BAEcon Economics and Data Analytics / Course details

Year of entry: 2024

Course description

During the BA (Econ) in Economics and Data Analytics course, you will learn the traditional curriculum in economics, but also learn how to translate these theories into empirical questions that can be studied using real-life data.

Specifically, you learn data analytic and data science techniques to evaluate the effectiveness of economic policy, understand economic behaviour, predict and classify economic phenomena and describe and analyse networks of relationships between economic agents, firms, institutions and society.

By completing the core and optional units, you gain general sought after skills, including:

  • how to collect, describe and visualise data;
  • how to build quantitative models to explain phenomena;
  • how to quantitatively evaluate the effectiveness of policies;
  • how to map and analyse complex social networks;
  • how to implement key machine learning algorithms;
  • how to implement data analytic techniques and data science algorithms using statistical software including R, as well as proprietary packages such as SPSS.

The pathway emphasises the application of modern data analytic methods to real-life problems. You will also learn some of the underlying theory, enabling you to progress further in your career to more advanced postgraduate courses in either Economics or Data Science and to more challenging scenarios in policy and industry.

Aims

This unique course offers the opportunity of studying the traditional curriculum in economics alongside advanced data analytics and data science methods. The course is for students with a grounding in maths and/or statistics (gained either at A-level or on the specialist first year course units you'll take alongside all our BA Econ students).

Data analytics has a wide range of applications in practice (from social science, to natural sciences; from the evaluation of economic policies, to prediction and classification of economic phenomena).

You will learn how to use data analytic methods to combine data (from survey, census, social networks, text, sounds, images, memories, or experiences) and study human behaviour and social environments.

Specifically, we will help you to translate economic theories into empirical questions that can be answered with data, and that can inform debates about the economy, society, and the impact of economic policies.

Special features

Leading research

The Economics Department is proud to be a leading centre for economic research, scholarship and research-led teaching in all areas of the discipline, including financial economics, economic theory and econometrics.

The Manchester Accounting and Finance Group is one of the leading and largest accounting and finance units in Europe and rated among top three in the UK. We have strong links with the three main UK accounting bodies: ACCA, CIMA and ICAEW, as well as the 'Big 4' accounting companies.

Study abroad

If you would like to broaden your horizons and your degree, you can apply to study overseas for a year at one of our partner universities. You apply in Year 2 to spend a year abroad in Year 3. If successful, you will put together a programme of study at the host university in consultation with your Academic Exchange Advisor, to complement your studies at Manchester. You will then come back to Manchester to study for a fourth year and graduate with a degree title including ‘with International Study'. See The University of Manchester Study Abroad pages for more information.

Professional Experience Year

You apply in Year 1 to boost your employability through a paid Professional Experience Year. If you meet the criteria, the Professional Experience Team and Careers Service will work with you to find a suitable placement in Year 2.

You will complete your Professional Experience Year in Year 3 extending your degree to four years, before returning to University to finish your final year.

Your degree title will include 'with Professional Experience', giving you an advantage of work experience when entering the graduate jobs market.

Teaching and learning

Course units feature formal lectures supported by smaller tutorials or seminars, where you explore the contents of lectures and recommended reading in greater depth. 

Tutorials and seminars are key in improving your written and oral communication skills through group discussions, essay-writing, and presentations. 

You are assigned an Academic Advisor who takes a friendly interest in your progress, and can advise you on selecting course units and career opportunities.

Coursework and assessment

The way that you study and are assessed will depend on which course units you choose. Our methods are designed to promote in-depth learning and understanding, including: 

  • essays, coursework, and other mid-term evaluations; 
  • dissertations; 
  • presentations; 
  • group projects; 
  • exams.

Course content for year 1

Year 1 is designed to give you a solid foundation in the study of Economics and the essentials of Data Analytics. In addition to this, the Economics and Data Analytics pathway of the BA Economic and Social Studies course is a modular course in Year 1 you take 120 credits overall (so between 10 to 12 individual course units) made up of:
  • 40 credits of Economics;
  • 20 credits of either Introductory or Advanced Mathematics/Statistics (depending on your A-level qualifications or equivalent);
  • 10 credits of an introductory core unit in Social Sciences;
  • 20 credits of core Applied Statistics;
  • 20 credits of other Social Sciences - (eg, Politics, Philosophy, Sociology, Social Anthropology and Data Analytics)
  • 10 credits from other options from either Development Studies, Economic History, Finance or Accounting.

At the end of your Year 1, you would have an option to switch to a different pathway within this programme, if you want to.

Course units for year 1

The course unit details given below are subject to change, and are the latest example of the curriculum available on this course of study.

