MSc Economic Policy with Work Placement Year

Students are required to submit a research project on a topic relating to Economics or Economic Policy. Guidance on developing the research project will be given as part of Research Methods during term 1, as well as through the supervisors who will be allocated according to their expertise. The research project is carried out through Term 2 and into the summer period, and is submitted in September.

This module seeks to provide foundations of economic theory across micro and macro for students without any prior disciplinary knowledge. The course will introduce the most relevant economic theories across micro and macro to enable students to navigate broader economic policy debates that often draw on a set of analytical propositions across micro and macro. 

This course is one of two core courses of the MSc Global Economic Governance. It is designed to familiarize students with core policy and reform debates on current global economic governance, with emphasis on the following areas: international monetary and financial integration, international production, international trade and international competitiveness, and the role of labour in the global economy.

This core module will be an introduction to concepts in probability theory and statistics and will not have specific adacemic requirements. The purpose of the module is to enable students to take on Statistical Research Techniques in term 2. In addition, it provides the basic knowledge required to study articles engaging in quantitative analysis.

This is a session on essay writing for postgraduate students. It is meant to provide guidance for essay assignments, in the form of both readings, organising, strucutring and writing essay-based coursework, specifically for Economics modules. It is aimed to Postgraduate students as they come from different educational backgrounds and as means of providing them with a set of guidelines for essay writing.

This module explores economic development in post-colonial Sub-Saharan Africa, bringing together macroeconomic and microeconomic perspectives. It presents theoretical and policy-relevant debates that are of interest not only to those who want to learn about Sub-Saharan Africa specifically but also to those who are seeking to develop a global understanding of economic dynamics.

This course is about the economic structures, institutions and policy challenges in the countries of the Middle East and North Africa (MENA). The module starts with a broad economic history of the region since the mid 19th Century and goes on to address selected aspects of economic policy in the contemporary period in areas related to natural and human resources. Among the topics covered are: the oil sector, labour migration and capital flows, problems of industrialization in resource based economies, and population transition. For the purposes of this course, the MENA region comprises the Arab countries, Iran and Turkey.

This course provides an introduction to the post-1950 evolution of the main economies of the Asia-Pacific region (comprising Northeast and Southeast Asia). It looks at macroeconomic issues, with a particular focus on growth, trade and investment flows, and fluctuations in economic indicators since the middle of the 1990s.

This course looks at the interaction between China's economic transformation and world development since the late 1970s until the present time. The emphasis is on critically analyzing and assessing this interaction from alternative historical and theoretical perspectives.

The module introduces students to the topic of green finance and its potential contribution to a sustainable economy in the context of climate change and the transition to a low-carbon economy. Specifically, the module supports students in understanding how climate and other environmental risks create potential financial risks in banking and capital markets and analyses the role of financial actors in driving and potentially mitigating these risks.

This course introduces students to the economics of institutions and the role of political economy in understanding institutional performance in developing countries. This covers the growing interest and literature on governance, on the role of corruption and rent-seeking, the transition to capitalism and the institutions appropriate to that transition, the role of property rights and property right stability during this transition, the role of the state and of different strategies of catching up, the role of democracy and of authoritarianism in economic transitions.

This course introduces students to economic perspectives on environmental and development issues. It covers various macro and microeconomic issues as well as economics of climate change.

The objective of this course is to develop students’ understanding of the main economic relationships that arise between the financial sector and the ‘real economy’ in the course of economic development.

The objective of this module is twofold: to provide an analytical training in the critical use of theories of international finance and to provide an opportunity for students to develop critical understanding of current policy debates on regional integration and globalisation, management of open developing economies with large external shocks, dynamics of currency and financial crises, management of exchange rates and capital accounts, international monetary and financial architecture, and other global economic issues. Throughout the course, emphasis is placed on understanding theories as well as on evaluating these theoretical propositions in the light of empirical evidence and real world issues.

This module consists of a survey of key approaches and issues in the political economy of growth and development. The aim is to familiarise students with foundational and contemporary debates on growth and development theory and policy and to develop the analytical ability of students to engage with real-world growth and development questions.

Students will be exposed to key themes and debates on development in India and will be expected to acquire a good understanding of development issues in contemporary India across a range of themes and theoretical frameworks within development studies.

The purpose of this module is to familiarise students with the main analytic debates in the field of gender and development. Four institutional domains (households, family and kinship, the market, the community and the state) through which gender relations are both defined and transformed receive separate attention.

The aim of this module is to enable students to understand and evaluate major policy debates on the role of agriculture in development. To do so, the course will consider in some depth the relevant theoretical and empirical literature on: the necessary for structural change in agriculture-dependant societies; the operation of agricultural factor and commodity markets, including international markets; the nature of rural societies and the characterisation of farmers; the nature of food markets and the role of agriculture in improving welfare. Both mainstream and heterodox approaches will be investigated.

