Welcome to the Department of Economics web page. The department offers two degree programs: Economics and Economics and International Studies.

Most textbooks define economics as “the study of the allocation of scarce resources” or, more simply, as “the science of decision making.”    Given how scarce resources (time, money, land, and minerals) are, the tools of economics can be applied to areas ranging from micro-economic questions like: “How do consumers choose what to have for lunch?” to macro-economic questions like:  “How will the changing value of the US dollar affect our unemployment and inflation rates and those of our trading partners?”   In our department, we try to emphasize the big questions of life that economics can address.   To this end, the faculty have contributed short essays on the following questions:

Will stopping global warming stop our economy? (by Dr. David Robison)

Do agricultural subsidies protect domestic jobs? (by Dr. Richard Mshomba)

Do free markets cause us to want things that we feel happy about wanting? (by Dr. David George)

Why Economics? (by Dr. Mark Ratkus)

Making the choice to major in Economics at La Salle University is easier if you have some idea what our students do when they finish and what they think of the program.   For information on recent alumni student internships, click here.   For mini-profiles of some departmental alumni and their comments about the programs and faculty, click here.