Programme overview

A curriculum that equips you to solve real-world policy challenges

The Policy Economics specialisation within the MSc Economics and Business provides a rigorous and applied curriculum that prepares you to become a policy economist capable of addressing today’s most pressing economic issues. The programme combines theoretical depth, empirical analysis, and practical application across five blocks.

Programme structure

• Core courses provide a strong foundation in public economics, macroeconomics, and econometrics. You will take the courses  Advanced Public Economics, Applied Microeconometrics, and Advanced Macroeconomics, that will equip you with powerful tool sets from economic theory and empirical research.
• Electives allow you to explore specific policy areas. You will choose three electives in total, and we recommend taking one in block 1 and two electives in block 2.  The electives provide a deep understanding of certain topics, allow for individualizing the programme, and allow for putting the focus on economic policy in a certain area, e.g., the labour market, international economics, or macroeconomics.
• Seminars are a central part of the programme. In the first seminar, you can choose between Policy Evaluation - focused on applied research techniques such as policy evaluation, cost-benefit analysis, and field experiments - and The Economics of AI, which will look into benefits and challenges created by AI and the implications it has for public policy. In the second seminar, you will choose between Economic Policy —which focuses on current policy debates—or Economics of Migration, which studies policy issues about migration.
• Master thesis is written individually in the final phase of the programme, based on your own research and under close supervision.

Curriculum overview

• 29% Applications
• 33% Theory
• 38% Empirics

In class

Teaching will combine the economic tool set with real-world applications and discussions in class. Particularly in the seminars, but also in some courses, you will work on real-world assignments that reflect the complexity of modern policy-making and that you will solve in group work

Study schedule

The introduction event for all new students at Erasmus School of Economics is the Master Take-Off. During this interesting introduction event, you will be provided with useful practical information and receive an introduction to your studies, meet your fellow students and our School. Thereafter, you will take the course courses and the electives in blocks 1 and 2. The seminar follows in blocks 3 and 4 while you will work on your Master’s thesis as individual assignment over the blocks 3-5. See the course overview for more details.’

For the electives, you choose three courses from the listed courses. One of the three electives can also be a “free elective” that is one other Economics and Business master’s course, with the exception of the core courses from the specialisation Data Science and Marketing Analytics. Our recommendation is to take one elective in block 1 and to take two electives in block 2. 

Find all the courses in the Course catalogue.

Disclaimer

This overview provides a general impression of the 2027-2028 curriculum. It is not the current study schedule. Enrolled students can find the most up-to-date version on MyEUR. Please note that minor changes may occur in future academic years.