Economics and Business
Division of Social Studies
The Economics and Business Program offers a broad background in economics and business within a liberal arts educational philosophy. The program offers two majors - (1) Economics and Finance and (2) Business. The program currently offers no minor.
Economics and Finance
The Economics and Finance curriculum has four goals: competence in the fundamentals of economic theory; capability in quantitative and communication tools for economic analysis and presentation; familiarity with economic processes, policies, and institutions; and acquaintance with critical perspectives on both economic theory and institutions. Within this framework, students can assemble courses to highlight concentrations in finance, international economics, and policy analysis, and to prepare for graduate programs in business, law, public policy, and economics among others. The major integrates the theory of finance with a broad background in economics.
The principles of economics course, ECO 110, is the foundation course for the major. The course introduces topics in both macro and micro theory, as well as topics in institutions and policy analysis. A second tier of required major courses covers intermediate macro and micro economic theory (ECO 210, ECO 220), basic statistics (MAT 130), data analysis and communication (ECO 280), financial accounting (ECO 260), and a calculus course (MAT 165). It is recommended that the second tier be completed by the end of the sophomore year.
At the junior/senior level, various packages of courses, internships, foreign study, and independent studies can be assembled to highlight particular student interests. Upper-level requirements involve a minimum of seven junior/senior courses. These courses include a senior seminar (ECO 500) an econometrics course (ECO 390), an empirical analysis course (ECO 392 or ECO 395), and a course in managerial finance (ECO 340). Economics and Finance majors may choose a B.A. or B.S. degree (though the B.S. degree is recommended).
The program encourages majors to consider course work or minors in mathematics, computer science, data science, modern foreign languages, politics, international relations, history, and philosophy. It is strongly recommended that students who are interested in international economics participate in a Centre College off-campus program.
Business
The business curriculum has five goals: understand the fundamental theories of business; practice communicating effectively to a variety of audiences; develop and employ skills relevant to business operations; apply this knowledge of business in an experiential learning setting; and analyze the connection between business and society. The curriculum requires the completion of fourteen courses comprising of two sequences, fundamentals and connections, and a set of electives from which students can choose to add depth in their areas of interest.
The fundamentals sequence consist of 7 courses across different disciplines that introduce students to the core concepts of business. These include ECO 110 (Introduction to Economics), MAT 130 (Introduction to Statistics), BUS 210 (Introduction to Management), BUS 220 (Introduction to Marketing), ECO 260 (Financial Accounting), ECO 280 (Data Analysis and Communication), and ECO 340 (Managerial Finance).
The connections sequence, on the other hand, aims to develop an understanding of the relationship between business and society. Of the three courses in this sequence, one is an interdisciplinary course titled Business: A Liberal Arts Perspective. Faculty outside of the program teach these courses and make explicit ties between their discipline and business. The second course, Business and Society, takes the case study approach to understand the impact of business decisions on society. The final course in the connections sequence is the capstone course, where students use hands-on methods to apply their knowledge and skills to real-world problems through simulations, case studies, or consulting with businesses.
In addition to the fundamentals and connections sequences, students have to choose four upper-level business or economics electives to complete the major requirements.
Faculty
Patten Mahler (chair),Ravishekhar Radhakrishnan, David Anderson, Maria Apostolova-Mihaylova, Sarthak Behera, Bruce Johnson, John Perry, Marie Petkus, Brian Rogers, Ruohao Zhang
Student Representatives
Tony Brock, Arthur Ray, Katie Sharp, Alexis Skiles
Economics Courses
Business Courses
Course Descriptions