Economics and History

Economics and history are disciplines that belong together more than most. Few would deny that economic forces have been at the heart of historical change, from the agricultural revolutions of antiquity to the industrial transformation of the nineteenth century and the financial crises of the twentieth and twenty-first. Equally, understanding the modern economy requires a grasp of how it developed, why some societies industrialised before others, and how the institutions and norms that govern economic life today were shaped by their historical origins.

This combination produces graduates with a genuinely distinctive perspective on both disciplines.

At Leeds this three-year full-time programme develops your skills as both an economist and a historian, giving you deep understanding of the historical origins of economic growth alongside the analytical tools to engage with contemporary economic challenges. Economic thinking gives you quantitative rigour and the ability to model how incentives and markets operate; historical thinking gives you contextual depth, awareness of contingency, and the capacity to evaluate evidence from sources very different from those economists typically use. The combination develops a rare and valued intellectual range.

The programme includes a sandwich year, a year abroad, and work placements integrated throughout, giving you professional experience and international engagement alongside academic study.

Graduates are well placed for careers in economics, finance, policy analysis, the civil service, journalism, consulting, and research. The combination of analytical and historical skills is genuinely distinctive, and employers who value people who can think rigorously about the past and the present will find this profile attractive. Many graduates also continue to postgraduate study in economics, economic history, or public policy.