TitleCodeCredit ratingMandatory/optional
Microeconomics 2 ECON10232 10 Mandatory
Macroeconomics 1 ECON10241 10 Mandatory
Macroeconomics 2 ECON10262 10 Mandatory
Microeconomics 1 ECON10331 10 Mandatory
Power and Value: Perspectives from Social Sciences SOCS15001 10 Mandatory
Applied Statistics for Social Scientists SOST10142 20 Mandatory
Fundamentals of Finance BMAN10552 10 Optional
Fundamentals of Financial Reporting A BMAN10621A 10 Optional
An Introduction to Development Studies ECON10002 10 Optional
Introductory Mathematics ECON10061 10 Optional
Advanced Mathematics ECON10071A 10 Optional
Advanced Statistics ECON10072A 10 Optional
Computing for Social Scientists ECON10151 10 Optional
Introduction to Mathematical Economics ECON10192 10 Optional
Economic History ECON10212 10 Optional
Introduction to Ethics PHIL10021 20 Optional
Critical Thinking PHIL10041 20 Optional
Philosophies of Resistance: Philosophical Reflection on Movements for Social Justice PHIL10101 20 Optional
Ancient Greek Philosophy PHIL10122 20 Optional
Introduction to Metaphysics and Epistemology PHIL10622 20 Optional
Introduction to Philosophy of Mind PHIL10631 20 Optional
Introduction to Comparative Politics POLI10202 20 Optional
Making Sense of Politics POLI10302 20 Optional
British Politics: Power and the State POLI10401 20 Optional
Politics of the Global Economy POLI10502 20 Optional
Introduction to International Politics POLI10601 20 Optional
Introduction to Political Theory POLI10702 20 Optional
Power and Culture: Inequality in Everyday Life SOAN10301 10 Optional
Cultural Diversity in Global Perspective SOAN10312 10 Optional
Key Ideas in Social Anthropology SOAN10321 10 Optional
Intro to Ethnographic Reading SOAN10322 10 Optional
Introduction to Business Anthropology: Consumers, Companies and Culture SOAN10361 20 Optional
Environment and Society SOCY10202 20 Optional
Inequalities in Contemporary British Society SOCY10402 20 Optional
Contested Foundations of Social Thought SOCY10421 20 Optional
Contemporary Social Thought SOCY10432 20 Optional
Media, Culture & Society SOCY10441 20 Optional
Global Social Challenges SOCY10461 20 Optional
Getting Personal: Intimacy and Connectedness in Everyday Life SOCY10471 20 Optional
Work, Organisations and Society SOCY10912 20 Optional
Understanding Social Media SOST10012 20 Optional
Measuring Inequalities (Unequal Societies) SOST10021 20 Optional
Introductory Statistics for Economists SOST10062 10 Optional
Displaying 10 of 43 course units for year 1

Course content for year 2

In Year 2, you begin to study your chosen pathway in greater depth and take 120 credits over the year.

In the Economics and Data Analytics pathway, you'll take two core units:

  • Essentials of Survey Design and Analysis - learn to provide an overview of the process of survey planning, management, and analysis. You'll learn how to present the design and testing of questionnaires, how to introduce the key decisions in survey planning and management, including questions of research ethics and be introduced to a range of UK and international social sciences surveys
  • Answering Research Questions using Statistical Models, this unit will show you how to use commonly used multivariate statistical models to answer theory-based social research questions and communicate findings to non-specialists.

Free choice units

You can also take 20 units from across the University:

Course units for year 2

The course unit details given below are subject to change, and are the latest example of the curriculum available on this course of study.

