Economics

Program Coordinator: Dr. Tim Kane

Students who study economics acquire a general knowledge of the methods by which goods andservices are allocated and incomes are generated and why prices, employment, money, and financial markets behave as they do.

In economics courses students study how society distributes scarce resources and issues such as energy costs, inflation, interest rates, imports, and employment levels.

“If all men were equal in interest and endowment, natural or artificial, there would be no organized economic activity to explain. Each man would be a Crusoe. Economic theory thus explains why men cooperate through trade: they do so because they are different.” James Buchannan.

Mission Statement

The Bachelor of Science/Arts degree in economics develops the quantitative and analytical tools required to understand market forces in a variety of microeconomic environments as these forces determine prices, output, employment and incomes. At the macroeconomic level, the program provides exposure to competing viewpoints regarding the determination of price levels, GDP, national employment, trade relationships and economic growth. The program is designed to provide students with a firm foundation from which career goals, graduate study or law school may be successfully achieved.

Learning Outcomes

1). Students will be able to analyze a variety of microeconomic models that explain consumer and firm behavior.

2). Students will be able to explain the economic consequences, both positive and negative, of various shocks including government intervention in the private market economy and develop an historical perspective on the evolving role and scope of government in the economy.

3). Students will develop an understanding of the relationship between macroeconomic variables and the behavior of individual consumers and firms.

4). Students will attain a working knowledge of the quantitative and analytical tools that comprise the economist’s tool kit, be able to apply them and effectively communicate their findings.