Economics, Department & Faculty

Economics is the study of how human communities provide for their material needs and wants.  We explore what motivates human action and thus the choices of indviduals, firms, and policymakers regarding production, consumption, and allocation of scarce resources and outut.  Institutions, policy, and historical change in the local and global marketplace impact people's daily lives and so we also study the choices people make in their historical, social, environmental, and political contexts.

How will we help face scarcity in the global marketplace?

The curriculum is designed to enable students to achieve a thorough grounding in economic theory; to understand the methods and insights of the economic way of thinking; to explore the intellectual history of economics; to learn the economic history of western civilization; and, to gain a specialized understanding of those aspects of contemporary economics that are of most interest to them.