Study location	United Kingdom, Colchester Campus
Type	Master courses, full-time
Nominal duration	1 year
Study language	English
Awards	MA

Tuition fee	To be confirmed

Entry qualification	Undergraduate diploma (or higher) A degree with an overall grade of 2.2. The entry qualification documents are accepted in any language

Language requirements	English Accepted proof of proficiency: Cambridge English, IELTS, TOEFL or other equivalent IELTS: 6.5 overall (with a minimum component score of 5.5) CAE: C

Other requirements	At least 1 reference(s) must be provided. Reference should be written on official letterhead, signed and dated. Please upload it in the Documents section. CV

More information	Expenses, accommodation, working etc. essex.ac.uk/..tercourse=PG00724&subgroup=1

Overview

Over the last three decades, political economy has been one of the fastest growing approaches in the social sciences. At Essex, we are primarily interested in the scientific study of political institutions and how they might determine economic variables.

If you are interested in how institutions shape the behaviour of political actors and how political decisions influence markets and vice versa, then you will profit from our course.

You will have a great deal of choice for your optional modules as they will be selected from both our Department of Government and Department of Economics. Our MA Political Economy covers all aspects of modern political economy, including:

- Market failure
- Environmental policies
- The quality of governance
- Monetary policy choices

Our Department of Government is one of the most prestigious in Europe, with an outstanding record of teaching, research and publication. We are rated top in the UK for research (REF 2014), and have consistently been the highest-rated politics department in the country since national assessments began.

Our Department of Economics is also consistently rated highly for student satisfaction, and is Top 5 in the UK for research with over 90% rated as ‘world-leading’ or ‘internationally excellent’ (REF 2014).

Programme structure

Year 1

MA Dissertation
Political Economy
Advanced Research Methods (optional)
Political Explanation (optional)
Applications of Data Analysis (optional)
Banking (optional)
Behavioural Economics I: Individual Decision Making (optional)
Behavioural Economics II: Games and Markets (optional)
Comparative European Politics (optional)
Computational Agent-Based Macro-Economics, Financial Markets and Policy Design (optional)
Conflict Resolution (optional)
Contemporary Theories of Justice (optional)
Econometric Methods (optional)
Economic Development Theory (optional)
Economics of Financial Markets (optional)
Economics of Incentives, Contracts and the Firm (optional)
Economics of the European Union (optional)
Economics of Transition (optional)
Environmental Economics (optional)
Estimation and Inference in Econometrics (optional)
Game Theory and Applications (optional)
Ideology and Political Discourse (optional)
Environmental Politics (optional)
International Finance (optional)
International Security Studies (optional)
International Trade (optional)
Macroeconomics (optional)
Market Structure and Strategic Behaviour (optional)
Mathematical Methods (optional)
Microeconometrics (optional)
Microeconomics (optional)
Monetary Economics (optional)
Panel Data Methods (optional)
Political Economy (optional)
Political Parties in Britain and Europe (optional)
Political Theory (optional)
Public Opinion and Political Behaviour (optional)
Research Design (optional)
Research Seminar in Political Theory and Methods (optional)
Theories of International Relations (optional)
Theory and Explanation in Political Science (optional)
Theory of Industrial Organisation (optional)
Time Series Econometrics (optional)
Topics in Financial Economics (optional)
Survey Measurement and Question Design (optional)

Career opportunities

This course is a good choice if you wish to maintain the flexibility of pursuing a career at an international organisation, a government organisation, a private enterprise or as a political consultant. You will develop key employability skills including analytical reasoning, research, problem solving, and essay-writing.

Recent graduates have gone on to work for the following high-profile organisations:

The Civil Service
Local government
The World Bank
The United Nations
NATO
YouGov and YouGov America

We also offer supervision for PhD and MPhil in the following fields: government; ideology and discourse analysis; international relations; political behaviour; and politics.