prejudice and discrimination, identity, persuasion, communication, performance and labor practices, economics and history. Faculty mentor students to develop their own research identity and become leaders in their area of study.

Marketing

Behavioral, quantitative and managerial orientations are all reflected in the individual interests of the Marketing area faculty who, in collaboration with doctoral students, are actively involved in groundbreaking research. Students understand, explain and predict the effectiveness of various marketing strategies and to develop theoretical frameworks with which to design more efficient strategies. Our Ph.D. graduates hold leading positions in academia and industry in North America, Europe and Asia.

Strategy

UCLA Anderson’s Strategy area trains Ph.D. students to analyze a firm’s response to its environment and its competitors. Our faculty study external interactions of firms with customers, competitors, suppliers and government, and internal interactions with current and potential employees. We use economics as the core discipline to answer strategic questions, augmented by other disciplines such as psychology, sociology and political science. Our program introduces students to broad fields in strategic management such as competitive strategy, innovation, human resource management, entrepreneurship, global strategy, organization theory and market institutions.