Economics VS Finance Masters

Hi, I was in the same position.

I can’t 100% answer your question on IB recruitment but, I can share my experiences.

During an internship of my own I asked the my MD a similar question and he said it doesn’t matter. (This was in global markets area, not something like M&A so idk about that)

(Equally, some MSc finance courses get better careers help/access to networks from the uni out of the business school over the Econ department. Either way I don’t think this matters too much as you’ll have to do most of the ground work yourself when applying)

A lot of MSc finance courses can be taken by anyone that has a somewhat quantitative undergrad degree. (LSE for example). Hence these people use this as a way to shift fields. (Econ students yes)

These unis also sometimes offer finance and economics master courses tailored to economics students. (E.g. Cambridge MPhil in finance and economics or LSE MSc Finance and economics) idk about Oxford I didn’t apply.

At LSE that course is more prestigious than the MSc Finance and can also provide you grounding for PHD if that’s your thing.
it changes between unis and courses so research!

For me, I’m interested in global markets, so Econ is very relevant. Hence why I have chosen finance & Econ.

I could possibly see pure finance being more relevant for M&A. I’d need someone else to comment on that?

I also have zero interest in consultancy so idk, but I imagine a pure finance degree would be less suited than Econ?

Sorry couldn’t have been of more help. But consider F&E if you haven’t already!

Good Luck!