Course summary

One of three specialist Masters in Economics programmes available at Durham, the MSc in Behavioural Economics examines how elements of behavioural psychology can be applied to understand how people make economic decisions and how these decisions may differ from those made from rational choices. As one of the fastest growing areas in economics, behavioural economics provides insight to inform business and public policy alike. You will also gain an understanding of experimental methods in economics through classroom experiments. The programme consists of a set of core and optional modules, culminating in a research-based dissertation. Core learning covers key models of advanced macroeconomics and microeconomics and tools of econometric analysis, alongside behavioural and experimental economics. Offering the flexibility to tailor your programme, you will then be able to choose from a selection of optional modules. The dissertation then enables you to develop your research skills, through an in-depth investigation at an advanced level of a topic relevant to your degree. The programme is delivered by the Department of Economics, renowned internationally for its research and teaching excellence and is one of four departments at Durham University Business School. The Business School is one of the an elite group of institutions accredited by all three major business education accrediting bodies: the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB), the Association of MBAs (AMBA), and the European Quality Improvement System (EQUIS). Course structure Core modules Advanced Macroeconomics features selected topics from contemporary business cycle theory, models of long-run economic growth, and macroeconomic policy analysis. Advanced Microeconomics enhances your knowledge and analytical skills in areas such as consumer theory, producer theory, decision-making under risk and uncertainty, incentives and strategic behaviour, general equilibrium and information economics. Econometric Analysis provides the econometrics skills necessary to pursue empirical research in economics and/or finance and provides a grounding for understanding the more advanced econometric techniques to be taught in the second term of the course. Behavioural Economics builds the necessary knowledge and skills to critically review a wide range of behavioural patterns that influence economic decisions, and the consequences of those behaviours for business and policymaking. Experimental Economics enables you to test behavioural theories using methods from experimental economics. This module is designed to combine the behavioural approach in economics with active classroom experiments. These experiments illustrate simple economic situations, such as markets or auctions, and are used to highlight several economic ideas. You will critically review studies of economic behaviour in markets, bargaining, auctions, game theory, and public choice and discuss key aspects of individual behaviour in isolation, in particular choice under uncertainty and choice over time. You will then choose one of the two modules below: Microeconometrics provides the tools required to conduct policy evaluation using microeconomic cross section and panel datasets. OR Times-Series Analysis provides the tools required to model stationary and non-stationary time series data and obtain forecasts from econometric models.