The Master of Economics (MEcon or MEc) What can you do with an economics degree?
, ''

Times Higher Education ''Times Higher Education'' (''THE''), formerly ''The Times Higher Education Supplement'' (''The THES''), is a British magazine reporting specifically on news and issues related to higher education. Ownership TPG Capital acquired TSL Education ...

Bureau of Labor Statistics The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) is a unit of the United States Department of Labor. It is the principal fact-finding agency for the government of the United States, U.S. government in the broad field of labor economics, labor economics and ...

How to Become an Economist
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postgraduate Postgraduate education, graduate education, or graduate school consists of academic or professional degrees, certificates, diplomas, or other qualifications usually pursued by post-secondary students who have earned an undergraduate (bachelor' ...

master's degree A master's degree (from Latin ) is a postgraduate academic degree awarded by universities or colleges upon completion of a course of study demonstrating mastery or a high-order overview of a specific field of study or area of professional prac ...

economics Economics () is a behavioral science that studies the Production (economics), production, distribution (economics), distribution, and Consumption (economics), consumption of goods and services. Economics focuses on the behaviour and interac ...

comprising training in economic theory,

econometrics Econometrics is an application of statistical methods to economic data in order to give empirical content to economic relationships. M. Hashem Pesaran (1987). "Econometrics", '' The New Palgrave: A Dictionary of Economics'', v. 2, p. 8 p. 8 ...

, and/or

applied economics Applied economics is the application of economic theory and econometrics in specific settings. As one of the two sets of fields of economics (the other set being the ''core''), it is typically characterized by the application of the ''core'', i.e ...

. The degree is also offered as an MS or MSc, MA or MCom in economics; variants are the Master in Economic Sciences (MEconSc), and the Master of Applied Economics.

Structure

The degree may be offered as a

terminal degree A terminal degree is the highest-level university degree that can be achieved and awarded in an academic discipline or professional field. The term "terminal degree" is also used to refer to a degree that is awarded because a doctorates, doctoral-le ...

or as additional preparation for doctoral study, and is sometimes offered as a

professional degree A professional degree, formerly known in the US as a first professional degree, is a degree that prepares someone to work in a particular profession, practice, or industry sector often meeting the academic requirements for licensure or accreditatio ...

, such as the emerging ''MPS in Applied Economics''. The program emphases and curricula will differ correspondingly. The course of study for the master's degree lasts from one to two years. A

thesis A thesis (: theses), or dissertation (abbreviated diss.), is a document submitted in support of candidature for an academic degree or professional qualification presenting the author's research and findings.International Standard ISO 7144: D ...

is often required, particularly for terminal degrees. Many universities (in the United States) do not offer the master's degree directly; rather, the degree is routinely awarded as a master's degree "en route", after completion of a designated phase of the

PhD A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, DPhil; or ) is a terminal degree that usually denotes the highest level of academic achievement in a given discipline and is awarded following a course of graduate study and original research. The name of the deg ...

program in economics. Entry requirements are undergraduate work in (calculus-based) economics, at least at the "intermediate" level, and often as a

major Major most commonly refers to: * Major (rank), a military rank * Academic major, an academic discipline to which an undergraduate student formally commits * People named Major, including given names, surnames, nicknames * Major and minor in musi ...

, and a sufficient level of mathematical training (including courses in

probability Probability is a branch of mathematics and statistics concerning events and numerical descriptions of how likely they are to occur. The probability of an event is a number between 0 and 1; the larger the probability, the more likely an e ...

and

statistics Statistics (from German language, German: ', "description of a State (polity), state, a country") is the discipline that concerns the collection, organization, analysis, interpretation, and presentation of data. In applying statistics to a s ...

; often ( multivariable)

calculus Calculus is the mathematics, mathematical study of continuous change, in the same way that geometry is the study of shape, and algebra is the study of generalizations of arithmetic operations. Originally called infinitesimal calculus or "the ...

and

linear algebra Linear algebra is the branch of mathematics concerning linear equations such as :a_1x_1+\cdots +a_nx_n=b, linear maps such as :(x_1, \ldots, x_n) \mapsto a_1x_1+\cdots +a_nx_n, and their representations in vector spaces and through matrix (mathemat ...

; and sometimes

mathematical analysis Analysis is the branch of mathematics dealing with continuous functions, limit (mathematics), limits, and related theories, such as Derivative, differentiation, Integral, integration, measure (mathematics), measure, infinite sequences, series ( ...

Curriculum

Typically, the

curriculum In education, a curriculum (; : curriculums or curricula ) is the totality of student experiences that occur in an educational process. The term often refers specifically to a planned sequence of instruction, or to a view of the student's experi ...

is structured around core topics, with any optional

coursework Coursework (also course work, especially British English) is work performed by students or trainees for the purpose of learning. Coursework may be specified and assigned by teachers, or by learning guides in self-taught courses. Coursework can e ...

complementary to the program focus. The core modules are usually in

microeconomic theory Microeconomics is a branch of economics that studies the behavior of individuals and Theory of the firm, firms in making decisions regarding the allocation of scarcity, scarce resources and the interactions among these individuals and firms. M ...

macroeconomic theory Macroeconomics is a branch of economics that deals with the performance, structure, behavior, and decision-making of an economy as a whole. This includes regional, national, and global economies. Macroeconomists study topics such as output/ GDP ...

and

. At this level, the topics covered are

microfoundations Microfoundations are an effort to understand macroeconomic phenomena in terms of individual agents' economic behavior and interactions.Maarten Janssen (2008),Microfoundations, in ''The New Palgrave Dictionary of Economics'', 2nd ed. Research in mi ...

and

dynamic stochastic general equilibrium Dynamic stochastic general equilibrium modeling (abbreviated as DSGE, or DGE, or sometimes SDGE) is a macroeconomics, macroeconomic method which is often employed by monetary and fiscal authorities for policy analysis, explaining historical time-s ...

