School of Economics

Undergraduate courses

The Bachelor of Economics introduces you to a diverse, fascinating discipline that addresses a range of big issues in modern life and plays a central role in shaping the broad framework of society at every level. It provides undergraduate training in theoretical and applied aspects of modern economics, econometrics and financial economics. 

• Bachelor of Economics
• Bachelor of Economics/Bachelor of Advanced Studies
• Bachelor of Economics (Dual Degree, Sciences Po, France)
• Bachelor of Economics/Bachelor of Laws

Majors and minors

Below is a list of our economics majors and minors, available to students in the Bachelor of Economics (except where indicated) and numerous other undergraduate courses - click on the links for further details.

Econometrics

• Econometrics major
• Econometrics minor

Economic Policy*

• Economic Policy major
• Economic Policy minor

*Not available to Bachelor of Economics students

Economics

• Economics major
• Economics minor

Environmental, Agricultural and Resource Economics

• Environmental, Agricultural and Resource Economics major
• Environmental, Agricultural and Resource Economics minor

Financial Economics

• Financial Economics major
• Financial Economics minor

Honours 

Honours is an additional year (full time) of study on top of a three-year bachelor’s degree. It provides an opportunity to develop research skills in your undergraduate major by undertaking advanced coursework and conducting a supervised but independent research project. An Honours year adds greater depth to your undergraduate studies and is a pathway to postgraduate research courses such as the PhD.

If you have completed your bachelor’s degree (with the required level of merit) with a major in economics at the University of Sydney (or equivalent qualification), you can undertake Honours in economics or econometrics through one of the following courses. 

• Bachelor of Economics (Honours)
• Bachelor of Arts (Honours)

Undergraduate diploma 

• Diploma of Social Sciences (major/minor in Economic Policy)

This part-time course allows holders of a bachelor’s degree in another discipline to complete a major or minor in Economic Policy.

Non-degree study

• Arts Undergraduate Non-degree

Non-degree study allows you to take undergraduate units of study (subjects) without committing to a full award course (e.g., bachelor’s). Successfully completed units may be credited towards a relevant award course at a later date.

Cross-institutional study

• Arts Undergraduate Cross-institutional

If you are enrolled in an undergraduate award course at another Australian institution you can take units of study (subjects) with us for credit towards your course (subject to the approval of your home institution). 

Postgraduate coursework programs

• Master of Economics

Whether you’re an economics graduate or have no background in economics, the Master of Economics will provide you with the skills to apply economic methods and knowledge to practical, contemporary problems in business and government. The duration of the course depends on your background in economics.

• Master of Economic Analysis

If you have a strong background in economics and/or mathematics and are looking to receive advanced training or a pathway to higher degree by research study (e.g., PhD), the Master of Economic Analysis is the ideal choice. 

If you don't have time to commit to a master's or prefer to 'test the waters' first, you can take a shorter program of study in the above areas through a graduate certificate or graduate diploma.

• Graduate Certificate in Economics
• Graduate Diploma in Economics
• Graduate Certificate in Economic Analysis
• Graduate Diploma in Economic Analysis

Economics specialisations

Economics is available as a specialisation in the following courses:

• Master of Commerce
• Master of Commerce (Extension)
• Master of International Relations
• Master of International Security
• Master of Public Policy

Economic Policy is available as a specialisation in the Master of Public Policy.

Non-award study

• Arts Postgraduate Non-award

Non-award study allows you to take postgraduate units of study (subjects) without committing to a full award course (e.g., master’s). Successfully completed units may be credited towards a relevant award course at a later date.

Cross-institutional study

• Arts Postgraduate Cross-institutional

If you are enrolled in a postgraduate award course at another Australian institution you can take units of study (subjects) with us for credit towards your course (subject to the approval of your home institution).

