Economics, B.A.

FACULTY:
Philip Mellizo, Chair
Sookti Chaudhary
Brooke Krause
Melanie Long
Amyaz Moledina
Huiting Tian

Affirming the mission of the College, the Economics Department enables students and faculty to collaboratively research and understand complex questions from a diversity of economic perspectives. The department uses appropriate theories and empirical methods to foster an active engagement with local and global communities.

By providing students with strong theoretical and quantitative foundations, the Economics major trains students to analyze social and economic institutions used in the provisioning and allocation of resources. Our program provides an analytically rigorous and critical understanding of markets, market failures, and non-market institutions that affect the everyday lives of individuals, families, firms, and societies. The core curriculum consists of five and a half required courses, a scaffolded three semester mentored thesis experience, and five electives. Together these expose students to the systematic study of economic phenomena and problems using mathematical, statistical, and economic modeling tools. They include instruction and application of statistics, econometrics, optimization theory, cost/benefit analysis, price theory, and economic modeling. The electives deepen critical thinking through the exposure to diverse economic theories, novel empirical practices, and expanded quantitative and econometric analysis.

Major in Economics

Consists of 13.5 courses:

ECON 10100 - Principles of Economics
ECON 11000 - Quantitative Methods for Economics and Business (See Special Notes)
ECON 20100 - Intermediate Microeconomic Theory
ECON 20200 - Intermediate Macroeconomic Theory
ECON 21000 - Econometrics (See Special Notes)
MATH 11000 - Differential Calculus A (See Special Notes)
ECON 40100 - Junior Independent Study
ECON 45100 - Independent Study Thesis
ECON 45200 - Independent Study Thesis

Special Notes

Majors who do not place into MATH 11000 should take MATH 10500 as soon as possible in order to progress through the major. MATH 11000 can be taken concurrently with ECON 20100.
DATA 10200 can be taken in place of ECON 11000 (most relevant for Statistical & Data Science minors or double majors).
Double majors with Mathematics may substitute MATH 22900 for ECON 11000 and MATH 32900 for ECON 21000.
ECON 10100 , ECON 11000 , and MATH 11000 and either ECON 20100 or ECON 20200 should be completed by the end of the student’s fourth semester.
The department requires that either ECON 20100 or ECON 20200 be taken prior to enrolling in ECON 40100 .
A maximum of one Business Economics course selected from BUEC 22700, BUEC 23000, BUEC 25000, BUEC 35500, BUEC 36500, or BUEC 37000 may be counted toward an Economics major, but not a minor.
The department recommends that students considering graduate study in Economics complete the calculus sequence through MATH 12500. They should also consider one of these additional courses: MATH 21100, MATH 22100, MATH 22700, or MATH 33200.
Students majoring/minoring in Economics are not permitted to take courses in the major on an S/NC basis.
A grade of C- or better is required for all courses counting toward the major, including the Mathematics course(s). Students receiving a grade below C- in ECON 10100 must retake that course before proceeding to the other Economics courses.