Economics

Our Economics course provides a rounded, rigorous education in economics which is valuable for a wide range of career paths.

Container

Overview

Economics at Cambridge

Our course provides a sound understanding of core, pure and applied economics. However, while you study economics in considerable depth in this specialised degree, you employ ideas and techniques from many other disciplines too; including history, sociology, mathematics and statistics, and politics. Therefore, our graduates are extremely well qualified for a wide range of jobs and further courses.

Teaching and resources

Past and present Faculty members, such as Alfred Marshall and John Maynard Keynes, have played a major role in the subject’s development and several have been awarded the Nobel Prize in Economics (Sir John Hicks, James Meade, Sir Richard Stone, Sir James Mirrlees and Amartya Sen). The present Faculty remains committed to using economics to improve public policy and recent staff have been active on, among other bodies, the Monetary Policy Committee of the Bank of England and the Competition Commission, and advise international agencies such as the United Nations, World Bank, International Monetary Fund and Organisation for Economic Co-Operation and Development.

Other benefits for Cambridge Economics students include access to an extensive range of statistical databases and software, and the Marshall Library of Economics, which holds a comprehensive collection of books, journals and other papers in economics. The student-run Marshall Society organises social events and informal lectures from distinguished visiting speakers.

Course costs

Tuition fees

Information on tuition fee rates for Economics is available on the tuition fees page.

Additional course costs

Year 1

A University approved scientific calculator - Estimated cost £20-£35

Details about the course options can be found on the Faculty website and please contact the Faculty for advice about optional costs.

Changing course

It's possible to combine Economics with another subject, for example by taking one or two years of Economics and then transferring to another subject such as Law or Management Studies. You can also study another subject such as Mathematics for one year before transferring to Part IIA Economics. Several students make such changes each year.

To be able to change course, you need the agreement of your College that any change is in your educational interests, and you must have the necessary background in the subject to which you wish to change – in some cases you may be required to undertake some catch-up work or take up the new course from the start/an earlier year. If you think you may wish to change course, we encourage you to contact a College admissions office for advice. You should also consider if/how changing course may affect any financial support arrangements.

Careers and research

At Cambridge, you develop skills in understanding complex arguments, analysis of practical issues and of data, and effective communication. Such skills are valuable in many careers, but particularly in professional, financial and managerial occupations. They also provide an advantageous foundation for numerous Masters degree courses.

Many graduates go on to professional training in chartered accountancy, actuarial work and similar fields. Others are employed by financial institutions, or as professional economists in industry, government and management consultancy.

Course Outline

Teaching is provided through lectures, classes and supervisions and you can expect between 10 and 15 lectures each week in the first year.

Assessment is mainly through formal written examinations that take place at the end of each year, and the compulsory dissertation in Part IIB. Typically, you have one three-hour exam for each paper covered that year. In Part I, the British Economic History paper is assessed via an exam paper and a project. There is also a project within the Econometrics paper in Part IIA.

Year 1 (Part I)

Part I provides an introduction to the subject, a common core of knowledge which can subsequently be extended. There are five compulsory papers:

Microeconomics
Macroeconomics
Quantitative Methods in Economics
Political and Social Aspects of Economics
British Economic History

Through these papers you cover topics such as supply and demand, the role of prices and markets, employment, inflation, the operation of financial institutions and monetary policy.

The Quantitative Methods paper provides an introduction to the use of mathematical and statistical techniques in economics, and is assessed by a written exam.

Year 2 (Part IIA)

Part IIA consists of three compulsory papers:

Microeconomics
Macroeconomics
Theory and Practice of Econometrics

You also take one optional paper, chosen from:

International Trade and Development
Modern Societies
Mathematics and Statistics for Economists
Labour
Modern State and its Alternatives
International Conflict, Order and Justice
History and Philosophy of Economics
Historical Perspectives on Economic Growth

Through these papers, you acquire a knowledge and understanding of a range of key topics and analytical techniques in microeconomic and macroeconomic theory, develop knowledge of key econometric techniques, and learn the IT skills needed to undertake a project in applied econometrics.

