Economics

Many, if not most, of the nation’s and the world’s most significant social problems have an economic dimension. The Department of Economics at Washington University in St. Louis emphasizes the development of analytical models and their application to important economic, social, and political issues, such as inflation, unemployment, taxation, poverty, pollution, government decision-making, and regulation. A majority of introductory and advanced economics courses analyze current issues in U.S. and international economic policy.

For undergraduates, the department offers a major in economics and two minors: general economics and applied microeconomics. The department also offers a doctoral and a master’s degree in economics.

The faculty, which is made up of leading teacher-scholars, includes specialists in economic history, game theory, microeconomics, industrial organization, macroeconomics, monetary economics, political economy, and public finance. Many have written extensively about economic policy and have advised government policy-makers at the state and federal level. Economics at Washington University has a legacy of greatness in research and teaching. The department has had three fellows of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, including Douglass Cecil North, who won a Nobel Prize in Economics in 1994.