• Doctor of Philosophy
  
• Master of Philosophy
• Master of Arts (Research)

• Professor Garry Barrett, Head of School
• Professor Andrew Wait, Deputy Head of School (Education)
  
• Professor Deborah Cobb-Clark, Deputy Head of School (Research)
• Dr Anastasia Burkovskaya, Undergraduate Coordinator
• Associate Professor Mark Melatos, Postgraduate Coursework Coordinator
• Professor Stefanie Schurer, Honours Coordinator
• Dr Rebecca Edwards  and Associate Professor Kadir Atalay, Postgraduate Research Coordinators. Email enquiries: econ.hdrenq@sydney.edu.au 
• Dr Shauna Phillips, Bachelor of Advanced Studies Coordinator
• Dr Jiemai Wu, Thesis Coordinator (Honours and MEcA)
• Associate Professor Oleksii Birulin , Master of Economic Analysis Coordinator
• School Manager, Ms Janelle Kenchington

Browse our academic staff

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• Emeritus Professor Tony Aspromourgos
• Dr Kenneth Baxter
• Adjunct Professor Adrian Blundell-Wignall
• Visiting Professor Colin Cameron
• Dr Ashley Cooper Craig
• Professor Stephen Donald
• Adjunct Professor Malcolm Edey
• Dr Dennis Claudy Feher
• Mr Mario Fiorini
• Professor Jennifer Hunt
• Professor Greg Warren Kaplan
• Professor Julie Moschion
• Dr Elizabeth Nolan
• Emeritus Professor Adrian Pagan
• Honorary Associate Professor Russell Ross
• Honorary Associate Kevin Schnepel
• Dr Abhijit Sengupta
• Dr Yi Sun
• Research Affiliate Mara Thiene
• Professor Donald Weatherburn
• Research Affiliate Samuel Wills
• Visiting Professor Justin Wolfers
• Honorary Associate Professor Donald Wright
• Dr Di Zeng

Browse our research students

Advanced search

Professor Pascaline Dupas, The Kleinheinz Family Professor of International Studies, Standford University, June 2022

Dr Silvia Griselda, Bocconi, July-August 2022

Associate Professor Julie Moschion, Melbourne Institute of Applied Economic and Social Research, August-September 2022

Soojoong Nam, Kongju National University
Visiting: January-December 

Uttam Sharma, World Bank and Asian Development Bank
Visiting: January - February

Giuseppe Cavaliere, University of Bologna
Expertise: time series econometrics; financial econometrics; statistical inference; empirical macroeconomics
Visiting: January 

Jocelyn Martel, ESSEC Business School
Expertise: corporate restructuring; insolvency; bankruptcy
Visiting: January-February 

Betsey Stevenson, University of Michigan
Expertise: the impact of public policies on the labour market
Visiting: January-February

Justin Wolfers, University of Michigan
Expertise: Labour economics; macroeconomics; social policy; behavioural economics; political economy; law and economics
Visiting: January-February

Joeri Smits, Yale University
Expertise: development economics; political economy; applied econometrics
Visiting: November 2019-April 2020

Jennifer Hunt, Rutgers University
Visiting: February-June

Shelly Lundberg, University of California, Santa Barbara

Expertise: Labour economics; economic demography
Visiting: January - March

Richard Startz, University of California, Santa Barbara
Expertise: Econometrics; macroeconomics
Visiting: January - March 

Betsey Stevenson, University of Michigan
Expertise: the impact of public policies on the labour market
Visiting: January-February 

Justin Wolfers, University of Michigan
Expertise: Labour economics; macroeconomics; social policy; behavioural economics; political economy; law and economics
Visiting: January-February 

Jocelyn Martel, ESSEC Business School
Expertise: Financial Economics
Visiting: February

John Nachbar, Washington University, St Louis
Expertise: Economic theory
Visiting: February - June 

Kevin Schnepel, Simon Fraser University 
Expertise: Crime economics, labour economics, environmental economics
Visiting: February 

Sholeh Maani, University of Auckland 
Expertise: Economics of labour markets and labour market policy; economics of education; economics of immigration; income distribution; health and housing
Visiting: February - March 

Brian Jacob, University of Michigan
Expertise: Labour economics; program evaluation; economics of education
Visiting: February 

