Joint Ph.D. Programs
Interdisciplinary Research and Training
The Tepper School of Business at Carnegie Mellon offers joint Ph.D. programs that combine business scholarship with expertise from other leading departments across the university. These programs prepare scholars to address complex challenges that span disciplines, blending advanced research, analytical rigor, and collaborative training.
Program Offerings
Ph.D. in Algorithms, Combinatorics, and Optimization (ACO)
This program is administered jointly by the Tepper School of Business (operations research group), the Computer Science Department (algorithms group), and the Mathematics Department (discrete mathematics group).
Behavioral Economics
This program builds on the world-renowned Behavioral Economics faculty from the Department of Social and Decision Sciences and the outstanding Economics faculty from the Tepper School of Business. Students in this joint program will have access to world-renowned experts in decision science, organizational behavior, statistics, marketing and many other areas.
Behavioral Marketing and Decision Research
Because this is a joint program, the requirements to complete it successfully include requirements from both the Tepper School of Business (Tepper) and the Department of Social and Decision Sciences (SDS). However, because of the overlap in these two disciplines, many of the requirements for each program apply to the other (e.g., one of the two summer research papers required by Tepper will also satisfy the SDS research paper requirement).
Economics and Public Policy
The joint Ph.D. in Economics and Public Policy, offered by the Tepper School of Business and Heinz College of Information Systems and Public Policy, combines rigorous training in economic theory and quantitative methods with a focus on public policy. Students draw on the strengths of both schools to examine how markets, institutions, and public policies shape economic and societal outcomes.