The Department of Political Economy and Commerce offers
programs in both Business Administration and Economics. The department offers
the opportunity to take advanced courses in management, finance, marketing,
international business, and public policy.
The department’s focus, and
hence its name, is a general approach to economic and commercial activity. The
department emphasizes the study of business as concrete social and historical
phenomena. An emphasis is also placed on the relationship between commercial
activity and the social context which it creates and which influences it, and on
the consequences of commercial and economic development in the modern world.
The department curriculum
focuses upon how society is organized to produce goods and services. It is
through this broader, more historical approach that the student gains a
realistic perspective of modern business and the competitive global environment.
The student gains the values, the principles, and the insight to weigh
short-term versus longer-term profit, to weigh technical versus fundamental
analyses.
Business majors are required
to take courses in finance, accounting, quantitative analysis, marketing, and
management. Economics majors study the major areas of economic theory and
econometrics. Yet, rather than the simple acquisition of technical skills,
majors are also required to take courses which place these issues in a
historical and institutional context; thus, the student learns to understand why
the issues and techniques are important.
Requirements for the Economics Major:
ECON 200
Principles of Economics
ECON 300
Intermediate Price Theory
ECON 301
Intermediate Macro-economics
ECON 371
Introduction to Econometrics
ECON 401
Public Policy
MATH 106
Elementary Statistics
Three ECON courses
at the 300 or 400 level (9
semester hours).
Students planning on graduate study in economics are encouraged to gain a
mastery of calculus.
Requirements for the Economics Minor:
ECON 200
Principles of Economics
ECON 300
Intermediate Price Theory
ECON 301
Intermediate Macro-economics
Two ECON courses at the 300 or 400 level
(6 semester hours).