MSc in Market Structures
Course Overview
The MSc in Market Structures at LSLPE is a UK Level 7 postgraduate degree running one year full-time or two years part-time on-campus, online and by distance learning. The programme is aligned with Royal Economic Society, Society of Professional Economists and Chartered Institute of Public Finance and Accountancy reference frames and draws case content from Competition and Markets Authority decisions, Ofcom, Ofgem and Ofwat market studies.
By graduation you will have run merger-simulation exercises, produced advanced market-power analyses, argued regulator-style briefings and completed an original MSc dissertation supervised by a practising competition economist. The MSc is calibrated to UK senior-track practice in competition consultancies, regulators and the Government Economic Service.
Key Features
- Curriculum aligned with Royal Economic Society and Society of Professional Economists guidance on industrial organisation.
- Case sequences from CMA merger decisions and sector regulator studies.
- Merger-simulation and market-power workshops using UK sector datasets.
- Choice of dissertation, capstone consulting project or replication portfolio.
- Named programme-tutor support across all three study modes.
- Careers alignment with UK competition consultancies and regulators.
What You Will Learn
- Advanced industrial-organisation theory.
- Merger economics and merger-simulation methods.
- Vertical restraints, distribution and platform economics.
- Behavioural industrial organisation.
- Regulatory design across UK sectors.
- Digital-market competition analysis.
- Applied econometrics for market work.
- Research design for an MSc dissertation in market structures.
Who This Course Is For
- Senior analysts in competition consultancies and regulators.
- Career changers moving into competition-economics roles.
- Public-sector economists working on market reform.
- PhD applicants building an industrial-organisation foundation.
- International applicants preparing for UK-facing regulatory roles.
Career Pathways
- Regulatory Economist
- Economic Consultant
- Research Economist
- Government Economist
- Behavioural Economist
- Financial Economist
- Investment Analyst
- Central Bank Analyst
The LSLPE careers service runs at least one careers day each academic year connecting MSc in Market Structures students with the CMA, sector regulators, Frontier Economics-style consultancies and City analytics teams.
Entry Requirements
- A UK Bachelor's degree (2:2 or above) in economics or a quantitatively intensive discipline, or an equivalent international qualification.
- IELTS 6.5 overall (no band below 6.0) for non-native English speakers.
- Applicants without a Bachelor's degree but with five or more years of senior competition-economics or regulator experience are considered on portfolio.
- One academic and one professional reference.
- A 500-word research proposal or professional practice statement identifying an industrial-organisation topic.
Why Study at LSLPE
LSLPE reads market structures inside a wider law-politics-economics conversation, because competition outcomes are litigated in court, argued in politics and shaped by market fundamentals. Central London places the CMA, Ofcom, Ofgem, Ofwat and the leading competition-consultancy community a short tube ride from every classroom.
Three parallel study modes let progressors, working practitioners and portfolio-route applicants complete the MSc in Market Structures alongside employment, and the LSLPE careers service refreshes curriculum alignment against Royal Economic Society and CIPFA guidance each year.
Apply for MSc in Market Structures
Applications for the MSc in Market Structures open across rolling intakes and admissions responds within one working day. Enrol on an LSLPE Master's programme with a dissertation, capstone or sponsor project supervised by practising competition economists. Enrol Now
