Introduction to Business Economics
Economic, technological, regulatory and institutional environments are changing rapidly, and being reshaped, the world over, creating complex challenges for business managers and policy-makers. These challenges open up new windows of opportunity for business economists to carry out deeply engaged research into business and public policy questions. The potential to use the tools of economics to carry out interesting and highly relevant research has never been greater.
The Economics & Policy Group at Cambridge Judge Business School is energised and motivated by these opportunities. Current research by group members spans, inter-alia, business performance, industrial organisation, innovation, technology, energy, environment, regulation and managerial decision-making under ambiguity, risk and uncertainty.
Essential reading
Download detailed information about the nine-month + four-year programme structure & content.
To start on the Business Economics pathway you must take one of the following nine-month masters programmes:
What you can expect from the PhD pathway in Business Economics
Once admitted to our PhD programme you will become part of the team and be treated as a junior colleague. Your research career will begin with a phase of joint research in close collaboration with faculty. This will provide opportunities for you to hone your research capabilities and to learn how to come to robust research conclusions. In time, we will help you develop a substantial research programme of your own. You will have the flexibility to tailor your training through courses and seminars so that you gain confidence in using the insights and tools of economics to address the problems in your research agenda independently. You will also have ample opportunity to contribute to teaching. All of the activities you undertake on your PhD pathway are designed to help you prepare for a rewarding academic research career.
What we expect from our PhD students
We welcome applicants from highly regarded universities who are on course to complete a masters degree with significant economics content and are within the top five per cent in their class; please see the Master of Research (MRes) academic requirements for more detail. We will benchmark your masters training against the MPhil in Economic Research at the University of Cambridge’s Faculty of Economics.
We will want to see evidence of the quality of your training and your potential to conduct original research, as well as your commitment to an academic research career. We expect students who enter the Business Economic PhD pathway to dedicate themselves to making significant contributions to knowledge in the broad areas of economics and policy as they relate to business and management.
You will be allocated a principal supervisor within your pathway. A senior academic, often a Professor or Associate Professor, they will guide you through the programme, help you to succeed in the job market and assist you in gaining a faculty position at a leading business school. Your principal supervisor will take an active role in your research programme. During the PhD, they will assemble a group of faculty (your advisory committee), and members of this team will co-author papers with you.
For this pathway, view the research interests of these faculty that may serve on your advisory team:
Professor Christos Genakos
Christos Genakos researches applied microeconomics; industrial organisation; competition policy and regulation; productivity and management; incentives and performance; behavioural economics.
Professor Paul Kattuman
Paul Kattuman researches applied econometrics and statistics; industrial organisation; corporate performance; system dynamics; India; China.
Michael Kitson
Michael Kitson researches macroeconomic policy and performance; international trade; regional economics; corporate performance; innovation and the commercialisation of science.
Dr Kamiar Mohaddes
Kamiar Mohaddes researches macroeconomics; global and national macroeconometric modelling; energy economics; climate change; economics of the Middle East.
Professor Michael Pollitt
Michael Pollitt researches industrial economics; privatisation and regulation of utilities especially in electricity; the measurement of productive efficiency; the relationship between Christian ethics and best practice business behaviour.
Professor David Reiner
David Reiner researches national climate change policies; social and political acceptability of low-carbon technologies; public views of the subsurface including fracking and carbon capture and storage technologies, energy demand, international environmental negotiations; policy design; public perceptions of energy technologies, regulatory policy; competition policy; science policy and communicating science and technology..
Professor Lucia Reisch
Lucia Reisch researches the theory and application of behavioural insights to promote behavioural change of individuals and organisations towards societal welfare and sustainable development; behavioural economics and policy; consumer behaviour and policy.
Professor Jochen Runde
Jochen Runde researches decision-making under extreme uncertainty, social ontology and the ontology of technology; explanation in the social sciences; innovation and entrepreneurship.
Professor Khaled Soufani
Khaled Soufani researches on the economics and business models of the circular economy; economic growth through sustainability policies and strategies; corporate finance and the economics and finance of SMEs.