Economics and Philosophy & Ethics

Economics and philosophy and ethics is a combination that goes to the intellectual heart of how we think about human welfare, justice, and rational choice. Economics provides rigorous analytical frameworks for understanding how resources are allocated, how markets work, and how the behaviour of individuals and institutions produces outcomes for society. Philosophy and ethics raises the normative questions that economics alone cannot answer: what should we be trying to maximise, how should we weigh the interests of different people, and what obligations do individuals, states, and corporations have to each other and to future generations?

At Liverpool Hope University, this programme situates economics in a richly contemporary context, exploring major global challenges from globalisation and trade wars to inequality, climate change, migration, and financial crises. The economics strand develops your quantitative and analytical skills alongside the theoretical frameworks needed to understand macro and microeconomic questions. The philosophy and ethics strand develops your capacity for rigorous moral reasoning, engaging with theories of justice, rights, welfare, and virtue, and with the applied ethical questions that arise in business, politics, health, and international relations.

Together the two strands give you a way of thinking about the world that is both analytically powerful and morally serious.

The programme includes a sandwich year, a year abroad, and work placement opportunities. The typical entry tariff is 104 UCAS points, and the degree is studied full time.

Graduates go on to careers in policy research, the civil service, international organisations, consultancy, finance, education, journalism, and the charity sector. The ability to combine economic rigour with ethical depth is valued in organisations grappling with questions of corporate responsibility, inequality, and sustainability. Further study options include postgraduate degrees in economics, political philosophy, development economics, and applied ethics.