Year 3 (Part IIB)

The final year consists of two compulsory papers:

Microeconomic Principles and Problems
Macroeconomic Principles and Problems

In addition, you take two optional papers and write a compulsory dissertation of 7,500 words.

One of the objectives of the final year is to extend your knowledge of economic theory and train you to apply this theory to practical issues and public policy. Therefore, the optional papers available can vary from year to year but recent examples include:

Economic Theory and Analysis II
Political Economies
Banking and Finance
Public Economics
The Economics of Developing Countries
Industry
Theory and Practice of Econometrics
World Depression in the Interwar Years
The Politics of Europe
Global Capitalism
Social Problems in Modern Britain

For further information about studying Economics at the University of Cambridge see the Faculty of Economics website.

Entry Requirements

Typical offers require

A Level: A*A*A
IB: 40-42 points, with 776 at Higher Level

For other qualifications, see our main Entrance requirements pages.

Course requirements

Required by all Colleges: A Level/IB Higher Level Mathematics*.

See Economics: Subject Requirements and Typical Offer by College for College-specific requirements/preferences. All undergraduate admissions decisions are the responsibility of the Cambridge Colleges. Please contact the relevant College admissions office if you have any queries about College-specific requirements.

See also Entrance requirements and The Subject Matters for additional advice about general requirements for entry, qualifications and offers.

* IB applicants starting the new IB Mathematics syllabus are expected to take IB Higher Level 'Analysis and Approaches' for any course where Mathematics is a requirement. If this option is not available at your school, please contact the College that you wish to apply to directly for further advice and guidance.

Admission assessment

For 2021 entry, applicants for Economics are required to take a pre-interview written assessment on 5 November 2020, at an authorised centre local to them (for a lot of applicants, this will be their school/college). You need to be registered by 15 October 2020 to take the assessment, and your assessment centre must do this for you. See admission assessments for full details.

Assessment format

The format for the 2020 assessment will be as follows:

Section 1: Multiple choice questions in mathematics (60 minutes)
Section 2: Essay (60 minutes)

Economics Admissions Assessment Specification 2020

In addition to the pre-interview assessment, applicants to the following Colleges are required to take a College-set written assessment at interview (see individual College websites for details): Gonville & Caius.

Mature students (aged 21 or over) applying to one of the mature Colleges aren’t required to take the pre-interview assessment, and will instead sit an at-interview assessment. See the written assessments page for more details.

Please note that your performance in the pre-interview assessment will not be considered in isolation, but will be taken into account alongside the other elements of your application.

Specimen and past papers

A specimen paper has been produced to allow you to sample the written assessment format and practice under timed conditions. It is not expected that you will answer every question correctly; the written assessment is designed to be challenging. Even some strong candidates may not complete the paper in the time allowed; it is designed to distinguish across our field of high-calibre applicants.

Experience with similar assessments and from trials indicates that, on average, typical applicants to the most highly selective undergraduate courses (who are by definition academically very able) will gain approximately half of the available marks. The best applicants will score more highly, but only relatively few are expected to gain more than 80 per cent of the available marks.

Written assessments help admissions tutors to assess whether candidates have the skills, aptitudes and any required subject knowledge and understanding required to study the relevant course at Cambridge. They are only one of the elements used in the admissions process. Others include a candidate’s academic record and forecast grades in school-leaving examinations; UCAS application form; examples of recent written work submitted to the College to which they are applying; and performance at interview, if invited to attend.

When using the specimen and past papers below, please note the following changes to the 2020 Economics admissions assessment:

Economics Admission Assessment	In 2020	In previous years
Section 1	60 minutes Multiple-choice assessment comprising approximately 20 Mathematics and 20 advanced Mathematics questions.	80 minutes Multiple-choice assessment comprising approximately 20 problem solving questions and 15 advanced Mathematics questions.
Section 2	60 minutes Extended essay	40 minutes Extended essay

Specimen Papers:

Economics 2020 - Section 1 Question Paper
Economics 2020 - Section 1 Answer Sheet
Economics 2020 - Section 1 Answer Key
Economics 2020 - Section 1 Explained Answers
Economics 2020 - Section 2 Question Paper

