Undergraduate

The Department of Economics offers a wide variety of introductory and field courses that allow one to earn either a major or minor in Economics. This page explains why you should study economics, but we encourage you to view the UWM Undergraduate Catalog to explore your options.

Why Study Economics?

Economics is the science of choice! It is the study of how people, firms and governments make choices in the face of scarce resources. These choices can be personal (Do I go to class or not? Should I eat Ramen noodles tonight or take my significant other out for a nice dinner? Or should I accept a job at one firm or another?) or they can involve crucial public policy questions (Do we provide public health care? Should we increase the age of Social Security eligibility? Should interest rates increase?). It is a rigorous discipline, but it combines many different skills – theory, statistics, math, history, public policy and business decisions. This makes it valuable for analyzing the choices.

Making the choice to major in economics can be lucrative. The recent PayScale report shows Economics ranking well with $60,000 to $70,000 as the early career pay and $110,000 to $125,000 as mid-career pay. This is among the highest for business related majors. Another study in the peer-reviewed journal, Economic Inquiry, in July 2003 showed that economics undergraduate majors were among the highest paid workers over their careers. This is true even for those who went on and obtained graduate degrees in other fields (like an MBA). Also explore recent information from the Hamilton Project showing economics compared to other majors with or without any additional graduate school. The labor market shows that firms value the skills and abilities of economics majors and are willing to pay well for those skills. A 1998 study in the Journal of Economic Education shows that economics majors score the highest on the LSAT of all majors.

We are often asked “What can I do with my Economics Degree?” The economics degree makes great preparation for many different careers. In addition to firms in economic research and analysis, our economics majors are employed by a wide variety of businesses, nonprofits and governments. See our undergraduate alumni page for just some of the jobs in which our graduates are employed. Also check on what some of the particular jobs held by economics majors earn.

For further information talk with our Undergraduate Economics Advisors and see the section of the American Economics Association website oriented toward undergraduates.

We encourage you to contact our Economics Undergraduate Advisors for more information about our programs.

Director of Undergraduate Studies
Rebecca Neumann
Bolton Hall 828
(414) 229-4347
rneumann@uwm.edu

Vivian Lei
Bolton Hall 838
vlei@uwm.edu