MSc Economic Policy with Placement Year

This module aims to acquaint you with various issues bearing on research in the social sciences in general, and economics and political economy, in particular. It introduces a range of approaches to
research and seeks to help you understand the strengths and weaknesses of different methodological approaches. The objective of the module is to equip you with the basic tools to undertake independent research and rigorously evaluate different research methods.

This course is one of two core courses of the MSc Global Economic Governance. It is designed to familiarize students with core policy and reform debates on current global economic governance, with emphasis on the following areas: international monetary and financial integration, international production, international trade and international competitiveness, and the role of labour in the global economy.

This is a session on essay writing for postgraduate students. It is meant to provide guidance for essay assignments, in the form of both readings, organising, strucutring and writing essay-based coursework, specifically for Economics modules. It is aimed to Postgraduate students as they come from different educational backgrounds and as means of providing them with a set of guidelines for essay writing.

This core module will be an introduction to concepts in probability theory and statistics and will not have specific adacemic requirements. The purpose of the module is to enable students to take on Statistical Research Techniques in term 2. In addition, it provides the basic knowledge required to study articles engaging in quantitative analysis.

This module seeks to provide foundations of economic theory across micro and macro for students without any prior disciplinary knowledge. The course will introduce the most relevant economic theories across micro and macro to enable students to navigate broader economic policy debates that often draw on a set of analytical propositions across micro and macro. 

This module consists of a survey of key approaches and issues in the political economy of growth and development. The aim is to familiarise students with foundational and contemporary debates on growth and development theory and policy and to develop the analytical ability of students to engage with real-world growth and development questions.

The objective of this module is twofold: to provide an analytical training in the critical use of theories of international finance and to provide an opportunity for students to develop critical understanding of current policy debates on regional integration and globalisation, management of open developing economies with large external shocks, dynamics of currency and financial crises, management of exchange rates and capital accounts, international monetary and financial architecture, and other global economic issues. Throughout the course, emphasis is placed on understanding theories as well as on evaluating these theoretical propositions in the light of empirical evidence and real world issues.

This course introduces students to the economics of institutions and the role of political economy in understanding institutional performance in developing countries. This covers the growing interest and literature on governance, on the role of corruption and rent-seeking, the transition to capitalism and the institutions appropriate to that transition, the role of property rights and property right stability during this transition, the role of the state and of different strategies of catching up, the role of democracy and of authoritarianism in economic transitions.

This course provides an introduction to the post-1950 evolution of the main economies of the Asia-Pacific region (comprising Northeast and Southeast Asia). It looks at macroeconomic issues, with a particular focus on growth, trade and investment flows, and fluctuations in economic indicators since the middle of the 1990s.

The objective of this course is to develop students’ understanding of the main economic relationships that arise between the financial sector and the ‘real economy’ in the course of economic development.

Evaluation Methods for Economic Policy aims to equip students with a deep understanding of the theoretical concepts underlying policy evaluation
and the practical skills needed to evaluate economic policies. Students will learn various advanced quantitative, qualitative, and mixed methods approaches, examining their strengths and limitations in terms of internal and external validity. The module emphasizes practical applications using open-source computer software such as R and RQDA, based on real-world economic policy issues and case studies from the Global South and Global North.

The module covers concepts and techniques for analysing time-series data and designing dynamic models, e.g. stationarity versus nonstationarity, cointegration, exogeneity and simultaneity, model encompassing. It is applied-modelling oriented and mathematical proofs and derivations are kept to a minimum. This module provides students with practical experience in modelling economic relationships, and enhances their competence in critically evaluating research results, and carrying out good quality empirical work. The final coursework is an embodiment of these training goals.

This course introduces students to economic perspectives on environmental and development issues. It covers various macro and microeconomic issues as well as economics of climate change.

This module provides students with a thorough treatment of advanced microeconomic theories and related applied policy debates. This course examines contending approaches to microeconomic theories and their applications focusing on the issues including, but not limited to, consumer behaviour, networks, business cycles, role of the state and micro-foundations of macroeconomic models. Multiple analytical techniques -mathematical, descriptive, graphical, narrative, and historical- will be employed to explain the nature and scope of microeconomic problems and their policy implications.

Students are expected to understand and critically examine theoretical frameworks and arguments so that they can develop analytical skills to deal with real world applied problems.

