Dr Carolina Alves
Fellow
“The master-economist must possess a rare combination of gifts. He must be mathematician, historian, statesman, philosopher – in some degree.”
J. M. Keynes (1924). “Alfred Marshall, 1842–1924”. The Economic Journal, 34(135), 311–372.
Economics at Girton
The Cambridge tradition in economics has long understood the discipline as a comprehensive social science, concerned with production, development, distribution, money, uncertainty, institutions, power, ethics, and the historical conditions under which human beings live and act. This tradition runs from Alfred Marshall’s founding role in modern economics, through J. M. Keynes’s analysis of unemployment, money, uncertainty, and the role of government, to Piero Sraffa’s analysis of production, Nicholas Kaldor’s work on growth and cumulative causation, and Amartya Sen’s reconnection of economics with freedom, ethics, and human development.
Girton occupies a distinctive place within this tradition as the College of Joan Robinson, one of the most original and influential economists of the twentieth century. Robinson’s work ranged across imperfect competition, capital theory, growth, development, Marx, Keynes, and the critique of orthodoxy. More fundamentally, she exemplified a conception of economics as critical, historically informed, and socially engaged. Rigorous but never unrealistic, theoretical but never detached from questions of power, ideology, capitalism, and development.
Girton is unique among Cambridge Colleges in carrying forward this political economy orientation. Alongside Robinson, figures such as Barbara Wootton and Frank Wilkinson connect the College to a wider understanding of economics as an inquiry into law, labour, development, welfare, institutions, social reform, and human emancipation. This inheritance remains alive in Girton’s fellowship, teaching, and College culture, where economics is treated not as a narrow technical field, but as part of a broader intellectual formation.
Students at Girton develop strong foundations in economic theory, mathematics, and quantitative methods, while also placing these tools in conversation with history, politics, philosophy, and public policy. In a world marked by geopolitical fragmentation, technological disruption, ecological pressure, financial instability, and deep uncertainty, economists need more than technical competence. They need judgement, historical understanding, institutional awareness, and the ability to test assumptions against the realities they claim to explain.
We welcome applicants who enjoy mathematics, think clearly, read widely, and are curious about how economies actually work. At Girton, the aim is to help students become analytically proficient, intellectually independent, and alive to the social, ethical and philosophical foundations of economics as a social science.
Why study Economics at Girton?
The Cambridge tradition
Study economics in the intellectual tradition of Marshall, Keynes, the Cambridge Circus, and Joan Robinson.
Rigorous analytical training
Develop the mathematical, statistical, and theoretical tools needed for modern economics.
Economics and the wider world
Explore themes in political economy, development, inequality, financial crises, geoeconomics, international finance, and economic philosophy.
An active intellectual community
Take part in the Joan Robinson Society through talks, reading groups, student-led events, and discussion.
- No. of students admitted per year: 8
- Subject requirements: Mathematics. Further Mathematics is very strongly encouraged, if your school offers it.
- Minimum offer level:
- A level: A*A*A
- IB: 41–42 points, with 776 at Higher Level
- Admissions assessment: All Cambridge applicants are required to take an assessment prior to interview. Applicants must register in advance and further information about the written assessment can be found here.
- Written work: Not required
- Interview arrangements: Two interviews. If invited to interview, applicants will be sent a text to read prior to the interviews.
Cambridge provides one of the best courses in Economics in the world. The subject was essentially invented in Cambridge by Alfred Marshall and transformed throughout the 20th Century by those such as John Maynard Keynes, Nicolas Kaldor and Girton’s own Joan Robinson, whose ideas are currently very much back in vogue. There is a large community of economists at Girton, including nearly 30 undergraduates.
The student-run economics society, the Joan Robinson Society (JRS), is also a very active and integral feature of the Girton Economics landscape. The JRS is both a social and academic group, which acts to bring students from all years together regularly. Talks take place one or two times a term and are given not only by eminent academics, but by speakers from a cross-section of the economics and finance industries. Recent talks have been given by old Girtonians from the Bank of England, Deutsche Bank, venture capital firms, and a range of other financial institutions. The Society provides not only an intimate and unintimidating setting in which to meet and question leading names in the academic and business worlds, but also provides a forum for students across years to share ideas and experiences, a good example being those events where finalists present their dissertations to students in the first and second years.
The Joan Robinson Society (JRS) is the student-run economics society at Girton and a central part of the Girton Economics experience. It is both a social and academic society, bringing together Economics students from all years to discuss ideas, hear from speakers, form reading groups, and participate in other activities that enrich Girton’s intellectual community.
Active participation in the JRS is an important part of studying Economics at Girton. Students are expected to attend events and encouraged to help shape, organise, and curate the Society’s programme. In this way, the JRS reflects the collaborative and intellectually engaged character of Economics at Girton.
The Society hosts talks at least once a term, with speakers drawn from academia, public policy, finance, business, and other areas of economic life. Recent speakers have included Girton alumni working at the Bank of England, Deutsche Bank, venture capital firms, and other financial institutions.
CORE Econ - free online textbooks and resources
History of Economic Thought and Economic Philosophy
- Lawson, T. (1997). Economics and Reality. Routledge.
- Martins, N. O. (2013). The Cambridge Revival of Political Economy. Routledge.
- Robinson, J. (1962). Economic Philosophy. Aldine Publishing Company.
- Chang, H.-J. (2014). Economics: The User’s Guide. Pelican.
Development, Inequality, and Public Purpose
- Sen, A. (2001). Development as Freedom. Oxford University Press.
- Mazzucato, M. (2018). The Value of Everything: Making and Taking in the Global Economy. Allen Lane.
- Piketty, T. and Sandel, M. (2025). Equality: What It Means and Why It Matters. Polity.
Globalisation, Geoeconomics, and International Political Economy
- Milanovic, B. (2025). The Great Global Transformation: National Market Liberalism in a Multipolar World. Allen Lane.
- Klein, M. C. and Pettis, M. (2020). Trade Wars Are Class Wars: How Rising Inequality Distorts the Global Economy and Threatens International Peace. Yale University Press.
Money, Macroeconomics, and Financial Crises
- Minsky, H. P. (1986). Stabilizing an Unstable Economy. Yale University Press.
- Taylor, L. (2010). Maynard’s Revenge: The Collapse of Free Market Macroeconomics. Harvard University Press.
- Skidelsky, R. (2026). Keynes for Our Times. Yale University Press.
Our students embark on careers in a number of different fields.
Most of our students apply to and start their first jobs in the City of London either working in investment banks or consulting and accounting firms. Some go into the civil service in the UK or their home country; others enter jobs in central banks such as the Bank of England.
A few students continue their studies here at Cambridge on the MPhil and PhD programmes while others apply elsewhere in the UK, Europe and the rest of the world.
