Faculty: Allison, Bianco, C. Finaret, Nonnenmacher, Onyeiwu, Ormiston, Waugh

The Economics major is a program in the Social and Behavioral Science Area of Study. Students who major in Economics may not double major in Business.

Economics Major 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

The Economics major, consisting of 48 credits, leads to the Bachelor of Arts degree. At graduation, Economics majors are required to have a GPA of at least 2.0 in the majorr. Only Economics courses taken at Allegheny on a letter grade basis are included in the GPA calculation. Only the most recent grade is considered for courses that have been repeated. 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 ). A maximum of 12 transfer credits may be counted toward the major; exceptions must be approved by the department chair.

International Business and Economics

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   in addition to ECON 251 . In addition, students are encouraged to study abroad and to complete an internship 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 ,”  “French ,” “German ,” and ‘Spanish ” sections of this Bulletin.