Economics

Economics is the study of how individuals, firms, and societies make decisions about scarce resources. It asks fundamental questions about why some countries are rich and others poor, how wages and prices are determined, what happens when markets fail, and how economic policy can be used to address unemployment, inflation, inequality, and environmental damage. It is a discipline that combines rigorous analytical thinking with real-world relevance, drawing on mathematics, statistics, and data analysis alongside theory and empirical research.

At the University of Leicester, this three-year full-time programme gives you a thorough grounding in economic theory and its applications. You will study both microeconomics, examining how individuals and firms make decisions and how markets function, and macroeconomics, analysing the behaviour of economies as a whole, including growth, inflation, and monetary and fiscal policy. You will develop strong quantitative skills, learning to work with data and statistical methods as the tools of empirical economics.

The programme includes a sandwich year and a year abroad option, as well as work placement opportunities, giving you a rich set of practical and international experiences that complement the academic programme.

Economics graduates are valued across an exceptionally wide range of careers because the analytical and quantitative skills the discipline develops are applicable in almost any professional context. Common destinations include financial services, economic consultancy, the civil service and government, international organisations, banking, management consultancy, public policy, and research. Many graduates go on to postgraduate study in economics, finance, or public policy, and a postgraduate economics qualification is the standard route into academic research or senior analytical roles in government and international institutions.