A major in economics gives students a greater understanding of how people, businesses, and governments respond to their economic environments. Many of the issues that fill the newspapers—jobs, wages, taxes, the cost of living, inequality, pollution, poverty, and economic growth—are, in fundamental ways, economic issues. The daily decisions of businesses and consumers are largely economic. Economists seek to understand the decisions of businesses, consumers, and current economic issues by developing a systematic and thorough understanding of precisely how the economic system operates, including the mechanisms by which resources are allocated, prices determined, income redistributed, and economic growth promoted.

The analytical method of economics recognizes that various choices are open to a society in solving its economic problems. Students are often attracted to economics as a discipline precisely because they want to understand the decisions of people and businesses and to better understand and evaluate economic policy. To begin to approach these issues as an economist requires an understanding of economic theory, empirical methodology, and an understanding of the institutional details and advanced practice gained from intensive study of specific subfields of economics. Consequently, the undergraduate economics major is organized around a progression of courses that first provides a broad introduction to economics, then develops the theoretical tools that provide the foundation of modern economic thought, and finishes with advanced courses designed to provide greater in-depth knowledge of specific fields (such as labor markets, industrial organization, international economics, public finance, banking and finance, macroeconomics, microeconomics, and econometrics).

An economics major is valuable in the job market because the major is designed to train people to think analytically and clearly about a wide variety of issues. Economics graduates go on to pursue careers in a variety of fields including finance, data analytics, and public policy. An economics major is also good preparation for graduate work in a number of areas: business, law, public policy, economics, public administration, industrial relations, international relations, urban and regional planning, and environmental studies.

Faculty

  • Aizawa, Naoki, Assistant Professor
    Labor Economics, Health Economics, Public Economics
  • Blank, Rebecca, Professor
    Public Economics, Labor Economics
  • Boerma, Job, Assistant Professor
    Macroeconomics, Public Finance
  • Braxton Carter, Assistant Professor
    Macroeconomics, Labor Economics, Consumer Finance
  • Chiang, Harold, Assistant Professor
    Econometrics
  • Corbae, Dean, Professor
    Macroeconomics
  • Coulibaly, Louphou, Assistant Professor
    International Finance and Macroeconomics, Monetary Economics
  • Deneckere, Raymond, Professor
    Microeconomic Theory, Industrial Organization
  • Engel, Charles, Professor
    International Economics, Macroeconomics
  • Fu, Chao, Professor
    Labor Economics
  • Gregory, Jesse, Associate Professor
    Labor Economics, Public Economics
  • Hansen, Bruce, Professor
    Econometrics
  • Hendricks, Kennan, Professor
    Industrial Organization
  • Houde, Jean-Francois, Professor
  • Kirpalani, Rishabh, Assistant Professor
    Macroeconomics, Public Finance, International Economics, Financial Economics
  • Lentz, Rasmus, Professor
    Labor Economics, Macroeconomics, Microeconomics
  • Magnolfi, Lorenzo, Assistant Professor
    Industrial Organization, Applied Microeconomics, Applied Econometrics
  • Martellini, Paolo, Assistant Professor
    Macroeconomics, Labor Economics, Urban Economics
  • Mommaerts, Corina, Assistant Professor
    Public Economics, Labor Economics
  • O’Connell, Martin, Assistant Professor
    Public Economics, Industrial Organization
  • Porter, Jack, Professor
    Econometrics
  • Quint, Daniel, Associate Professor
    Microeconomic Theory, Industrial Organization
  • Rostek, Marzena, Professor
    Microeconomic Theory, Market Design, Finance
  • Ruhl, Kim, Professor
    International Economics
  • Scholz, John Karl, Professor
    Public Economics
  • Seshadri, Ananth, Professor
    Macroeconomics, Public Finance
  • Shi, Xiaoxia, Professor
    Econometrics
  • Smith, Jeffrey, Professor
    Labor Economics, Public Economics
  • Smith, Lones, Professor
    Microeconomic Theory
  • Soelvsten, Mikkel, Assistant Professor
    Econometrics
  • Sorensen, Alan, Professor
    Industrial Organization
  • Sullivan, Christopher, Assistant Professor
    Industrial Organization, Applied Microeconomics
  • Taber, Christopher, Professor
    Labor Economics, Applied Econometrics, Public Economics
  • Walker, James, Professor
    Labor Economics, Econometrics
  • Weretka, Marek, Associate Professor
    Economic Theory, Finance
  • West, Kenneth, Professor
    Macroeconomics, Econometrics
  • Williams, Noah, Professor
    Macroeconomics
  • Wiswall, Matthew, Professor
    Applied Microeconomics, Applied Econometrics, Labor Economics, Education and Demographic Economics
  • Wright, Randall, Professor
    Macroeconomics, Finance

Affiliated Faculty

  • Chang, Briana
    Financial Intermediation, Information Frictions, Search and Matching Theory
  • Chinn, Menzie
  • Chung, Kevin
    Quantitative Marketing
  • Montgomery, James
    Economic Sociology, Religion, General Social Theory, Demography and Ecology, Social Psychology and Microsociology
  • Sarada
    Economics of Entrepreneurship and Innovation
  • Schechter, Laura
    Development Economics, Behavioral and Experimental Economics, Risk Analysis
  • Smeeding, Timothy
    Poverty, Intergenerational Mobility, Inequality, Wealth

Instructional Staff

  • Alder, Simeon, Faculty Associate
    Macroeconomics, Growth and Development, Matching
  • Bykhovskaya, Anna, Associate Lecturer
  • Chan, Stella, Lecturer
  • Eudey, Gwen, Senior Lecturer
    Open Economy Macroeconomics
  • Friedman, Matthew, Lecturer
  • Glawtschew, Rebecca, Lecturer
  • Hansen, David, Lecturer
    Development Economics and Labor Economics
  • Hansen, Korinna, Senior Lecturer
    Applied Microeconomics, Health Economics
  • Johnson, David, Senior Lecturer
  • Kelly, Elizabeth, Faculty Associate
  • McKelvey, Christopher, Lecturer
    Development Economics
  • Muniagurria, Maria, Faculty Associate
    Development Economics and International Trade
  • Pac, Gregory, Senior Lecturer
  • Pauley, Gwyn, Lecturer
    Health Economics, Labor Economics
  • Rick, Steven, Senior Lecturer

For a public directory of our faculty, please visit the Faculty page on our website.