MPhil/PhD Economic History

The MPhil/PhD is an advanced research degree. You'll begin on the MPhil, and will need to meet certain requirements to be upgraded to PhD status. The main objective of this programme is the elaboration of a substantial piece of work that is worthy of publication and which makes an original contribution to the field of economic history.

The department is home to by far the largest group of researchers in economic history in the UK and one of the largest in the world. This is a pluralistic department which encourages different approaches to the discipline: quantitative economic history; global history; history of economic thought; historical demography; historical economic geography; international economic history; business history; financial and monetary history; and social history. We also offer a wide chronological and geographical coverage of economic history, with specialists in almost every continent and any historical period from the medieval age onwards. For this reason, the department is able to supervise a wide range of topics, in line with the research interests of the teaching staff.

We particularly value a comparative outlook on research, and the fruits of our research have been used by international agencies, such as the World Bank and International Monetary Fund, government departments and local communities. Our faculty have included among their research commitments the editorship of The Economic History Review, The European Review of Economic History and Economic History of Developing Regions.

All our students are expected to gain a broad knowledge of the subject from graduate level coursework in the first year which complements the deeper knowledge gained from intense thesis research. In addition, many of our research students take the opportunity to gain valuable teaching experience on undergraduate courses.

• Acemoglu, D. and Robinson, J. (2012), Why Nations Fail: The Origins of Power, Prosperity and Poverty. London: Profile.
• Allen, R.C. (2009), The British Industrial Revolution in Global Perspective. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
• Austin, Gareth M. Markets, Slaves and States in West African History, c.1450 to the present. (Cambridge: CUP 2013)
• Austin, Gareth M. & Kaoru Sugihara (eds.) Labour-intensive industrialisation in Global History. (London: Routledge 2013).
• Baten, Joerg (2016), A History of the Global Economy. Cambridge.
• Broadberry, S. and O’Rourke, K. (eds.) (2010), The Cambridge Economic History of Modern Europe. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
• Clark, G. (2007), A Farewell to Alms: A Brief Economic History of the World. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
• Crafts, N.F.R. and Fearon, P. (2013), The Great Depression of the 1930s: Lessons for Today. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
• Darwin, J. (2007), After Tamerlane: The Rise and Fall of Global Empires, 1400-2000. London: Allen Lane.
• Engerman, Stanley L. & Kenneth L. Sokoloff, Economic Development in the Americas since 1500: endowments and institutions. (Cambridge: CUP/NBER 2012).
• Findlay, R. and O’Rourke, K. (2009), Power and Plenty: Trade, War, and the World Economy in the Second Millennium, (Princeton Economic History of the Western World). Princeton: Princeton University Press.
• Floud, Roderick, Fogel, Robert, Harris, Bernard, and Hong, Sok Chul (2011), The Changing Body: health, nutrition, and human development in the western world since 1700. Cambridge.
• Greif, A. (2006) Institutions and the Path to the Modern Economy: Lessons from Medieval Trade (Political Economy of Institutions and Decisions). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
• Hatcher, J. and Bailey, M (2001), Modelling the Middle Ages: The History and Theory of England’s Economic Development. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
• Herschman, Albert O. (2013), The Passions and the Interests: political arguments for capitalism before its triumph. Princeton.
• King, Mervyn (2016), The End of Alchemy: money, banking and the future. Little, Brown.
• Livi-Bacci, Massimo (2012), A Concise History of World Population. Wiley Blackwell.
• Mackenzie, D (2006), An Engine, Not a Camera: How Financial Models Shape Markets. Cambridge, Mass: MIT Press.
• Morgan, Mary S. (2012), The World in the Model: How Economists Work and Think. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
• North, D.C., Wallis, J.J. and Weingast, B. (2009), Violence and Social Orders: A Conceptual framework for Interpreting Recorded Human History. Cambridge; Cambridge University Press.
• Parthasarathi, P. (2011), Why Europe Grew Rich and Asia Did Not: Global Divergence, 1600-1850. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
• Piketty, T. (2014) Capital in the Twenty-First Century. Harvard: Harvard University Press.
• Pomeranz, K. (2000), The Great Divergence: China, Europe and the Making of the Modern World Economy. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
• Reinhart, C.M. and Rogoff, K.S. (2009), This Time is Different: Eight Centuries of Financial Folly. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
• Rosenthal, J-L and Wong, R. Bin (2011), Before and Beyond Divergence: The Politics of Economic Change in China and Europe. Harvard University Press.
• Roy, T. (2012), India in the World Economy: From Antiquity to the Present (New Approaches to Asian History). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
• Von Glahn, Richard (2016), The Economic History of China from Antiquity to the Nineteenth Century. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
• Yun-Casalilla, B. and O’Brien, P. (2011), The Rise of Fiscal States: A Global History, 1500-1914. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Where appropriate, you'll take a pre-sessional statistics course.

