Our research

The University of Oxford’s Department of Economics is one of the largest and most influential groups of academic economists in the world. Its aim is to build a vibrant and supportive academic environment that produces transformative and innovative economic research; that generates a sustained impact on economic policy; and that supports and inspires the next generation of researchers and leaders.

The scale and breadth of the Department’s research is a product of a vibrant and well-connected community, with particular attention on supporting early career researchers. The Department maintains world-class expertise in the core discipline areas of microeconomics, macroeconomics and econometrics, while building clusters of research strength in more specialist subfields – notably applied microeconomics; behavioural economics and game theory; the economics of climate change and sustainability; machine learning; economic history; development economics.

In the 2021 Research Excellence Framework exercise, that evaluated research output of UK Universities, Oxford was first for overall research strength in Economics and Econometrics, with more research ranked as ‘world-leading’ than any other participating institution. 51% of our submitted outputs, impact case studies and environment statements received the highest score of 4* indicating world-leading research. Oxford's economists also aim to inform and improve the development and implementation of economic and public policy in the UK and around the world. Department members regularly engage with a range of stakeholders beyond academia, with their positive impact recognised through a number of awards and prizes.