Undergraduate degrees: B.A, B.S.
Undergraduate minor
Choice and flexibility, just like the free market
Given the breadth of a degree in economics, students are encouraged to choose one or more professional concentrations that are consistent with their career goals. Each of the seven professional options offered at the UO Department of Economics include specific program plans, advisers, and career possibilities. This approach gives you a better idea of what you can do with an economics major, and provides specialized training in your fields of interest.
As an economics majors, you can choose one or more of the following professional concentrations:
- Business economics—banking and finance
- Business economics—management, marketing, and accounting
- Economics, public policy, and administration
- Environmental economics
- Economics and mathematical economics
- International and development economics
- Law and economics, political economy
Economics balances a liberal arts education with the development of general—and therefore widely applicable—problem solving and analytical skills. As an economics major, you will be prepared for a wide variety of careers, explains Director of Undergraduate Studies Bruce Blonigen. Once you graduate with a degree in economics, you might choose to go into corporate business, work as an analyst for private consulting firms, nonprofit organizations, and government agencies, or go on to law or business school. “What’s distinctive about economics,” adds Blonigen, “is that you learn the general concepts that make a firm successful. You’re given a set of tools and concepts that can be applied to any market and lots of situations.” This makes you, the economics student, a hot commodity on the job market.
Points of Interest
- Gain professional experience through community internships and faculty supervised research
- Choose from seven professional concentrations that focus on specific career options
- Economics is an excellent preparatory major for an MBA program or law school
- Use the UO’s Social Science Data Service Laboratory to access data from the panel study of income dynamics, international financial statistics, and the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development
- The peer advising program offers you the opportunity to supervise and council fellow students, as well as participate in small group projects
Sample Courses
- Issues in industrial organization examines topics such as the analysis of market power, trends in industrial structure, the role of advertising, pricing policies and inflation, and the impact of social regulation
- Money and banking focuses on how the operations of commercial banks, the Federal Reserve System, and the Treasury affect the United States monetary system
- Behavioral and experimental economics investigates the "rational choice" model and behavioral alternatives, using laboratory experiments. Topics may include altruism, auctions, bargaining, behavioral finance, hyperbolic discounting, and decision-making under uncertainty
- Industrial organization and public policy examines the major policy instruments that have been developed to cope with social problems created by market power
- Urban and regional economic problems explores topics that include urban and metropolitan growth, land use, race and poverty, education systems, slums and urban renewal, transportation, crime, pollution and environ-mental quality
- Problems and issues in the developing economies covers central planning, capital formation, population growth, agriculture, health and education, and interaction between economic and cultural change in developing economies
Hands-on Learning
Economics students can gain professional experience, while earning academic credit, through internships in the Eugene community. In one example, as part of the class on non-profit and community economics, you'll work with local community nonprofits and government agencies.
Ed Whitelaw, who runs a consulting firm called EcoNorthwest, hires current students and recent economics graduates for part-time work during the school year, for full-time summer jobs, and for permanent positions following graduation.
Interdisciplinary Opportunities
Economics majors can easily combine their studies with other subjects such as international studies, pre-law, mathematics or computer and information science. Economics is also highly compatible with political science, history, and sociology. All of these subjects come together to build a strong understanding of business and world economics.
Student Work
Lindsay Steiert was initially drawn toward majoring in economics because she wanted to learn analytical reasoning skills. “I enjoy the process that goes into studying economics,” Steiert says. “I felt like I needed that aspect in my education.”
For her thesis, Steiert is forecasting disability requirements for the Department of Human Services. “I am intrigued by the subject matter and that economics can carry over to any subject,” Steiert says. “There are many different sub categories, so you can really pick your focus.
"Economics,” according to Weston Brinkley, “is the study of human behavior…demand, scarce resources, money; they’re all just ways to explain why people act in the way they do.” Brinkley first came to the UO from Seattle, Washington because Eugene was far enough from home to allow him to “go away” for school, but also because UO was big enough to have so many learning opportunities that he could study anything he wanted.
Brinkley ultimately decided on a double major in economics and geography, in order to delve into the world and how we govern ourselves. “I thought it would be a good background that could be applied in a variety of ways in many fields.”
When Steven Green was first looking into colleges, he was drawn to UO’s business program, but it was in economics he found his home. “Economics teaches common sense,” says Green. “It lets you think about the world in a new way.” In addition, a major in economics allowed Green to take as narrow or as wide a focus as he wanted. He could apply his academic career to one specific type of economics, or he could use his classes and knowledge to evaluate the world. “I really appreciated that aspect of economics,” he says. “I liked the way that it is structured.”
Green, who won several scholarships on campus, including the Centurion Award and the University of Oregon Dean’s Scholarship, had an internship with the Eugene Water & Electric Board during his junior year. He was impressed that they tailored his internship to his interests, and he spent the time doing data analysis and contract research on the bargaining power of EWEB.
Selected Faculty Work
Trudy Ann Cameron, Raymond F. Mikesell Professor, teaches courses in environmental economics and econometrics. Her research interests are in the valuation of non-market goods.
Professor William T. Harbaugh has two primary research interests: the economic behavior of children, and economic models of altruism. He teaches courses in public, behavioral, and experimental economics.
Professor Jo Anna Gray is interested primarily in explanations of the business cycle and the role of money and the financial sector in affecting real activity. She teaches intermediate macroeconomic theory, money and banking, and monetary theory and policy.
Professor Joe Stone teaches courses in international economics, labor economics, and applied econometrics. Current projects include a series of studies of wage and employment adjustment in local labor markets, and public and private schools.
Career Opportunities
Economics draws on history, philosophy, sociology, and mathematics to confront topics ranging from how an individual household can make sound decisions on societal issues such as employment, inflation, and environmental decay. Career opportunities in economics are found in federal, state, and local government agencies; private industry; various nonprofit organizations; and journalism. A bachelor’s degree in economics provides an excellent background for admission to law school and business school.
Program banner photo credit: Giulio Nepi