Undergraduate Program

Economics is a quantitative, policy oriented social science with a highly developed body of theory and a wide range of real-world applications.  Economists seek to describe the process by which societies use scarce resources to attain societal goals and predict the consequences of changes in those processes.  Theoretical models, understanding of economic and policy making institutions, quantitative analysis, and the examination of data are all part of this field of knowledge.

In general, economists are interested in the economic behavior of individuals.  Investigations of the daily decisions that consumers, workers, and firm managers make, as well as the interactions of such economic decisions in markets, is the subject of microeconomics.  Macroeconomics refers to the analysis of economic activity of individuals aggregated over many markets.  Some of the specific issues of macroeconomics include economic growth, inflation, recession, and unemployment.  Finally, international economics investigates the interrelationships among different economies, and in particular studies the pattern of trade and payments between countries.

For additional information, please first refer to the links on the left.

If academic questions are not answered in those links, contact Janet Horn or Ken Bonetti, Department of Economics academic advisors.

Professor Jeffrey Zax is the Associate Chair of the undergraduate program.