Master’s in Economic Development and Growth
Universidad Carlos III de Madrid | University of Groningen | Lund University | 2 years | 120 ECTS credits
Programme overview
The Master’s in Economic Development and Growth trains the next generation of analysts, researchers and professionals in the field of development and growth. The programme combines the expertise of three highly ranked European universities into a common platform with leading scholars in economics, economic history and demography.
The combined expertise of three highly ranked European universities
In this double degree programme you spend the first year studying development and international economics, statistics and long run development at either Universidad Carlos III de Madrid or University of Groningen. Conditional on successful completion of the first year, you spend the second year at Lund University specialising in in economic history, with a focus on development, institutional change, inequality, sustainability and energy transition, innovation and human capital, related to issues such as institutions and inequality and equality, sustainability and energy, innovation and human capital.
Universidad Carlos III de Madrid combines high-level economics, economic history and economic development and has a special focus on Latin America. University of Groningen is a top-class institution at international level in the field of economics, econometrics, development economics and economic history and hosts the Groningen Growth and Development Centre, a research institute that is famous for its study on long-term economic growth and productivity analysis worldwide. Lund University is specialized in economic history and development in the long run with focus on Asia, Africa and Latin America besides Europe. This mix could hardly be achieved by one single higher education institution in Europe. Ultimately, the programme philosophy is based on critical thinking, and the multitude of experiences among students and teachers will offer a platform for reflection and communication in this vein.
Key concepts of the programme
Becoming a trained expert in the field of development requires a wide variety of skills. You will need the necessary theoretical and quantitative tools to grasp major debates in economics and other social sciences. At the same time, the complexity of development problems demands deep, specialised understanding of context, institutions, and historical legacies in developing economies.
The analytical and critical skills that I developed have helped me a lot. I found that many development topics and courses such as econometrics and all its derivatives have been helpful in order to conduct research.
The programme provides rigorous training in economics and quantitative methods. It also offers a variety of electives as shown in the overview of the programme structure.
A hallmark of the Master's in Economic Development and Growth is the emphasis on the personal contact between professors and students, achieved by small classes. You will, in close supervision of highly qualified faculty member, complete two independent research projects (theses) both at the end of year 1 and year 2 of the programme. In the process, you will develop your ability to organize and express your own ideas and research in written form, while you will have the opportunity to improve your presentational skills in workshops with other students and faculty members.
I am thankful to the programme that gave me the opportunity to learn a great set of quantitative and qualitative tools for academic research and policy evaluation. I took various courses in different topics within development economics, which contributed to a better understanding of development in its multiple dimensions.
MEDEG was previously an Erasmus Mundus programme funded by the EU, with Universidad Carlos III de Madrid, University of Warwick and Lund University as partners.
From the 2015 intake, University of Groningen replaces University of Warwick. The first five years of the programme have provided lessons for making a top master programme even sharper!