Economics and Politics

Economics and politics is a pairing that makes particular sense in a world where markets and governments are inseparable. Economics provides the tools to understand how resources are allocated, how incentives shape behaviour, how trade and investment flow across borders, and what makes economies grow or stagnate. Politics asks how power is organised and exercised, how institutions are designed, and how collective decisions are made and contested.

Studying them together allows you to see how economic forces shape political outcomes, and how political choices shape economic life.

At the University of Manchester, this three-year full-time programme takes you through core economic theory and quantitative methods alongside the major traditions of political thought and the institutions of domestic and international politics. You will engage with macroeconomics and microeconomics, learning to construct and evaluate formal models, while also developing the capacity to analyse political systems, ideologies and policy processes. The programme cultivates rigorous analytical thinking, the ability to interpret data and engage with evidence, and the skill of constructing clear, well-reasoned arguments in both written and spoken form.

This combination of skills opens a wide range of career paths. Graduates go on to work in economic consultancy, financial services, government economic analysis, international organisations, policy research, journalism and public affairs. The quantitative skills acquired through the economics component are particularly valued in analytical and research roles, while the political knowledge and contextual understanding broadens career options into areas where pure economics graduates are less well represented.

Many graduates also proceed to postgraduate study, taking masters programmes in economics, public policy, political science or international relations.