TitleCodeCredit ratingMandatory/optional
Fundamentals of Finance BMAN10552 10 Optional
Fundamentals of Financial Reporting A BMAN10621A 10 Optional
Fundamentals of Management Accounting BMAN10632 10 Optional
Financial Statement Analysis BMAN20081 10 Optional
Financial Markets and Institutions BMAN21011 10 Optional
Financial Reporting and Accountability BMAN21020A 20 Optional
Intermediate Management Accounting BMAN21040A 20 Optional
Foundations of Finance A BMAN23000A 20 Optional
Business Law 1: Law, Business Liabilities and the Consumer BMAN24042 10 Optional
An Introduction to Development Studies ECON10002 10 Optional
Managerial Economics I ECON20001 20 Optional
Microeconomics 3 ECON20021 10 Optional
Microeconomics 4 ECON20022 10 Optional
Macroeconomics 3 ECON20031 10 Optional
Macroeconomics 4 ECON20032 10 Optional
Advanced Mathematics ECON20071 10 Optional
Advanced Statistics ECON20072 10 Optional
Econometrics ECON20110 20 Optional
Mathematical Economics I ECON20120 20 Optional
Introduction to Mathematical Economics ECON20192 10 Optional
Economic History ECON20212 10 Optional
Development Economics: Growth, Capital Accumulation and Structural Change ECON20321 10 Optional
Development Economics: Understanding Poverty ECON20332 10 Optional
Economics for Public Policy ECON20431 10 Optional
Islamic Philosophy PHIL20001 20 Optional
Applied Philosophy PHIL20032 20 Optional
Philosophy of Race PHIL20042 20 Optional
Formal Logic PHIL20141 20 Optional
Introduction to Ethics PHIL20232 20 Optional
20th Century Analytical Philosophy PHIL20242 20 Optional
Philosophy of Science PHIL20261 20 Optional
Introduction to Political Theory POLI10702 20 Optional
Politics by Numbers POLI20311 20 Optional
Security Studies POLI20332 20 Optional
Questions About International Politics POLI20521 20 Optional
Politics & Society in Britain Since 1940: From Blitz to Brexit POLI20531 20 Optional
Arguing About Politics: Political Theory in the World POLI20602 20 Optional
The Politics of Globalisation POLI20711 20 Optional
The Politics of Development POLI20722 20 Optional
Gender and Politics in Comparative Perspective POLI20742 20 Optional
The Politics of Policy Making POLI20802 20 Optional
Ideals of Social Justice POLI20881 20 Optional
Injustice and Resistance POLI20961 20 Optional
Environmental Politics POLI20982 20 Optional
Comparative West European Politics POLI21001 20 Optional
Southern European Politics POLI21012 20 Optional
Asia-Pacific Security POLI21041 20 Optional
Anthropology of Kinship, Gender and Sex SOAN20802 20 Optional
Anthropology of Religion SOAN20812 20 Optional
Political and Economic Anthropology SOAN20821 20 Optional
The Ethnographer's Craft SOAN20841 20 Optional
Materiality and Representation SOAN20852 20 Optional
Contested Foundations of Social Thought SOCY10421 20 Optional
Contemporary Social Thought SOCY10432 20 Optional
Work, Economy and Society SOCY20032 20 Optional
Education and Society SOCY20051 20 Optional
Qualitative Research Design & Methods SOCY20091 20 Optional
Sustainability, Consumption & Global Responsibilities SOCY20231 20 Optional
Social Change in China SOCY20282 20 Optional
Decolonising Sociology SOCY20302 20 Optional
Politics, Power and Everyday Life SOCY20311 20 Optional
Youth, Politics & Activism in Contemporary Europe SOCY20412 20 Optional
Family, Relationships and Everyday Life SOCY20701 20 Optional
Gender, Sexuality and Culture SOCY20892 20 Optional
Racism and Ethnicity in the UK SOCY20961 20 Optional
Essentials of survey design and analysis SOST20022 20 Optional
Market Research SOST20042 10 Optional
Answering Social Research Questions with Statistical Models SOST20131 20 Optional
Applied Statistics for Social Scientists SOST20142 20 Optional
Displaying 10 of 69 course units for year 2

Course content for year 3

In your final year, you take 120 credits overall.

On the Economics and Data Analytics pathway, you take two core modules of 20 credits each:

  • Data Science Modelling - this enables you to implement a battery of methods and models to address different classification and forecasting problems (both in supervised and unsupervised settings). The unit gives you an assertive command of the statistical package R and provides an understanding of how to handle high dimensional and complex data sets.
  • Quantitative Evaluation of Policies, Interventions and Experiments - an introductory course on Causal Inference that will give you an understanding of the challenges arising when estimating the effect of a policy, experiment or intervention on a particular outcome. After completing this unit, you will be able to select the most appropriate estimator to unveil a particular causal effect, and implement a battery of techniques to estimate the effect of a policy, experiment or intervention in R.

In addition, you can also study other exciting course units offered by the Department of Social Statistics, including Social Networks Analysis and Demography.

Course units for year 3

The course unit details given below are subject to change, and are the latest example of the curriculum available on this course of study.

