Behavioural and Economic Science (Science Track)

Entry requirements

• 2:1 undergraduate degree (or equivalent) in a related subject.

The MSc Behavioural and Economic Science is a quantitative degree and you should feel comfortable taking a mathematical approach to your thinking.

On the MSc we cover the use of statistics to make sense of behavioural data (e.g. regression and ANOVAs). We introduce the R and Matlab programming languages for statistics and mathematical modelling (though we do not assume you have previous experience of these languages). We use maths in economic and psychological models.

You should be familiar with some of: elementary calculus, basic geometry, a really basic knowledge of sets, functions like logarithms, exponentials, powers, probability and probability distributions. You do not need to know all of these things, but you should not be frightened about learning about them! Such a quantitative approach is a really great way to understand data from field studies and experiments, and big data sets and surveys. It is also a great way to formalise and think about ideas about how people behave and the aggregate consequences of this behaviour.

English language requirements

You can find out more about our English language requirements. This course requires the following:

• Band B
• IELTS overall score of 7.0, minimum component scores of two at 6.0/6.5 and the rest at 7.0 or above.

Months of entry

September

Course content

The Behavioural and Economic Science MSc combines multidisciplinary expertise from the departments of Psychology and Economics, as well as Warwick Business School. This course offers you training in basic psychology and behavioural economics, whilst allowing you to focus on the cognitive science of judgement and decision-making.

This innovative course in the growing area of decision science and behavioural economics combines multidisciplinary expertise from the Department of Psychology, Department of Economics and Warwick Business School (WBS). The course emphasises both theoretical foundations and real-world application of core and advanced areas of behavioural economics, and the cognitive science of judgement and decision making. The Science Track variation of the course is designed for students with a first degree in a science-based subject, such as Psychology, Maths, Biology, etc. or a subject with a strong quantitative element, such as Business, Finance, etc.

A variation of the course is offered by the Department of Economics and is available if you have a first degree in Economics.

Skills from this degree

By the end of the course, you should be able to:

• Gain a deeper understanding of how and why people make the choices they do
• Understand how influencing such choices is important across a variety of domains, from public policy (e.g. encouraging people to save for pensions), through to industry (e.g. how to place a new product in the market), and individual behaviour (e.g. why people drink and eat too much).
• Develop a theoretical understanding of key models and results in behavioural economics and judgment and decision making
• Design, conduct and analyse behavioural experiments
• Implement models of choice
• Access and analyse large-scale datasets
• Initiate economic enquiry and test economic models
• Assess and deploy potential behavioural interventions

Fees and funding

See University website