Comparative Business Economics

The Comparative Business Economics MA at UCL is focused principally at company-level study and offers the chance to examine: the role of multinationals; corporate governance and finance; privatisation; entrepreneurship, and the determinants of innovation and technological change within the European area.

The programme offers discipline-based training combined with empirical application, drawing on the experience of the 28 nations that have emerged from the former Soviet block in Europe and Asia. Students are equipped with strong foundations in both international business and economics as well as in finance and corporate governance.

Students undertake modules to the value of 180 credits.

The programme consists of three core modules (60 credits), plus a compulsory choice of one of four additional modules (15 credits), a selection of optional modules to the value of 45 credits, and a research dissertation (60 credits).

Core modules

60 credits of core modules:

• Quantitative Methods
• Advanced Quantitative Methods
• Political Economy of International Business

Optional modules

• Financial Development
• Corporate Finance and Investment in Emerging Markets
• Causes, Consequences and Control: Corruption and Governance
• Informal Practices in Post-Communist Societies
• Economics of Health and Population
• Trade and FDI Policy with reference to Eastern Europe
• Public Choice-Private Interest
• International Macroeconomic Policy
• Language modules
• Corporate Governance
• The Economics of Property Rights

Dissertation/report

All MA students undertake an independent research project which culminates in a dissertation of approximately 12,000 words.

Teaching and learning

The programme is delivered through a combination of lectures, tutorials and seminars. Students will be assessed by unseen written examinations, coursework and the research dissertation.

A minimum of an upper second-class Bachelor's degree in a relevant discipline from a UK university or an overseas qualification of an equivalent standard. Applicants are usually expected to have studied one term of both microeconomics and macroeconomics in their undergraduate degree.