Skip To Main Content
The study of economics helps students develop a framework for understanding of how individuals, organizations and societies make choices and how those choices interact to determine the allocation of an economy’s limited resources among alternative competing uses. Economists study how these choices are made in a variety of environments and consider how the outcomes vary under alternative forms of economic organization. Economists evaluate the outcomes of an economic system on a scorecard that includes several different criteria such as efficiency, equity, and stability.

The fundamental goal of our curriculum is to introduce students to the economic way of thinking—a particular way of asking questions and analyzing problems. We offer a core set of courses that teach the fundamental theoretical tools of economics, and a set of elective courses that demonstrate how economists apply these tools to study a wide variety of real-world economic issues. A key takeaway for students is a working knowledge of a useful and coherent structural approach to examining current public policy issues and an ability to identify the inherent tradeoffs involved in developing solutions to major social problems.

The economic style of thinking, when combined with training in the required tools of quantitative and qualitative analysis, provides students with a skill set that will serve them well in a wide array of post-graduate pursuits. The banking and financial sectors regularly hire undergraduate economics majors as do management consulting firms. A number of private corporations employ economists to prepare forecasts of future movements in firm costs and profits. Government agencies—local, state, national, international- hire economics majors for positions as budget analysts or government program evaluators. The study of economics also provides sound preparation for graduate school, either a Masters or PhD degree in economics or a professional degree in business, law, or public policy.