Past Papers:

PDF icon Economics Admissions Assessment 2019 (papers combined)
Economics Admissions Assessment 2018 (papers combined)

PDF icon Economics Admissions Assessment 2017 - Section 1: Question Paper
Economics Admissions Assessment 2017 - Section 1: Answer Sheet
Economics Admissions Assessment 2017 - Section 1: Answer Key
Economics Admissions Assessment 2017 - Section 2: Question Paper

PDF icon Economics Admissions Assessment 2016 - Section 1: Question Paper
Economics Admissions Assessment 2016 - Section 1: Answer Sheet
Economics Admissions Assessment 2016 - Section 1: Answer Key
Economics Admissions Assessment 2016 - Section 2: Question Paper

Submitted work

Applicants to some Colleges are required to submit one or two School/college essays as examples of written work prior to interview. See Economics: Subject Requirements and Typical Offer by College for a list of Colleges that require submitted work and visit individual College websites for further details.

For further information about studying Economics at the University of Cambridge see the Faculty of Economics website.

Resources

Find out more about Economics at Cambridge

Faculty of Economics - Explore Economics in more detail on the faculty website.

Paper Outlines - A detailed guide to the Economics degree.

Course slideshow - An introductory slideshow for Economics at Cambridge.

A Guide for Prospective Applicants - Frequently Asked Questions about the Economics course, plus a guide to first year papers.

Economics Preparatory Reading - Guidance on preparatory reading for applicants interested in Economics.

Preparing for the TSA Cambridge - Resources to help prepare for the TSA (required for Economics at some Colleges). Includes practice tests, suggested textbooks and further reading.

Discover Uni

Discover Uni data

Contextual information

Discover Uni allows you to compare information about individual courses at different higher education institutions. This can be a useful method of considering your options and what course may suit you best.

However, please note that superficially similar courses often have very different structures and objectives, and that the teaching, support and learning environment that best suits you can only be determined by identifying your own interests, needs, expectations and goals, and comparing them with detailed institution- and course-specific information.

We recommend that you look thoroughly at the course and University information contained on these webpages and consider coming to visit us on an Open Day, rather than relying solely on statistical comparison.

You may find the following notes helpful when considering information presented by Discover Uni.

Discover Uni relies on superficially similar courses being coded in the same way. Whilst this works on one level, it may lead to some anomalies. For example, Music courses and Music Technology courses can have exactly the same code despite being very different programmes with quite distinct educational and career outcomes.
Any course which combines several disciplines (as many courses at Cambridge do) tends to be compared nationally with courses in just one of those disciplines, and in such cases the Discover Uni comparison may not be an accurate or fair reflection of the reality of either. For example, you may find that when considering a degree which embraces a range of disciplines such as biology, physics, chemistry and geology (for instance, Natural Sciences at Cambridge), the comparison provided is with courses at other institutions that primarily focus on just one (or a smaller combination) of those subjects.You may therefore find that not all elements of the Cambridge degree are represented in the Discover Uni data.

Some contextual data linked from other surveys, such as the National Student Survey (NSS) or the Destination of Leavers in Higher Education (DLHE), may not be available or may be aggregated across several courses or several years due to small sample sizes. When using the data to inform your course choice, it is important to ensure you understand how it has been processed prior to its presentation. Discover Uni offers some explanatory information about how the contextual data is collated, and how it may be used, which you can view here: https://discoveruni.gov.uk/about-our-data/.

Discover Uni draws on national data to provide average salaries and employment/continuation data. Whilst starting salaries can be a useful measure, they do not give any sense of career trajectory or take account of the voluntary/low paid work that many graduates undertake initially in order to gain valuable experience necessary/advantageous for later career progression. Discover Uni is currently piloting use of the Longitudinal Education Outcomes (LEO) data to demonstrate possible career progression; it is important to note that this is experimental and its use may be modified as it embeds.

The above list is not exhaustive and there may be other important factors that are relevant to the choices that you are making, but we hope that this will be a useful starting point to help you delve deeper than the face value of the Discover Uni data.

Undergraduate Study