This concentration prepares students for a career as a quantitative economic analyst in a wide variety of settings. For example, graduates from this concentration have taken jobs as investment analysts for insurance firms, analysts for market research firms, and data analysts for public utilities.

The Economic Data Analysis concentration requires 6 concentration courses beyond the core. Students take Applied Qualitative and Limited Dependent Variable Models, Applied Economic Forecasting, and an Applied Cost-Benefit Analysis in the economics department. They take Decision Models from the College of Business (COB), and either Market Research from COB or Survey Methods from the Department of Political Science.

Most students choose electives from within the Economics department (SAS for Economists being a strongly encouraged course). Other commonly selected electives are courses in the Department of Mathematics, and courses in Probability, Sample Survey Methods, Experimental Design in the Department of Quantitative Analysis in COB. Some students choose electives from the Geography department taking courses in Introduction to Geographical Information Systems and Location Theory.

At the end of this concentration, the student should feel very comfortable stepping into a quantitative position. He or she will have been exposed to various software packages, sources of economic data, and statistical techniques.

Concentration Course Descriptions

Economics 676—Applied Benefit-Cost Analysis
A high-level introduction to the major issues and techniques in evaluation of programs and projects with the tools of applied microeconomics. Topics include measurement of benefits and costs, discounting, project ranking criteria, and uncertainty analysis.
Prerequisite: Economics 651 and 673 or permission of instructor.

Economics 677—Applied Economic Forecasting
This course covers the standard forecasting techniques used by professional economists in business and government. Topics include properties of time-series data, trend-line fitting, ARIMA models, and autoregressions.
Prerequisite: Economics 673 or permission of instructor.

Economics 678—Applied Qualitative and Limited Dependent Variable Models
Prerequisite: Economics 672 or permission of instructor.

Marketing 712—Marketing Research (4 Credit Hours)
A practical approach to the entire marketing research/information process.

Quantitative Analysis 712—Optimization Models for Managers (2 Credit Hours)
Overview of linear, integer, and nonlinear optimization models in business, focusing on modeling, solution, and interpretation of results. Substantial use of spreadsheet modeling and analysis.


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