Victor Ehrnrooth

Academic

A more detailed academic history

A per-university breakdown of programmes, a small selection of key courses, thesis, and extracurriculars.

Section 01

University of Oxford

Oxford, UK

October 2023 - July 2025

Master of Philosophy in Economics, Distinction

Flagship Oxford economics masters. Concentrated on microeconomics but covered essential graduate macro and econometrics. Learned essential Python and R, notably leveraging Python for basic machine learning applications relevant to economics. Distinction in all courses taken, as well as for my thesis.

Thesis

Publish, Perish, or Pivot: Project Completion and Alignment Under an Uncertain Bayesian Signalling Framework

Supervisor: Simon Cowan

Develops a microeconomic model that explains why major projects, from public infrastructure like HS2 to corporate strategy and editorial reviews, are so often cancelled, pursued, or distorted in ways that leave most stakeholders worse off, even when the institutions around them are sound. A decision maker repeatedly interacts with one influential agent of uncertain type whose fuzzy signals also shape the project's odds of success. The model introduces "twice-limited agency", in which the agent chooses only the distribution governing outcome probabilities, producing equilibria where agents appear to vote against their own interests, mutually wanted projects are cancelled, and unpopular ones still advance. A deliberately simple two-agent setup that nevertheless captures the core story behind real coordination failures.

Download thesis (PDF)

Key courses

Mathematics

  • Further Mathematics

    Essential topics within measure theory, real and complex analysis, etc...

Economics

  • Industrial Organisation

    Empirical and theoretical foundations of cutting-edge IO research, incl. search, market entry, networks, etc...

  • Topics in Microeconomic Theory

    Exploration of leading micro theory work in the past 1-4 years, incl. full peer reviews of two leading papers pending publication

  • Empirical Research Methods

    Essential research skills, grounded in R coding, to enable high-quality empirical economics work

  • Core Micro, Macro, and Econometrics

    Foundational graduate courses in Economics, covering e.g., the new Keynesian model, Bellman equations, auction theory, dynamic panels, etc...

Other

  • Foundations of Machine Learning

    Introduction to essential Machine Learning skills in Python (scikit-learn, pandas, etc...), incl. a deep research report on ML applications to economics

Extracurriculars and other

  • Microeconomics tutor for second-year PPE undergraduates
  • Team Lead at The Oxford Strategy Challenge
  • Distinction in all courses and thesis; top 5 of 70+ in cohort overall

Section 02

University of Pennsylvania

Philadelphia, USA

August 2020 - May 2022

Bachelor of Arts, Mathematical Economics, Summa Cum Laude

Completed an honors degree in Mathematical Economics (requiring top marks in graduate level courses) at Summa Cum Laude level. Course work included essential mathematical skills from real analysis to partial differential equations, as well as economics skills incl. graduate game theory and microeconomics. Transferred into third-year (Junior) from UNC-Chapel Hill.

Key courses

Mathematics

  • Analysis and essentials of measure theory

    Full sequence of analysis courses, covering real analysis, measure theory, dynamic optimization, etc...

  • Partial differential equations

    Engineering-focused course primarily covering PDEs

  • Linear Algebra

    Main course in linear algebra

  • ODEs and introduction to linear algebra

    Final course in essential mathematics sequence at Penn, covering ODEs and linear algebra

Economics

  • Advanced Game Theory

    Graduate course in theoretical game theory, covering e.g., fixed point theoremata (Kakutani, Brouwer), markets for lemons, etc...

  • Advanced Microeconomics

    Graduate course in theoretical microeconomics, covering e.g., arbitrary preference relations, constrained optimizations, etc...

  • Digital Economy

    Explored emergent economic trends in the digital world, e.g., network effects, digital search, etc...

Other

  • Applied Probability Models in Marketing

    Probability modelling using Bayesian principles for forecasting accuracy, e.g., shifted Beta-Geometric, proportional hazard framework, negative binomial dist., etc...

  • World Film History to 1945

    Explored film history from inception to 1945. Not a ton of relation to maths or economics, but definitely a blast

  • Various history courses

    Love history, and took time to learn more, incl. History of the Spanish Empire, of Financial Developments, and of African Americans at UPenn

Extracurriculars and other

  • Department liaison, Undergraduate Economics Advisory Board
  • Board member, International Student Advisory Board
  • Academic committee member, Undergraduate Economics Society
  • Dean's list in all eligible years
  • Flag bearer for Mathematical Economics Major in graduation procession
  • Cumulative GPA: 3.98 / 4.00

Section 03

University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

Chapel Hill, USA

August 2018 - May 2020

Bachelor of Arts, Economics Major & Mathematics Minor

Started an economics and mathematics degree at UNC-Chapel Hill, transferred to the University of Pennsylvania after two years with high marks.

Key courses

Mathematics

  • Multivariate Calculus

    Final component in calculus sequence, covering differentiation and integration across multiple dimensions

  • Discrete Mathematics

    First course in discrete mathematics, incl. an introduction to essential proof techniques

Economics

  • Intermediate Micro, Macro, and Econometrics

    Foundational undergraduate courses in economics, covering e.g., Lagrange optimization, instrumental variables, etc...

Other

  • Introduction to Folklore

    Course on folklore and methods within folklore, mostly covering US folklore and methods to retain and record folklore traditions. Very little to do with my major, but amazingly interesting

  • Various history courses

    Love history, and took time to learn more, incl. History of the Cold War and of Old Regime France

Extracurriculars and other

  • Committee chair & delegate, Carolina International Relations Association (CIRA)
  • Member, UNC Finance Society (UFS)
  • Dean's list in all eligible semesters
  • Cumulative GPA: 3.93 / 4.00