You won't retake Research Design and Quantitative Methods in Economic History if you've already taken it as part of the master's degree.

Supervisors may require you to take other relevant, unexamined, economic history courses, methodological courses provided by the Department of Methodology or the Institute of Historical Research or skills training courses as required for your thesis topic.

Please note: starting from 2025/26, EH401 will transition from a half-unit to a full-unit course. This change is already reflected below and will soon be updated in the School’s programme regulations, where the courses listed below are linked.

LSE is home to one of the largest specialist economic history departments in the world, with 25 permanent teaching staff, as well as visiting academics and researchers.

We use social science concepts and theories as a starting point to study the evolution of real economies in their social, political and cultural contexts.

Collectively, our academics have a huge breadth and depth of knowledge, ranging from the Medieval period to the current day, and covering every world economy, from the Americas to Asia, Africa and Europe.

The department’s research interests range from social well-being to technology and finance, and from the history of economic ideas to global trade patterns. Our research has informed decision-making in numerous government departments, NGOs, and international bodies such as the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund.

Drawing on their research strengths, our academics hold editorial and board membership roles on many world-renowned journals (such as Cliometrica and the Economic History Review) and regularly share their insights in the national and international media.

Currently, the department offers three undergraduate degree programmes and a range of postgraduate degrees and research opportunities. Many of our graduates secure high-profile teaching and research roles in the UK and internationally.

Learn more about our programmes and research.

Department of Economic History

We welcome applications for research programmes that complement the academic interests of our staff at LSE. For this reason, we recommend that you take a look at our staff research interests before applying.

We carefully consider each application and take into account all the information included on your form, such as your:

• academic achievement (including existing and pending qualifications)
• statement of academic purpose
• references
• CV
• outline research proposal
• sample of written work.

See further information on supporting documents.

You may need to provide evidence of your English language proficiency. See our English language requirements.

Please note that students may apply to study part-time after successful completion of first year.

The application deadline for this programme is 25 April 2025.

However, if you’d like to be considered for any funding opportunities, you must submit your application (and all supporting documents) by the funding deadline.

See the fees and funding section below for more details.

The fee is likely to rise over the full duration of the programme. The School charges home research students in line with fee levels recommended by the Research Councils.

Learn more about fee status classification.

The fee is likely to rise over the full duration of the programme in line with the assumed percentage increase in pay costs (ie, four per cent each year).

Learn more about fee status classification.

Progression and assessment

You'll need to meet certain criteria to progress to PhD registration.

Please refer to the PhD Handbook (pp. 13-16) for full details of progression requirements.

Your final award will be determined by the completion of an original research thesis and a viva oral examination.

More about progression requirements

Graduates of the programme have gone into a wide variety of careers, including university teaching and research posts, as well as jobs at international economic agencies such as the Asian Development Bank and the World Bank.

Further information on graduate destinations for this programme

From CV workshops through to careers fairs, LSE offers lots of information and support to help you make that all-important step from education into work.

Many of the UK’s top employers give careers presentations at the School during the year and there are numerous workshops covering topics such as job hunting, managing interviews, writing a cover letter and using LinkedIn.

See LSE Careers for further details.