The Economics major in the College of Arts and Sciences is designed to prepare students for administrative or research careers in business, finance, government and social service agencies.

The Economics major is also an excellent preparation for students planning to attend Law School. Students in this major are encouraged to consider a minor or second major in Finance, General Business (or other business field), Mathematics, Political Science, or Philosophy to match their specific career goal. Students planning to pursue graduate studies in Economics are strongly encouraged to complete a minor in Mathematics.

Economics is the study of how individuals use the scarce resources (e.g. labor, capital, land, knowledge, talents, etc.) available to them to produce goods and services necessary for raising living standards. One aspect of economics, for example, focuses on understanding how individuals respond to incentives in order to formulate predictions and inform policy decisions.

Economics is broken down into two related sub-disciplines: Microeconomics and Macroeconomics. Microeconomics is concerned with individual, business and government decisions, and their interactions within a market setting, to efficiently allocate scarce resources. Alternatively, Macroeconomics is the study of the economy as a whole, including total production, inflation, unemployment, business cycles, and economic growth.