Pembroke College Cambridge

Economics

UCAS Code L100. Around 151 admitted per year at Cambridge. Pembroke seeks to admit around 4 per year. Assessment with registration required. No written work required. Mathematics required. Further maths highly desirable if available. A Level typical offer A star A start A. A star in Maths and further maths (if taken). Scottish advanced highers typical offer A1 A1 A2. International baccalaureate typical offer: 42 to 43 points, with 776 to 777 at higher level. 7 in Higher Level maths.

Economics at Pembroke

Pembroke has a long and distinguished tradition in Economics. This dates back to John Maynard Keynes, who was the College's first Director of Studies in the subject. Spread over the three years of the Economics course there are around 15 to 18 undergraduates in residence at Pembroke, together with several research students working on MPhil or PhD degrees, as well as 1-year visiting students from a host of international backgrounds. Pembroke economists come from a wide range of backgrounds. In addition, there is a strong tradition of an international mix of both graduates and undergraduates in the subject. Both affiliated and mature students at the appropriate standard are admitted as undergraduates.

The College Library contains a high proportion of the works required for the core of the course (around 1,200 volumes), together with five of the main academic quarterly journals and standard works of reference such as the New Palgrave Dictionary. There are also direct on-line links to the Faculty of Economics Marshall Library's resources, including e-books, e-journals and on-line article searches, borrowing and data download facilities. Some Pembroke professional economists: S.N. Afriat (Ottawa), P.K. Bardhan (UCLA), M. de Cecco (Rome), P.A. David (Stanford), M.R.D.W. Foot (Bank of England), S.A. Marglin (Harvard), S.J. Nickell (Nuffield College, Oxford), M.V. Posner (European Science Foundation), G.v.G. Stevens (Federal Reserve), Dr Roger W Ferguson, ex-Vice Chairman of the U.S. Federal Reserve Board of Governors.

Pembroke Economics Teaching Staff

Pembroke has two members of the Faculty who are teaching fellows in the subject, with research specialisations covering the some of the main teaching areas of the Economics Tripos: Dr Demosthenes Tambakis (macroeconomics and international economics) and Professor Donald Robertson (statistics and econometrics). In addition, it maintains long-standing swaps with other Colleges to provide supervision for all of the Economics Faculty’s option papers. The College is very fortunate to be able to fully support all undergraduate students core teaching microeconomics, macroeconomics and econometrics in-house.

Dr Demosthenes Tambakis - Director of Studies

I have directed studies in Economics jointly with Dr Donald Robertson since 2006. We take care to assign supervisors for all courses that students enrol for. We also personally teach all Macroeconomics modules (DT) and all Econometrics modules (DR). The Economics Faculty requires students to write a dissertation, a short piece of independent research, in their final year and Pembroke students are typically supervised in-house. There are also normally several postgraduates enrolled for MPhil and PhD degrees in Economics in any given year.

Pembroke undergraduates tend to do very well academically and enjoy their time at the University. Many are active in sport and music, both in Pembroke and the wider University. They subsequently span a wide range of career options: from management and strategic consultancy and investment banking to actuarial, journalism, law, public policy and teaching, as well as pursuing economics at postgraduate level. My own research interests have recently shifted to the unfolding climate crisis and its economic implications.

I have previously published on financial crises, international financial contagion and models of inflation and the interest-rate zero lower bound, and have worked for the International Monetary Fund in Washington, D.C.

Further information

Further Maths

Our conditional offers require Mathematics. In addition, if your school offers Further Mathematics we would expect you to take up this option

We understand that some schools and colleges are unable to offer Further Maths. If this applies to you, please do not be discouraged from applying. It is important, however, that you tell us about this in your application and that you look for ways to develop your maths knowledge independently. If your school or college is concerned that they may be unable to offer Further Maths, they can find advice and support from the Advanced Mathematics Support Project

If you are unable to take Further Maths you should ask if you could take AS Further Maths or, failing that, try to cover as much relevant pure and statistics Further Maths content on your own. As well as AMSP resources for studentsIsaac Physics offers online support for independently studying Further Maths material. It is also preferred that candidates study Pure Maths and Statistics as two of their modules.  

For those sitting the International Baccalaureate, Higher Level subjects should include Maths Analysis and Approaches. For information about other qualifications, please contact us.

What does an Economics BA lead to?

Cambridge Economics graduates have for some years been at or near the top of the European league-table in terms of employment prospects. In a typical year, if they do not immediately continue into graduate or other academic work, they join central banks, the Government Economic Service (GES), management and strategic consultancies, investment or international banks, other financial institutions, accountancy, the legal profession or the civil service, the media and research institutes or public interest organisations such as Transport for London or the NHS. The course leads straightforwardly into graduate or business schools abroad.  Over the past few years, Pembroke students have been admitted to a range of prestigious Masters and PhD programmes in LSE, UCL, Toulouse (IDEI), MIT and Princeton.

Go to Economics faculty website

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