Economics and History

Economics and history is a combination that recognises how deeply the past and present are connected, and how much each discipline enriches the other. Economics provides analytical tools for understanding how resources are allocated, how markets and institutions develop, and how policy choices shape welfare and growth. History provides the contextual depth, the sense of how things came to be as they are, and the critical approach to evidence that prevents economic analysis from floating free of the complex realities it seeks to explain.

Economic history as a field emerged precisely from this recognition, and some of the most important questions in economics, about why some countries are richer than others, how financial crises unfold, and what the long-term effects of institutional change are, can only be answered by engaging seriously with the past.

At the University of Dundee, this four-year programme develops your understanding of both disciplines over a course of study that includes a year abroad. You will study economic theory and quantitative methods alongside historical analysis, engaging with primary sources, archives, and the major historiographical debates in economic and social history. Dundee's programme takes advantage of both an economics faculty engaged with applied and policy questions and a history faculty with genuine research strengths, and the combination gives you a profile that is both analytically rigorous and contextually informed.

Graduates move into careers in financial services, economic consultancy, policy analysis, government, journalism, and the heritage and cultural sectors. The combination of quantitative economic skills and historical depth is valued in roles that require not just the ability to model the present but to understand how we got here, which is increasingly recognised as essential to sound forecasting and policy-making. Academic research in economic history, economics, or history is a natural further step for those who wish to continue in the field, and the combination is excellent preparation for postgraduate study in economics, history, or public policy.