Find out more about studying MA Economics at University of Essex? We've gathered all the key details, entry requirements, modules, fees, and more. Take the next step by booking an open day to explore it for yourself.
MA - Master of Arts
University of Essex
Part Time
Oct 2027
2 Year
At Essex we push the frontiers of accepted wisdom, critically examining the decisions of individuals, the strategies of firms, and the policies of governments to understand and challenge the standard paradigms of economics. We teach you the essentials of micro- and macroeconomics and econometric methods. You also have the option to explore a set of selected topics in economics to hone your skills, such as Management Economics and Market Analysis, International Trade and Financial Economics.For your dissertation, you apply these skills to create an original piece of research. If you need it, we support you in maths through pre-sessional and co-curricular support. If you’d like to develop your knowledge further at Essex, we offer a range of other advanced courses inside and outside economics that complement this course.After completing your masters, you may wish to extend your knowledge with a research degree –many Essex graduates decide to stay here for further study.Alternatively, our course also helps prepare you for employment; recent surveys have shown that higher degree graduates are more likely to obtain jobs at professional or managerial level.
What interests you? Undertake a research project of your choosing, studying a specific economic issue or set of problems in depth, with supervision from our world-leading academic staff. Gain experience of original and independent work, making use of and building on skills that you have acquired during your Masters.
Introductory Macroeconomics studies some of the fundamental concepts and methods in economics. It equips you with the basic tools and methods of analysis used in economic reasoning. You are introduced to National income accounting, the basics of fiscal and monetary policies in the short run, and the critical role of the Government's budget constraint. The module then progresses into a discussion of the trade-off between inflation and unemployment and the role of the natural rate of unemployment. Particular emphasis is applied to understanding how macroeconomics can help understanding the economic environment we live in and the most important economic challenges we face.
Microeconomics studies the economic behaviour of individual economic decision makers such as consumers, workers, firms, or managers. You will be looking at decision-making and markets when all agents have perfect information about goods and prices and individual agents cannot affect prices through their own actions. Later in the module you will turn to the concept of market equilibrium with more detailed understanding of demand and supply in order to derive properties of market behaviour.
This module provides an introduction to the econometric methods commonly used to analyse economic data and the application of these methods. The focus of the module is on linear regression and the ordinary least squares (OLS) estimation procedure. This is introduced after a review of basic probability, random variables, simple descriptive statistics and the concept of the null hypothesis.