Using a political economy and pluralist perspective, the module builds on and expands the Macroeconomics module of Term 1. It provides a critical overview and in-depth analysis of macroeconomic theories and methods, focusing on a variety of issues that are at the centre of the contemporary debates on macroeconomic policies. These include mainstream and heterodox macroeconomic modelling approaches, shadow banking and financialisation, distribution and growth, the macroeconomics of climate change, fiscal and monetary policies for climate mitigation, financial globalisation, crises and the role of gender in macroeconomics.

This course looks at the interaction between China's economic transformation and world development since the late 1970s until the present time. The emphasis is on critically analyzing and assessing this interaction from alternative historical and theoretical perspectives.

The module introduces students to the topic of green finance and its potential contribution to a sustainable economy in the context of climate change and the transition to a low-carbon economy. Specifically, the module supports students in understanding how climate and other environmental risks create potential financial risks in banking and capital markets and analyses the role of financial actors in driving and potentially mitigating these risks.

This module explores economic development in post-colonial Sub-Saharan Africa, bringing together macroeconomic and microeconomic perspectives. It presents theoretical and policy-relevant debates that are of interest not only to those who want to learn about Sub-Saharan Africa specifically but also to those who are seeking to develop a global understanding of economic dynamics.

The business world has traditionally relied on accounting and finance practitioners to provide a summary of business performance in form of financial statements at regular intervals. Also, quantitative business intelligence has traditional being an important field in accounting and finance.

While these two roles continue to be important, there is marked change in their nature, frequency, and potentials given the exponential growth in unstructured data. Consistent with Moore's Law, there's also an exponential increase in computing power. The current business environment, therefore, requires managers to know data analysis and programming to make sense of the huge volume of data. The module, therefore, complements other modules on the programme, such as financial accounting and financial statement analysis, management accounting, and applied econometrics.

The purpose of this module is to familiarise students with the main debates in gender and development and to introduce new ways of conceptualising the field, critiquing the concept of gender as generally applied in development, and also development itself. We will study issues relevant to gender and development not usually included within the development paradigm, like the coloniality of gender. We will also discuss how the gender binaries came to be so pervasive globally. Gender here is viewed as a set of normative behavioural prescriptions that apply to men as much as to women and men and masculinities will be treated as an integral part of the field alongside women and femininities. Gender is also understood not simply as an issue of individual male-female relationships but as inherently political.

This course examines global supply chain capitalism and maps its implications for development, with emphasis on the realms of work, gender, poverty, mobility, social reproduction, and labour standards. The course examines the structure of different ‘global commodity chains’ (GCCs), ‘global value chains’ (GVCs) and/or ‘global production networks’ (GPNs), including those organising labour-intensive manufacturing like sweatshops, agro-food production like coffee, or the digital/platform economy. It highlights linkages between the current structure of global production and that characterising the colonial/imperial era. It explores debates on labour informalisation and feminisation; examines the global reorganisation of social reproduction at work in global chains; explains the relevance of labour mobility and forced labour; and analyses global labour standards and ‘modern slavery’ debates, mapping links between Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) and the new ‘abolitionist industrial complex’.

The aim of this module is to enable students to understand and evaluate major policy debates on the role of agriculture in development. To do so, the course will consider in some depth the relevant theoretical and empirical literature on: the necessary for structural change in agriculture-dependant societies; the operation of agricultural factor and commodity markets, including international markets; the nature of rural societies and the characterisation of farmers; the nature of food markets and the role of agriculture in improving welfare. Both mainstream and heterodox approaches will be investigated.

This team-taught course aims to provide an understanding of how aid and aid institutions have impacted on developmental prospects and practice. It explores the role, purpose, and complexities of aid in development through an examination of what forms ‘aid’ takes, and how this contributes to development; the role of specific types of organizations involved in delivering aid; the contexts in which aid is distributed; and the complexities and challenges involved. Thematically, the course is divided into three main areas: firstly and exploration of key ideas and themes in aid and development; secondly, an examination of aid at differing organizational levels; and thirdly, an exploration of aid delivery and practice in specific contexts. It will draw on experiences from a variety of contexts to provide a grounding in how aid and development are linked, and how ‘aid organizations’ function.

In this module, we are aiming for a participatory and intellectually stimulating learning experience. The module engages with theories and approaches that are applied in the study of the working poor in the Global South - and to a lesser extent the Global North - and their collective agency and activism through labour movements, social movements and struggles grounded in both productive and reproductive sites of contention. We begin with an exploration of the main approaches to labour and development in an historical context. We then move on to analyse how neoliberalism and globalisation have incorporated the labouring classes of the South through processes such as informalisation and feminisation of work. The module homes in on the strategies and campaigns of trade unions, labour organisations, social movements and environmental campaigns.

