Social Policy and Economics

Social policy and economics is a combination that brings analytical tools from economics to bear on the questions that social policy raises: how resources should be distributed, how public services should be designed and funded, what the consequences of different welfare arrangements are, and how inequalities of income, health, and opportunity can be understood and addressed. Economics provides the theoretical and quantitative frameworks, including microeconomics, macroeconomics, and econometrics, that allow you to analyse policy questions rigorously. Social policy provides the institutional context and normative questions that give those frameworks their purpose.

The University of Edinburgh's four-year full-time Social Policy and Economics programme draws on Edinburgh's strength in both subjects. You will study economic theory, quantitative methods, and empirical analysis alongside the history, comparative analysis, and political economy of welfare states and public services. The programme engages with questions such as how health systems compare across countries, what drives educational inequality, how pension systems are financed and what reforms are viable, and what the evidence tells us about the effects of different approaches to poverty reduction.

Edinburgh's research environment means you will engage with live debates in both disciplines, and the programme includes a year abroad, giving you the opportunity to study social policy and economics in a different national context, which is particularly valuable for understanding how differently countries approach shared social challenges.

A typical entry tariff of 136 points reflects the programme's quantitative demands alongside its social science content.

Graduates pursue careers in government and the civil service, public policy research, international organisations including the World Bank and OECD, economic consultancy, the voluntary sector, and academia. The combination of economic analysis and policy knowledge is highly valued in roles that require both technical rigour and practical judgment about social outcomes. Postgraduate study in economics, public policy, or social policy is a natural further step.