What's the difference between Economics BA and Economics MSc?

As the title says.

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The difference lies in the academic title, the first course is a Bachelor of arts the second one a Master of science.

The bachelor of arts is not that well respected like a bachelor of science and similarly, the master of arts is "lower ranking" than the master of science.

Generally, you will have to do your bachelor's degree first before you are able to enroll for your master's degree.

Reply 2

_Dreamville_

Original post by SkyT

So it's better to do a BSc compared to a BA?

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Reply 3

Sandtrooper

Volunteer Team

A BA is less Mathematical based than an MSc. And of course, an MSc is a four year course.

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Reply 4

_Dreamville_

Original post by Edminzodo

A BA is less Mathematical based than an MSc. And of course, an MSc is a four year course.

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Is one more respected than the other by employers?

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Reply 5

MagicNMedicine

At undergrad, the title of BA or BSc doesn't make any difference its just a convention of the university, eg Oxbridge will offer BAs, some of the newer universities will offer BScs, as for whether its more mathematical you have to look at the curriculum to see that. At some unis they offer two courses, a more structured mathematical one with compulsory maths and econometrics modules designed to prepare someone for masters, and a more general free module choice one, in which case they will often distinguish them by calling the one with compulsory mathematical options a BSc and the more free choice one a BA, but if a uiversity only offers one you can't tell the level of maths content by the title alone.

A Masters is much more technical and by nature mathematical than a bachelors degree in economics, a bachelors degree teaches you the core economic principles and how to think like an economist, a masters degree teaches you more advanced theories and how to carry out econometric research techniques.

Reply 6

_Dreamville_

Original post by MagicNMedicine

Okay thank you! :smile:

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Reply 7

Classical Liberal

Original post by ZSHNZ

Is one more respected than the other by employers?

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The vast majority of employers can't tell the difference, of even give a dam.

Although, if you wanted to go into academic economics, you are going to need the technical skills learnt in an Msc (and to get onto an Msc you'll probably need a Bsc - or a relatively technical undergrad course). You'll also need an Msc if you want to be a professional economist, such as somebody working for the GES or an economics consultancy - again because you'll need the technical skills (basically econometrics and advanced microeconomics) that you learn on an Msc.

Reply 8

MagicNMedicine

Original post by Classical Liberal

You'll also need an Msc if you want to be a professional economist, such as somebody working for the GES or an economics consultancy - again because you'll need the technical skills (basically econometrics and advanced microeconomics) that you learn on an Msc.

You don't need an MSc to work in the GES, unless you want to work for the Dept for International Development, but you do usually get a salary enhancement if you have one.

For some consultancies you can get in without an MSc but generally you would need one in a consultancy largely because you need it for the research techniques.

The difference with the GES is it is about economics underpinning policy advice and they don't tend to do much primary research themselves, they don't really have the time/resource to do it so government contracts research out to external consultancies (ie they have to bid to win the contract and then deliver the work). This is why a lot of the government economic reports will say "a report produced by X consultancy on behalf of the Department for...."

The other reason a lot of that work gets contracted out is for purposes of independence, especially when it comes to evaluating the effectiveness of a government policy it's better that government contracts an external consultancy out to give an independent report on it, rather than saying their own policy worked great etc.

Reply 9

Classical Liberal

Original post by MagicNMedicine

You don't need an MSc to work in the GES, unless you want to work for the Dept for International Development, but you do usually get a salary enhancement if you have one.

Yes, good point. Most of the people I know who have joined the GES are doing an Msc that the GES is paying for. Is this standard?

Reply 10

MagicNMedicine

Original post by Classical Liberal

Yes, good point. Most of the people I know who have joined the GES are doing an Msc that the GES is paying for. Is this standard?

Depends on the department as it comes out of the department's budget.

The GES is quite supportive in terms of paying for MSc training for its economists as a lot of private firms do, but depending on the settlement at the next Spending Review who knows.