Program Overview

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Our four-year integrated PhD Economics follows the MRes Economics programme for year 1 before beginning the PhD study programme within the department in year 2. Our four-year pathway in the Department of Economics for the PhD economics degree provides you with training to develop the research mind-set for PhD studies and gives you the chance to ask difficult questions, break intellectual boundaries and create new solutions to issues of global concern. You work closely with our creative and committed academics - researchers who are pioneering new solutions to these issues, inspiring your own research. We are renowned for our research expertise in a number of areas of economics, including the following:

• Behavioural economics
• Experimental economics
• Industrial organisation, market structure and firm behaviour
• Political economy
• Social networks
• Economic theory
• Financial economics and economics of banking
• International economics
• Macroeconomics and macroeconomic policy
• Public finance
• Search and matching
• Development economics
• Family and health economics including gender, population, and migration
• Labour economics including inequality and the economics of crime
• Microeconometrics
• Spatial econometrics and cross-sectional dependence
• Semi and nonparametric econometrics
• Time series econometrics

We are 4th in UK for research power in economics and econometrics (Times Higher Education research power measure, Research Excellence Framework 2021). You receive training in research methods and tools starting with the modules offered in the MRes Economics programme, followed by advanced research training and expert supervision to reach your full potential, as well as access to top quality research facilities. We also guarantee office space for you from the second year of your PhD studies in our PhD Research Centre, giving you the space and tools to work. We work with you to teach you how to look at the world through an economist's lens, taking a critical approach to dismantle a proposition, working robust methodologies to build an argument based on rigorous theoretical reasoning and sound empirical evidence. Our PhD includes advanced economic methods and analysis, with links to research programmes in our Institute for Social and Economic Research , the UK Data Archive and other departments at Essex. Why we're great.

• We are 4th in UK for research power in economics and econometrics (Times Higher Education research power measure, Research Excellence Framework 2021)
• As one of our PhD students, you can be part of our regular lively debates in seminars, workshops and conferences
• Be the first to read cutting-edge papers published by our academics, in leading journals

Our expert staff

Essex economists are engaged in a variety of research networks and collaborate with economists at other universities in the UK and overseas. Much of our research is related to policy and we often provide advice to government and non-government organisations. The top quality of our work is reflected in our stream of publications in high profile academic journals like the American Economic Review, Econometrica, the Journal of Political Economy, the Journal of Finance, and the Review of Economic Studies . Our staff members also receive funding for their research from a number of national and international funding bodies such as the Economic and Social Research Council and the European Research Commission.

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Specialist facilities

Access to all University facilities at our Colchester Campus, such as our well-equipped Albert Sloman Library and extensive open access computer laboratories, we also guarantee office space for you from the second year of your PhD studies in our PhD Research Centre, giving you the space and tools to work. Extensive software for quantitative analysis is available in all computer labs across the university. You also have access to ESSEXLab, our on-campus social science lab where you can conduct studies using our participants, in state-of-the-art facilities and to the resources available at the Institute for Social and Economic Research and the UK Data Archive .

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Your future

In recent years, our PhD students have obtained posts in a range of academic and non-academic institutions. These include universities such as Bath, Chicago, Dusseldorf, East Anglia, the London School of Economics, Mannheim, Oxford, Rochester, University College London, and organisations like the Office for National Statistics (UK), the Bank of England, Bank of Italy, Bank of Korea, Bank of Mexico, Central Bank of Colombia, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, European Commission JRC, the World Bank. With the skills and knowledge you acquire from studying within our Department of Economics, you will be in demand from a wide range of employers. We have excellent links with the research community, both in the UK and worldwide, and strong ties with the policy, business and consultancy world, especially in London and other major financial centres.