Marco Caliendo, University of Potsdam
Expertise: Evaluation of Labour Market Programs; Job Search and Unemployment Dynamics; Entrepreneurship, Self-Employment, Start-up Subsidies; Personality Traits, Preferences, and Economic Outcomes; Applied Microeconometrics
Visiting: February - March

Simon Burgess, University of Bristol
Expertise: Labour Economics; Inequality; Poverty
Visiting: February-March

Miriam Gensowski, University of Copenhagen
Expertise: Labour economics and economics of education
Visiting: February-April

Rémi Piatek, University of Copenhagen
Expertise: Bayesian econometrics; factor modeling; mixture modeling, and computational econometrics
Visiting: February-April

Thomas Schober, Johannes Kepler University
Expertise: Health economics; applied microeconomics; policy evaluation
Visiting: March-May

Ian Walker, Lancaster University Management School 
Expertise: Applied empirical microeconomics
Visiting: March

Orla Doyle, University College Dublin
Expertise: Economics of human development; health economics; labour economics; political behaviour; early childhood development and education; developmental psychology and methods for evaluating policy interventions
Visiting: May-June

Yibai Yang, University of Macau
Expertise: economic growth; innovation; intellectual property rights; monetary and fiscal policies
Visiting: July 2019

Hannah Schildberg-Hörisch, Düsseldorf Institute for Competition Economics (DICE)
Expertise: Applied microeconomics; economics and psychology; public economics; experimental economics
Visiting: July-August

Daniel Hamermesh, University of Texas, Austin
Expertise: Time use; labour demand; discrimination; academic labour markets; labour economics
Visiting: July - September 2019

Colin Cameron, UC Davis
Expertise: econometric theory for cross-section data
Visiting: July-September 2019

Martin Huber, University of Fribourg
Expertise: Policy/treatment effect evaluation in labour, health and education economics; semi- and nonparametric microeconometric methods for causal inference
Visiting: July - August 2019

Daniel Kamhöfer, Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf
Expertise: Returns to education; formation of cognitive and non-cognitive skills; female labor supply; drivers of physical and mental health, and; economic aspects in family planning.
Visiting: August 2019

Nigel McClung, Bank of Finland
Expertise: Macroeconomics; monetary; learning
Visiting: September 2019

Duc Minh Nguyen, Vietnam National University of Agriculture
Visiting: November-December 2019

Benjamin Wong, Monash University
Expertise: applied macroeconomics; time series analysis
Visiting: November 2019

Pablo Andrés Neumeyer, Universidad Torcuato Di Tella, Argentina
Expertise: macroeconomics; international finance and development
Visiting: December 2019

Craig Riddell, University of British Columbia 
Expertise: Labour economics, labour relations; public policy
Visiting: November 2017 - January 2018 

Mathias Sinning, Australian National University 
Expertise: Labour economics; public economics; policy evaluation
Visiting: January 2018 

Jocelyn Martel, ESSEC Business School, France
Expertise: Corporate restructuring; insolvency; bankruptcy
Visiting: January - Febuary 2018 

Guillaume Frechette, New York University
Expertise: Experimental economics; industrial organization; political economy; public economics
Visiting: February 2018 

Simon Burgess, University of Bristol, IZA
Expertise: Labour economics; inequality; poverty
Visiting: February - March 2018 

Martin Kocher, University of Munich
Expertise: Behavioural and experimental economics
Visiting: February 2018 

Gavin Wood, Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology 
Expertise: Public policy and urban studies; housing finance; labour economics; homelessness
Visiting: February 2018 

Angus Holford, ISER, University of Essex
Expertise: Evidence-based policy; randomised control trials; peer effects; microeconometrics; family economics; education inequalities
Visiting: April 2018 

Anne Gielen, Erasmus University, Rotterdam
Expertise: Labour economics; health economics; applied microeconometrics
Visiting: May - July 2018 

Dominique Lemmermann, University of Erlangen, Nuremberg
Expertise: Development economics; economics of migration; economics of education; labour economics
Visiting: May - June 2018 