The module is taught across ten sessions, each dealing with a different aspect of aid and development. Thematically, the module deals with three main areas: firstly an exploration of key ideas and themes in aid and development; secondly, and examination of how aid functions at different levels; and thirdly, aid in specific contexts.

Students will survey the major theoretical approaches to global labour and labour activism, including the historical patterns of labour migration and the role it has played in forming the modern world; contemporary patterns and drivers of labour relations; the relationship between labour, migration and globalisation; the institutional and political dynamics that shape these flows; and the policy implications – and subsequent debates – that have arisen around them.

This module examines ‘water and development’ in the global South from a combined Development Studies and Law perspective. The three main themes in the course are the commodification/marketisation of water, the political ecology of water, and global water governance and conflict.

This course fills a gap in the subjects offered under the Development Studies (and other Departmental) programme(s). Health and disease has been a major feature of development policy, both in the recent period (Millennium Development Goals), and historically (since the world’s first aid Act sanctioned, in 1929, improving health as a legitimate use of foreign aid).

The growth of cities is one of the key features of our times. Today more than half of the world population lives in cities, and developing countries have sustained decades of rapid and sustained urbanisation.

This course explores feminist and gendered approaches to political economy and globalisation. It analyses key insights on gender and globalisation, highlighting feminist contributions to the study of inequality, trade, and poverty, and illustrates feminist analyses of the global assembly line.

The module covers the key issues relating to the regulation of both banking and securities business from a global perspective. It begins by considering the reasons for regulating the financial sector and examines the different approaches and models adopted by different jurisdictions in order to achieve them, with reference to examples including the UK, US, Mainland China, Hong Kong and South Africa. The global measures relating to capital adequacy are then addressed, including discussion of the question, to what extent the highly sophisticated provisions of Basel III are appropriate for developing countries. The module then goes on to examine deposit protection schemes, with the deposit insurance approach of Malaysia contrasted with the more guarantee scheme found in Europe, after which the global standards relating to bank resolution and recovery are considered. The module then goes on to examine the provisions designed to protect those who invest in securities markets: the conduct of business rules and the measures to combat market abuse. Finally, it turns to the regulatory framework of two of the major global financial centres.

The purpose of the course is to describe and explain the evolution of Chinese managerial systems in ways that are both analytically sound and, at the same time, provide a range of knowledge that will be useful to those expecting to work in or with the Chinese business world. The course is designed to accommodate the needs of both those with little previous knowledge of Chinese affairs and those with limited background in management studies.

International management

This course has been specially designed to increase the depth of your understanding of macroeconomics by focusing on the relationship between financial markets and macroeconomics. We place the subject in a real-world context, aiming to show how theoretical and empirical knowledge of macroeconomics and financial markets provides ways to analyse the salient problems faced by modern macroeconomic policy makers.

We live in an era of frequent and sometimes radical change in what governments do and how they are organised to do it. Sometimes the changes are generated within countries as responses to social, political and economic developments and sometimes they originate outside the country. The purpose of this course is to provide an analytical framework for understanding public policy and management in a variety of historical and comparative contexts. It will give you the means to make your own judgements about appropriate ways to make public policy and organise and deliver public services. The contents of the course include attention to different kinds of governments and rationales for intervention of the state in the economy and society, the process of policy-making, policy implementation and policy evaluation, the various forms in which public services can be organised and the principles and tools for aligning the behaviour of individuals to the pursue of public interest, decentralisation and change management.

This module will cover many aspects of public governance, accountability and transparency. We will start the course by looking at the systems and processes of government, at the differences and relationships between the public and the private section, and at public policy decision-making. We will turn our attention, then, to issues that arise from stakeholder management and risk management in government. After the Reading Week, we will pay attention to issues related to fraud and corruption, internal control systems, auditing, ethics and integrity in the public sector. We will conclude the course by looking at the role of policy and programme evaluation in government.

This module provides students with a basic conceptual framework and practical knowledge regarding finance and investments in emerging markets. This module is concerned with the differences in financial systems between emerging markets and mature market economies; and how these differences explain the observed discrepancies in corporate financing behaviour between firms in emerging markets and those in mature market economies.

The aim of this module is to prepare students for understanding the changing dynamics of multinational enterprises (MNEs) and developing a critical perspective on the MNEs and their relationship with the external environment.

The module aims to analyse the current issues shaping the business, economic and institutional environments in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) and to analyse their implications for private and foreign investment, managerial decisions, and doing business in the region.