This module explores global health in relation to global development. It considers the links between health, illness and poverty; the ways in which poverty, insecurity and inequalities create particular risks and challenges for individuals and communities; the challenges of responding to health crises and issues; and how global health fits within global development discourses, debates and issues. It does so through a focus on three areas. (1) The place of global health within global development, and key social factors impacting on health. (2) Health systems for global health and development. (3) Key issues in global heath.

The growth of cities is a key features of our times. Today more than half of the world population lives in cities, and developing countries have sustained decades of rapid urbanisation. This module will explore the key academic debates on the relationship between cities and development; the key factors driving the growth of cities in developing countries, from colonial times to the present and its implications for development. The module, taught through a weekly 1 hour lecture and 1 hour tutorialin term 1, will expose students to a number of theoretical approaches to the “urban” in developing countries, including political economy and postcolonial narratives. Such theoretical debates will be used to make sense of a range of urban themes/sectors such as housing, crime, informal employment, transport, digital technology and migration.

This course explores feminist and gendered approaches to the study of global political economy. First, the course explores feminist contributions to the study of the world economy and its intersecting inequalities, including during COVID-19 times, and illustrates feminist analyses of the global assembly line. Second, it introduces social reproduction theorizations and illustrates processes of commodification of social reproduction under neoliberalism, by examining the rise and features of global care and reproductive chains. Third, the course explores links between accumulation, gender, and race, by introducing gendered approaches to racial capitalism, coloniality, and indigeneity. It analyses feminist intersectional, anti-racist and decolonial political movements including BLM; and introduces debates on abolition feminism and reproductive justice. Finally, the course illustrates gendered approaches to agrarian change, food, and the ecology. 

This course aims to develop an understanding of key issues in international business and management within a rapidly changing business environment. It focuses on the structure and behaviour of large multinational companies and small international entrepreneurial firms. This course expects to build up the knowledge and skills in international management field, which will contribute to the knowledge learning for related courses.

We live in an era of frequent and sometimes radical change in what governments do and how they are organised to do it. Sometimes the changes are generated within countries as responses to social, political and economic developments and sometimes they originate outside the country. The purpose of this course is to provide an analytical framework for understanding public policy and management in a variety of historical and comparative contexts. It will give you the means to make your own judgements about appropriate ways to make public policy and organise and deliver public services. The contents of the course include attention to different kinds of governments and rationales for intervention of the state in the economy and society, the process of policy-making, policy implementation and policy evaluation, the various forms in which public services can be organised and the principles and tools for aligning the behaviour of individuals to the pursue of public interest, decentralisation and change management.

This module will cover many aspects of public governance, accountability and transparency. We will start the course by looking at the systems and processes of government, at the differences and relationships between the public and the private section, and at public policy decision-making. We will turn our attention, then, to issues that arise from stakeholder management and risk management in government. After the Reading Week, we will pay attention to issues related to fraud and corruption, internal control systems, auditing, ethics and integrity in the public sector. We will conclude the course by looking at the role of policy and programme evaluation in government.

This module provides students with a basic conceptual framework and practical knowledge regarding finance and investments in emerging markets. This module is concerned with the differences in financial systems between emerging markets and mature market economies; and how these differences explain the observed discrepancies in corporate financing behaviour between firms in emerging markets and those in mature market economies.

The aim of this module is to prepare students for understanding the changing dynamics of multinational enterprises (MNEs) and developing a critical perspective on the MNEs and their relationship with the external environment.

The PG Placement module provides students with an opportunity to apply the academic knowledge they have gained in the first taught portion of the degree programme in a practical, professional setting. The yearlong placement will enable students to develop their own work practice, teamwork and collaboration skills, critical analysis, problem solving, autonomy, and specific skills relevant to the host organisation.

Following the taught element of the PG Programme, students will undertake a 10-12 month placement in an organisation. Upon completion of the placement, students will work on the dissertation or final project, applying the practical skills they have developed during the placement.

You will be expected to secure the work placement yourself, to be approved by the academic department. The SOAS Careers team are on hand to help you with your CV, interview skills and finding the right organisation for you.

Students are required to submit a research project on a topic relating to Economics or Economic Policy. Guidance on developing the research project will be given as part of Research Methods during term 1, as well as through the supervisors who will be allocated according to their expertise. The research project is carried out through Term 2 and into the summer period, and is submitted in September.