Modern History & Economics: Course Structure

History and Economics: Course Structure

Modern History and Economics brings together the traditionally separate disciplines of history and economics to form a coherent and intellectually stimulating programme. The course is sufficiently flexible to allow students to specialize in virtually any area that they choose without sacrificing the well-integrated interdisciplinary approach for which the course is known. The combination of economics, economic history and history (political as well as social) means that your studies will equip you to view contemporary issues from a variety of contrasting perspectives. With all the options available the course offers countless different permutations, ensuring that whatever you want from this course you are unlikely to be disappointed.

First Year (The Preliminary Examination)

Students study four papers and sit an examination at the end of the first year.
1.	Introductory Economics, which is designed to give a solid grounding in both micro- and macro- economics
2.	General History (primarily European). A choice of four options is available: I: 370–900 (The Transformation of the Ancient World) II: 1000–1300 (Medieval Christendom and its neighbours) III: 1400–1650 (Renaissance, Recovery and Reform) IV: 1815–1914 (Society, Nation and Empire)
3.	A paper on historical methods. A variety of options is available. ‘Approaches to History’ involves an examination of interdisciplinary ways of studying history; ‘Historiography: Tacitus to Weber’ looks at great historians and their works; Quantification in History provides an introduction to the use of statistics in historical investigation; and the Foreign Texts option allows students to study one or two seminal historical works in a foreign language (options in Greek, Latin, French, German, Italian, Spanish and Russian are available).
4.	An Optional Subject involving the use of primary sources. The following are currently available although there may be some variation from year to year: Nobility and Gentry in England 1560–1660 Industrial Work and Working Class Life in Britain 1870–1914 Industrialization in Britain and France 1750–1870

The Second and Third Years

There are two core papers in economics which include both theoretical and applied components, and there is one core paper in Economic History. Thereafter there is a great choice of subjects enabling you to use the skills acquired in the first year and from the study of the core papers. The following papers are studied:
1.	Macroeconomics
2.	Microeconomics
3.	Quantitative Economics
4.	British Economic History since 1870
5.	Either a period of British History or a period of General History (European or World History), of the History of the United States, or of the History of European expansion overseas. There are twenty-five options to choose from. It is possible to study social, economic, and cultural as well as political themes within these options.
6.	Either: (a) two Further Subjects in History, or (b) two Further Subjects in Economics, or (c) one Further Subject in History and one Further Subject in Economics. The Economics Further Subjects include the following (although it is possible that not all subjects on this list will be available in every year): Money and Banking International Economics Economics of Industry Economics of Developing Countries Labour Economics and Industrial Relations Econometrics Public Economics Command and Transitional Economies Comparative Demographic Systems Statistical Methods in Social Science Economics of OECD Countries Economic Decisions within the Firm Finance Game Theory
7.	A thesis from original research – normally, but not necessarily, in economic history.

Further information can be found on the Oxford University Admissions Website.