highlights
• A new course, ECON 100, Principles of Economics, that will provide a non-technical (no calculus) intuitive introduction to both microeconomics and macroeconomics. This course will be available for non-majors and for distribution credit, but will also be required of all ECON and MTEC majors.
• A requirement that all ECON and MTEC majors take a core set of three basic courses in Microeconomics (ECON 200), Macroeconomics (ECON 203), and Applied Econometrics (ECON 209). Please note that the re-numbering of these courses, which were formerly ECON 301, ECON 303 and ECON 309, does not imply that they have been diminished in any way; instead, the re-numbering simply recognizes that these critical courses provide the basic foundational principles required as preparation for our upper-level courses, and should be taken early in a student’s progression in either major. (Note that this change applies only to courses taken in the 2015–2016 academic year and thereafter; courses already taken will continue to be listed as 300-level on student transcripts. Students who matriculated before 2015 and need 300 level credit for these courses to graduate should consult with the chair of the undegraduate committee.)
• Additional requirements in mathematics and statistics for ECON majors. To provide better preparation in math and statistics for both core courses and electives, ECON majors will be required to take MATH 101 and MATH 102, Single Variable Calculus I and II, and ECON 307/STAT 310, Probability and Statistics.
• Two new courses will expose students to advanced topics in microeconomics that are critical to an understanding of recent developments in modern economics – ECON 300, Game Theory, Microeconomics Topics for ECON Majors, and the more quantitatively oriented ECON 305, Game Theory, Microeconomics Topics for MTEC majors.
• Two of the essential MTEC courses are also being re-numbered – ECON 308, Mathematical Economics (formerly ECON 401) and ECON 310, Econometrics (formerly ECON 409) – and the requirement for MATH 211 is being dropped, with essential material from that course covered in ECON 308. As in the case of the three core courses described above, the re-numbering of these essential courses recognizes that they provide MTEC students with the basic mathematical and empirical skills required for success in the major, and should be taken earlier in a student’s career than has often been the case in previous years. In particular, both ECON 308 and ECON 310 are pre-requisites for:
• Two new capstone courses that apply the skills attained by MTEC majors to an analysis of current research topics in economics: ECON 496, Research in Economic Theory, and ECON 497, Research in Econometrics. All MTEC majors must take one of these capstone courses.
• Finally, the department has instituted a new two-semester Honors Program in Economics (ECON 498/499) that will be available to qualifying ECON and MTEC majors. This program, which provides for 3 hours of economics credit and an additional 3 hours of university credit, will be supervised by a single faculty member, who will meet with all students during the semester, lead discussions, make assignments, guide research, observe and critique presentations, and grade final papers – in some cases with input from other faculty members who are also providing guidance and supervision for individual student research projects. To enter the Honors Program, students must have a GPA> 3.67 in all courses taken toward fulfilling their departmental requirements, must have completed all of the new core requirements, must have completed the 400-level course or courses most closely related to their area of research, and must receive the approval of the instructor. Existing students will be eligible for the old honors program, but cannot enroll in ECON 498/499 unless they switch to the new Econ or new MTEC program. Please consult our website for further details on our new honors program.
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