Major Requirements

On this page we provide a brief summary of the key features of an economics major. Additional information can be obtained in the official university catalog. Also, a Worksheet to help guide your course selection is available. Finally, all students are strongly encouraged to periodically visit the Undergraduate Office in Room 202 in New Jersey Hall to review their status as an economics major. Students may also use Degree Navigator to check on their progress towards completing requirements for the major. 

Finally, for a graphical illustration of the structure of the economics major, click this link for a graphical view of requirements. This image shows Core Courses in the Economics curriculum in red, and illustrates the prerequisites for courses with arrows. Note that this graph is best viewed on a large screen. It is not optimized for a phone.

Required Courses

All economics majors must take 5 required economics courses: 102, 103, 320, 321, and 322. Students must get a C or better in 102, 103, 320, 321 and 322. Students must also complete one semester of calculus (135 or 151) with a C or better and one semester of statistics (285 or 211) with a C or better. *Note: Students who took 203, 204 with a grade of C or better do not need to take 320 or 321. (The requirement for a C or better in 322 applies to all students who declare an economics major after June 30, 2009).

Important Note:

Policy on Courses from RU-Newark and RU-Camden

Students will no longer be able to use RU-Newark and RU-Camden courses in Intermediate Microeconomics, Intermediate Macroeconomics, and Econometrics towards the SAS Economics major. Please note that this policy is not retroactive: students who have taken these courses in the Spring of 2011 or earlier semesters will be allowed to use them to fulfill SAS Economics major requirements.

Elective Courses

All economics majors must take 7 elective (300 & 400) economics courses. (Students who took 200 instead of 102 and 103 must take 8 electives).

Economics electives are divided into two categories: lower level and upper level.

Lower level electives have only 102 & 103 as prerequisites while upper level electives have additional prerequisites. A minimum of 4 upper level electives is required to complete the major. Details on requirements regarding elective courses are found below. Only one course with a D (any elective) can count toward the major.

A maximum of three (3) lower level courses can count toward the major. (You can take more than three of these courses for university credit even though only three will count toward meeting the major requirement of seven economics electives.) The following list of elective courses includes only courses that we have regularly offered in the recent past, or that we hope to offer regularly in the future. The department cannot guarantee that each course will be offered every semester or even every year, though a large proportion of these courses are offered every semester or every year.

Lower Level Economics Electives

(only prerequisite is 102 & 103 or 200 unless otherwise indicated)

120   Inequality (no prerequisite)

300   International Economics

301   Money, Banking and the Financial System

303   Labor Institutions and Markets

305   American Economic History

307   Economics of Globalization (additional prerequisite is 300, 335 or 336)

311   Methods of Cost-Benefit (note: 311 taken prior to Fall 2016 counts as an upper level elective)

312   Economics of Sports

327   History of Economic Thought

331   Economics of Crime

334   Energy Economics

348   Social Welfare Programs

362   Comparative Economic Systems

389   Public Policy towards Business

390   Choice and Strategy in Politics (no prerequisite)

395   Law and Economics

398   Independent Study

399   Independent Study

Upper Level Economics Electives

Students must take a minimum of four (4) upper level economics electives.

Prerequisites: Intermediate Microeconomics (320) and Econometrics (322):

402   Labor Economics

403   Special Topics in Labor Markets

413   Financial Economics

417   Health Economics

430   Urban and Regional Economics

432   Environmental Economics

435   International Trade

438   Education Economics

440   Income Inequality

441   Industrial Organization

460    Public Economics

463   Economics of Taxation

464   Personal Economics & Public Policy

469   State and Local Public Finance

475   Women, Men and the Economy

481   Economics of Uncertainty

484   Market Discipline

486   Operations Research I

Prerequisites: Intermediate Macroeconomics (321) and Econometrics (322):

412   Monetary Theory/Policy

414   Capital Markets (this course also has Eco 413 as a pre-requisite)

Prerequisites: Intermediate Microeconomics (320), Intermediate Macroeconomics (321) and Econometrics (322):

400   Advanced Time Series and Financial Econometrics

401   Advanced Cross Sectional and Panel Econometrics (minimum grade of B+ in 322 and permission of instructor required as well)

411   Global Financial Crises

415   Portfolio Theory (this course also has Eco 413 as a pre-requisite)

421   Economic Forecasting and Big Data

436   International Finance & Macroeconomics

439   Economic Development

443   European Econ. History

444   Financial and Monetary History of the United States

445   Advanced International Economics

470   Economic Growth

477   Economics of Population

485   Mathematical Economics

489   Advanced Topics in Economic Theory

490   Adv. Independent Study

491   Adv. Independent Study

Prerequisites: Intermediate Microeconomics (320), Intermediate Macroeconomics (321) and Econometrics (322) and co-requisite of Advanced Econometrics:

493   Honors Research Seminar

494   Honors Research Seminar

Prerequisites: Intermediate Microeconomics (320), Econometrics (322), and Calculus I and II:

480   Behavioral and Experimental Economics

487   Operations Research II

Prerequisites: Intermediate Microeconomics (320), Statistics (960:211 or 960:285), Calculus I and II:

481   Economics of Uncertainty

482   Game Theory and Economics

483   Economics of Information