Economics

During your Economics PhD programme at Surrey, you’ll be guided by leading research-active academics with expertise in various fields, including macroeconomics, microeconomic theory, econometrics and applied Microeconomics.

Surrey has a reputation as a leading research-intensive department in the UK. In the 2021 Research Excellence Framework, Economics Economics ranked in the top 10 in the UK for world-leading research. The University of Surrey University of Surrey achieved an overall ranking of 6th for real-world impact and 8th for research environment in REF 2021.

Career opportunities

This PhD programme produces graduates who are sought-after by leading economics departments, business schools and research institutions around the world. Your first year will be spent studying core modules in microeconomics, macroeconomics and econometrics, while working on your research. The final two years of your PhD will be entirely dedicated to independent research, leading to a PhD dissertation. You’ll also have the opportunity to contribute to the teaching and research activity. During your PhD, and on successful completion of your teacher training, you will be offered the opportunity to take on a range of paid teaching activities, fully supported by your academic colleagues. These teaching opportunities will further reinforce your personal and academic skills and help to enhance your understanding of your subject area as well as adding significantly to your CV. Your final assessment will be based on the presentation of your research in a written thesis, which will be discussed in a viva examination with at least two examiners. You have the option of preparing your thesis as a monograph (one large volume in chapter form) or in publication format (including chapters written for publication), subject to the approval of your supervisors.

Research themes

• Behavioural economics

• Big data and resampling techniques

• Choice under uncertainty

• Development economics

• Duration models

• Econometric identification

• Economics of crime

• Education economics

• Empirical revealed preference

• Financial economics

• Games theory

• Health economics

• Heterogeneous agents in macroeconomics

• Labour economics

• Learning and imperfect information in macroeconomics

• Mechanism design