TitleCodeCredit ratingMandatory/optional
Foundations of Finance A BMAN23000A 20 Optional
Business Law 2: Law and the Modern Corporation in an International Context BMAN24052 10 Optional
Contemporary Issues in Financial Reporting and Regulation BMAN30030 20 Optional
International Finance BMAN30060 20 Optional
Share Prices and Accounting Information BMAN30071 10 Optional
Financial Derivatives BMAN30091 10 Optional
Advanced Corporate Finance BMAN30111A 20 Optional
Accountability and Auditing BMAN30131 10 Optional
Corporate Governance in Context BMAN30211 10 Optional
Financial Engineering BMAN30242 10 Optional
Corporate Contracting and Managerial Behaviour BMAN30702 10 Optional
Advanced Management Accounting BMAN31040 20 Optional
Case Studies In Digital Transformation BMAN32051 10 Optional
Econometrics ECON20110 20 Optional
Mathematical Economics I ECON20120 20 Optional
Quantitative Methods ECON20222 20 Optional
Advanced Microeconomics ECON30001 20 Optional
Advanced Macroeconomics ECON30002 20 Optional
The Chinese Economy ECON30102 10 Optional
Natural Resource Economics ECON30232 10 Optional
Mathematical Economics II ECON30290 20 Optional
Mathematical Economics I ECON30320 20 Optional
Micro Econometrics ECON30342 10 Optional
Econometrics ECON30370 20 Optional
Mathematical Finance ECON30382 10 Optional
Financial Economics ECON30432 10 Optional
Topics in Development Economics ECON30451 20 Optional
Topics in Economic History ECON30542 20 Optional
Money, Banking & Financial Markets ECON30852 10 Optional
Managerial Economics II ECON31002 20 Optional
Advanced Econometrics ECON31031 20 Optional
Climate Change Economics and Policy ECON32111 10 Optional
Health Economics ECON32202 10 Optional
Topics in Economic Growth ECON32221 20 Optional
Topics in Labour Economics ECON32242 20 Optional
Econometrics and Data Science ECON32252 20 Optional
Macroeconomics of Development ECON33001 20 Optional
Topics in Applied Macroeconometrics ECON33021 20 Optional
Topics in Education Economics ECON33032 20 Optional
Founding Mothers: Women Philosophers and their Role in The Development of Analytic Philosophy PHIL30351 20 Optional
Philosophy of Action PHIL30552 20 Optional
Phenomenology PHIL30612 20 Optional
Advanced Topics in Aesthetics PHIL30621 20 Optional
The Politics of the European Union POLI30032 20 Optional
Morality and Markets POLI30112 20 Optional
The Politics and Philosophy of Nationalism POLI30191 20 Optional
Gender, Sex and Politics POLI30231 20 Optional
Elections and Voters in Britain POLI30241 20 Optional
Dimensions of Peace and Conflict: Disciplinary and Regional Approaches POLI30262 20 Optional
Political Morality and Dirty Hands POLI30272 20 Optional
Chinese Politics POLI30282 20 Optional
Public Policy Problems POLI30292 20 Optional
Introduction to International Political Economy POLI30721 20 Optional
Gender, War & Militarism POLI30791 20 Optional
Africa & Global Politics POLI30862 20 Optional
War Memories and Reconciliation in East Asia POLI31011 20 Optional
Intimate Geopolitics of Global China POLI31021 20 Optional
Understanding Political Choice in Britain POLI31042 20 Optional
American Politics: Why Do They Do That? POLI31061 20 Optional
Knowledge Production in Peace-building: Practices and Processes POLI31081 20 Optional
Global Capitalism, Crisis and Revolt POLI31091 20 Optional
Contemporary Parliamentary Studies and the British Political Tradition POLI32041 20 Optional
Postcolonial Politics POLI32062 20 Optional
Race, Ethnicity, Migration POLI32161 20 Optional
Ukraine Rises: Democracy, Protest, Identity and War in Comparative Perspective POLI32171 20 Optional
Capitalism and Sexuality POLI32182 20 Optional
Indian Politics in Comparative Perspective POLI32192 20 Optional
The Human and the Digital SOAN20871 20 Optional
The Anthropology of Health and Wellbeing SOAN30251 20 Optional
Anthropology of Human Learning: Childhood and Education SOAN30372 20 Optional
Ethnographies and Adventures in Manchester SOAN30382 20 Optional
Anthropology of Displacement and Migration SOAN30452 20 Optional
Screening Culture SOAN30791 20 Optional
Anthropology of Vision, Senses and Memory SOAN30811 20 Optional
Food and Eating: The Cultural Body SOAN30882 20 Optional
Sociology of Human Animal Relations SOCY30042 20 Optional
Cities and Urban Life SOCY30061 20 Optional
Racism and Resistance in Education SOCY30102 20 Optional
Material Culture: The Social Life of Things SOCY30192 20 Optional
A Sense of Inequality SOCY30242 20 Optional
Sociology of Mental Health & Illness SOCY30261 20 Optional
Connections matter: Sociological Applications of Social Networks SOCY30292 20 Optional
Power and Protest SOCY30461 20 Optional
Social Thought from the Global South SOCY30501 20 Optional
Art and Society SOCY30731 20 Optional
The Survey Method in Social Research SOST20012 20 Optional
Essentials of survey design and analysis SOST20022 20 Optional
Theory & Method in Demography SOST30012 20 Optional
Network Analysis SOST30022 20 Optional
Data Science Modelling SOST30062 20 Optional
Quantitative Evaluation (of Policies, Interventions and Experiments) SOST30172 20 Optional
Displaying 10 of 91 course units for year 3

Course content for year 4

If completing a year professional placement, you will take the Year 3 course content in Year 4.

If completing a year abroad, you will take the Year 3 course content in Year 4.

Disability support

Practical support and advice for current students and applicants is available from the Disability Advisory and Support Service. Email: dass@manchester.ac.uk