2017-2018 Academic Bulletin 
    
    Mar 28, 2024  
2017-2018 Academic Bulletin [ARCHIVED CATALOG]

Economics Major


Economics Learning Outcomes

Students who successfully complete an Economics major are able to:

  • Explain the basic elements of economic models.
  • Identify important economic actors, organizations, and institutions and describe their role and impact.
  • Understand and interpret statistical measures and techniques.
  • Use the spoken and written word, graphs, and mathematics to present economic phenomena and arguments.
  • Evaluate multiple economic arguments and multiple sources of evidence.
  • Propose and model economic hypotheses.
  • Collect relevant data for use in qualitative and quantitative research methods.
  • Evaluate economic arguments and policy proposals using empirical methods.

The Economics Major

Economics majors are required to have a GPA of at least 2.0 in departmental courses at graduation. Only Economics courses taken at Allegheny on a letter grade basis are included in the GPA calculation. For repeated courses, only the most recent grade is included. All courses required for the major must be taken on a letter grade basis except one of the introductory courses (ECON 100  or ECON 101 ). Students may present a total of 12 semester hours of transfer credit toward the major; exceptions must be approved by the department chair.

International Economics and Business

Those students wishing to pursue a career in International Economics or business should combine the study of a particular country and language with a background in Economics. If students are majoring in Economics and minoring in a language, they should take ECON 251  and ECON 256  as their elective 200-level course and ECON 451  or ECON 452  as their elective 400-level course. Students majoring in a language and minoring in Economics should take ECON 251  and ECON 256  and/or ECON 265 , in addition to ECON 240 . In addition, students are encouraged to study abroad and to complete an internship (ECON 530 ) either abroad or with a company engaged in international trade. Students may also select a double major in these two disciplines. For an example of language courses that complement a Business Economics track major or Economics minor, see the course of study described in the “Arabic ,” “Chinese ,” “French ,” “German ,” and ‘Spanish ” sections of this Bulletin.

Requirements:


Two Intermediate Theory Courses:


Should be completed by the end of the junior year:

Two Courses in Economic Statistics:


Should be completed by the end of the junior year:

Two 200-level Elective Courses:


Note: ECON 286  cannot be used to satisfy the 200-level elective requirement.

Two 400-level Elective Courses:


ECON 385  or ECON 386  can substitute for one of the 400-level courses.

Seminar:


(ECON 570-ECON 589). Typically taken in the first semester of the senior year.

The Senior Project:


ECON 620 . Typically taken in the second semester of the senior year.

Note:


The 200-level elective courses generally have only introductory micro and/or macroeconomics as a prerequisite, whereas the 400- and 500-level courses generally require ECON 200  and ECON 201 . Courses numbered ECON 210-ECON 289 are intended to be primarily informational, institutional, historical, or philosophical in nature, while the 400-level courses are more theoretical, empirical or quantitative in emphasis.

Students considering a major in Economics are advised that ECON 200 , ECON 201 , and ECON 202  are calculus-based and have MATH 157  or MATH 160  as prerequisites.