What it’s about:

The economics major provides a framework for analyzing issues such as inflation, unemployment, monopoly, and economic growth. You learn how monopoly, and economic systems function to provide goods and services. As you study theory, policy, and trends, you explore ways to deal with the economic problems that confront individuals, businesses, and nations.

What the study of this major is like:

Economics is about choices and change. By investigating how people will react to change. Economics can help people to understand the causes of economic problems and to devise ways to avoid them. It is a practical discipline that plays an important role in the formulation of policies on such issues as taxation, energy policy, retirement security, international trade, health care, the environment, and the rate of inflation.

If you like rigorous analysis and problem solving, economics can be intellectually appealing. It uses simplified models to explain and predict economic behaviour in a complicated, disorderly world. For example, when the interest rate goes down, what happens to mortgage rates and to the cost of new cars? Economics emphasizes insights derived from observation. It teaches you to insights derived from observation. It teaches you to isolate the most important facts and to focus on their implications.

As a major, you will probably begin with introductory and intermediate microeconomics (the study of individual firms, consumers, and workers) and macroeconomics (the study of economy-wide income, employment, and prices), and an economic statistics course. Later, in electives-such as international trade and finance, environmental economic systems-you see how basic principles come to bear in specific applied fields. Your standard tools of analysis are graphs and algebra. Most of your classes will be taught as lectures, and you can expect to do plenty of problem sets.

Some programs focus on theoretical analysis; others favour data analysis. Programs may also vary in their definition of economic practice. According to some professionals, an economist’s main job is to model the economy as it might be-to develop theories that predict the consequences of policies. Other economists see their job as collecting data that describe the economy as it is. Still others examine the social, cultural, and political factors that influence the economy.

Although few economics departments have enough staff to offer courses in all the applied fields, most programs emphasize universal, fundamental principles. However, if you are interested in applying economics to a particular problem, be sure to choose a college that has the courses you’ll need.

Career options and trends:

Business economist; economic consultant; government economist; investment banker; market researcher.

Graduates also find jobs in education, industry, public policy, and planning. In addition, the field is excellent preparation for law school, business school, and, recently, medical school. Many students with a B.A. or B.S. degree in economics enter training programs in large corporations and may become business managers. Others start out in sales or analyst positions; high schools in particular are expected to have a growing need for economics instructors.

Source: CollegeBoard 2012 Book of Majors