Interdisciplinary and multidisciplinary, Economics provides fundamental tools of analysis for all social science subjects, adding depth and complexity to the study of political science, geography and urban studies, history, and law. Courses address such issues as economic development, creation of wealth, fundamentals of economic policies, and financial theory and principles. The senior seminar pays special attention to Japan’s place in the Asian and global economies.
Advisor and Coordinator of Economics major
Economics studies how individuals, companies and governments interact at the domestic and international levels to make decisions maximizing satisfaction, profits, output and growth subject to scarcity of resources like time, land, labor, technology and natural resources. Economic models study production, growth, and trade among other and develop methods and policies to solve for economic problems like cost minimization, inflation, unemployment, recessions, tax incidence and international debt. Models developed and studied by economists have many applications in decision making in business, finance, politics, political economy and international relations at the local and international levels.
The study of economics is quite technical and requires a good command of mathematics and statistics especially at the advanced level but the depth of knowledge acquired prepares economist to be effective managers, project managers, complex problem solvers and decision makers at the highest levels in corporations, banks, public institutions and the government.