Brendan K. Beare, University of California, San Diego
Expertise: Econometric theory; financial econometrics; time series econometrics
Visiting: May - June 2018 

Daniel Tregeagle, University of California, Davis (UC Davis)
Expertise: Agricultural economics; environmental economics; natural resource economics
Visiting: June 2018 

Prabal Roy Chowdhury, Indian Statistical Institute, New Delhi
Expertise: Game theory; industrial organization; bargaining; development economics; micro-finance; land acquisition
Visiting: June 2018 

Jana Mareckova, University of Konstanz
Expertise: High-dimensional models; regularization methods
Visiting: July - September 2018 

Orla Doyle, University College Dublin 
Expertise: Economics of human development; health economics; early child development and education; methods for evaluating policy interventions
Visiting: July - August 2018 

Christopher Jepsen, University College Dublin 
Expertise: Economics of education; labour economics; demographic economics; public economics
Visiting: June 2018 - January 2019 

Sayeed Unisa, International Institute for Population Sciences
Expertise: Mathematical demography and statistics
Visiting: August 2018

Peer Skov, Auckland University of Technology
Expertise: Public finance; applied micro-econometrics; programme and policy evaluation
Visiting: September 2018

Juliana Silva Goncalves, Queensland  University of Technology
Expertise: Behavioural economics
Visiting: September 2018

Karl Whelan, University College Dublin
Expertise: Applied macroeconomic
Visiting: November 2018

Craig Riddell, University of British Columbia
Expertise: Labour economics; labour relations; public policy
Visiting: October - December 2018

The School of Economics marked its Centenary on Wednesday 20 July 2022 with a celebratory dinner in the historic MacLaurin Hall. Australia’s first dedicated Faculty of Economics was established at the University of Sydney in 1920 and has since produced more than 20,000 graduates, including those who have gone on to be Prime Ministers, Premiers, Ministers of State, Chief Justice, Reserve Bank Governor, Secretary of Treasury, distinguished academics and leaders in business and finance.

Our celebration included a keynote presentation by alumnus Dr Steven Kennedy PSM, speeches by Professor Garry Barrett, Chancellor Belinda Hutchinson AC and VC Professor Mark Scott AO.

The School of Economics was established from 1 January 2011 to serve as the primary institutional vehicle for Economics research and education within the University of Sydney. That year the school inaugurated an annual public lecture series – the Warren Hogan Memorial Lecture – devoted to the economic analysis of public policy issues. It commemorates Warren Pat Hogan (1929–2009), Professor of Economics in the University of Sydney, 1968–1998.

• 2022

Hon Dr Andrew Leigh MP

Assistant Minister for Competition, Charities and Treasury, and Federal Member for Fenner in the ACT

Watch the lecture: Economic Dynamism: A Global Perspective

• 2020
  

Dr Kerry Schott AO

Chair of the Australian Energy Board and Director of NBN

Watch the lecture: Economic policy amid disruption

• 2019

Hon Chris Bowen MP, Shadow Minister for Health

• Listen now: Economics and Modern Issues: Climate Change and Health

• 2018

The Hon John Winston Howard OM AC
Former Prime Minister of Australia

• 2017

Dr Guy Debelle

Deputy Governor of the Reserve Bank of Australia

• 2016

Ms Annabel Spring (BEc Hons '92, LLB Hons '94)
Group Executive Wealth Management, Commonwealth Bank of Australia

• 2015

Dr Martin Parkinson
Secretary, Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet, Commonwealth of Australia

• 2014

Mr Hugh Harley (BEc Hons '84, LLB Hons '86)

Financial Services Leader, Price Waterhouse Coopers

• 2013

Dr John Laker (BEc Hons ’72)
Chairman of the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority

• 2012

Charles Calomiris
Henry Kaufman Professor of Financial Institutions, Columbia University Graduate School of Business

• 2011

Mr Glenn Stevens (BEc Hons ’80)
Governor of the Reserve Bank of Australia