, and allow for

heterogeneity Homogeneity and heterogeneity are concepts relating to the uniformity of a substance, process or image. A homogeneous feature is uniform in composition or character (i.e., color, shape, size, weight, height, distribution, texture, language, i ...

, relaxing the idea of a

representative agent Economists use the term representative agent to refer to the typical decision-maker of a certain type (for example, the typical consumer, or the typical firm). More technically, an economic model is said to have a representative agent if all agen ...

. Sometimes, topics from

heterodox economics Heterodox economics is a broad, relative term referring to schools of economic thought which are not commonly perceived as belonging to mainstream economics. There is no absolute definition of what constitutes heterodox economic thought, as it i ...

are introduced. Econometrics extends the undergraduate domain to

multiple linear regression In statistics, linear regression is a model that estimates the relationship between a scalar response (dependent variable) and one or more explanatory variables (regressor or independent variable). A model with exactly one explanatory variable ...

and multivariate time series, and introduces simultaneous equation methods and

generalized linear model In statistics, a generalized linear model (GLM) is a flexible generalization of ordinary linear regression. The GLM generalizes linear regression by allowing the linear model to be related to the response variable via a ''link function'' and by ...

Game theory Game theory is the study of mathematical models of strategic interactions. It has applications in many fields of social science, and is used extensively in economics, logic, systems science and computer science. Initially, game theory addressed ...

and

computational economics Computational economics is an interdisciplinary research discipline that combines methods in computational science and economics to solve complex economic problems.''Computational Economics''."About This Journal"an"Aims and Scope" This subject e ...

are often included. Some (doctoral) programs include core work in

economic history Economic history is the study of history using methodological tools from economics or with a special attention to economic phenomena. Research is conducted using a combination of historical methods, statistical methods and the Applied economics ...

. Theory-focused degrees will tend to cover these core topics more mathematically, and emphasize econometric theory as opposed to econometric techniques and

software Software consists of computer programs that instruct the Execution (computing), execution of a computer. Software also includes design documents and specifications. The history of software is closely tied to the development of digital comput ...

; these will also require a separate course in

mathematical economics Mathematical economics is the application of Mathematics, mathematical methods to represent theories and analyze problems in economics. Often, these Applied mathematics#Economics, applied methods are beyond simple geometry, and may include diff ...

. Note though that regardless of focus, most programs "now place a marked emphasis on the primacy of mathematics", and many universities thus also require "Quantitative Techniques for Economics", or "Math for Economics" especially where mathematical economics is not a core course. The optional or additional coursework will depend on the program's emphasis. In theory-focused degrees, and those preparing students for doctoral work, this coursework is often in these same core topics, but in greater depth. In terminal or applied or career-focused degrees, options may include

public finance Public finance refers to the monetary resources available to governments and also to the study of finance within government and role of the government in the economy. Within academic settings, public finance is a widely studied subject in man ...

, labour-, financial-, development-, industrial-, health- or

agricultural economics Agricultural economics is an applied field of economics concerned with the application of economic theory in optimizing the production and distribution of food and fiber products. Agricultural economics began as a branch of economics that specif ...

. These degrees may also allow for a specialization in one of these areas, and may be named correspondingly (for example Master's in Financial Economics, Masters in International Economics, Masters in Development Economics, Master's in Sustainable Economic Development and Masters in Agricultural Economics.) Recently, the more general Master of Applied Economics, See e.g. a
UCLAGeorgetownBathBoston CollegeIllinois State
/ref> combines economic theory with selections from finance and

data analytics Analytics is the systematic computational analysis of data or statistics. It is used for the discovery, interpretation, and communication of meaningful patterns in data, which also falls under and directly relates to the umbrella term, data sci ...

, including

machine learning Machine learning (ML) is a field of study in artificial intelligence concerned with the development and study of Computational statistics, statistical algorithms that can learn from data and generalise to unseen data, and thus perform Task ( ...

and

data science Data science is an interdisciplinary academic field that uses statistics, scientific computing, scientific methods, processing, scientific visualization, algorithms and systems to extract or extrapolate knowledge from potentially noisy, stru ...

References

External links and references

Discussion
Graduate Degrees in Economics
The

American Economic Association The American Economic Association (AEA) is a learned society in the field of economics, with approximately 23,000 members. It publishes several peer-reviewed journals, including the Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Review, an ...

Masters degrees in economics: How to be a leader of the future
''

The Independent ''The Independent'' is a British online newspaper. It was established in 1986 as a national morning printed paper. Nicknamed the ''Indy'', it began as a broadsheet and changed to tabloid format in 2003. The last printed edition was publis ...

''
Is an M.A. in Economics a Waste of Time?
economics.about.com (archived)
Getting an MBA vs. a Master's in Finance or Economics
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davidson.edu

{{Webarchive, url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110707075421/http://economics.about.com/cs/studentresources/a/economics_books_4.htm , date=2011-07-07 , economics.about.com Lists of programs

Economics Economics () is a behavioral science that studies the Production (economics), production, distribution (economics), distribution, and Consumption (economics), consumption of goods and services. Economics focuses on the behaviour and interac ...

Economics education Business qualifications

Structure

Curriculum

See also

References

External links and references