Economics

Economics minors

The Western Michigan University Department of Economics offers two undergraduate minors designed to complement a wide range of majors: a traditional Economics minor and a Behavioral Economics minor. Both minors help students develop economic reasoning skills that are highly valued across business, public policy, social sciences, health, and technology fields. Students can choose the minor that best aligns with their interests, career goals, and how they like to think about decision-making and markets.
 
The traditional Economics minor is ideal for students who want a strong foundation in how markets work, how prices and incentives shape behavior, and how economic forces influence businesses, governments, and global outcomes. It pairs naturally with majors in business, political science, history, mathematics, data science, and engineering.
 
The Behavioral Economics minor, by contrast, focuses on how real people actually make decisions, combining economics with insights from psychology to study judgment, bias, and choice under uncertainty. This minor is especially well-suited for students interested in management, marketing, human resources, health, law, public policy, and any field where understanding human behavior improves outcomes.
The economics minor in the Department of Economics at Western Michigan University consists of a minimum of 15 credit hours of economics courses:
  • Can be taken fully online.
  • Six credit hours of Principles of Economics (ECON 2010 and 2020).
  • Nine credit hours of upper-level electives, 3000-level and above (excluding 5910, 5920 and 5980) which can be chosen from the large number of courses listed below.

Many departments and colleges require ECON 2010 and/or ECON 2020 for their major. Therefore, students in these majors are already part-way to an economics minor. Finishing out your economics minor will be easy. For example:

  • Aviation – Flight science requires ECON 2010, while Aviation Management & Operations requires ECON 2010 and ECON 2020. Many Aviation students complete an economics minor by taking ECON 3100 (Labor Economics), ECON 3400 (Managerial Economics), and ECON 3800 (International Economics).
  • Business – All business students are required to take ECON 2010.  Accounting and Finance majors also take ECON 2020. Depending upon your major, there are several recommended courses to complete an economics minor that would complement your major, including (but not limited to) ECON 3100 (Labor Economics), ECON 3180 (Health Economics), ECON 3190 (Environmental Economics), ECON 3200 (Money and Banking), and ECON 3400 (Managerial Economics).  For those interested in finance, ECON 4090 (Econometrics) is also a good course. See either an HCoB or CAS advisor for more details on which courses best fit.
  • Engineering – most departments require ECON 2010. Chemical engineering lists ECON 3190 as an elective if students are pursuing the pollution prevention option. Paper engineering lists ECON 3190 as an elective for their environmental engineering & sustainable processes elective core.
  • Freshwater Science & Sustainability – ECON 2190 (Economics of Sustainability) is required. Complementary courses include ECON 2010 (Principles of Microeconomics) and ECON 3190 (Environmental Economics).
  • Pre-Law -  Foundational courses for those interested in this field would be include ECON 2010 (Principles of Microeconomics), ECON 2020 (Principles of Macroeconomics), and ECON 3390 (Exploring Economic Data). Then, depending on interest, nearly all of the 3000- and 4000-level courses would benefit students in this career path.
  • Pre-Med -  ECON 2010 (Principles of Microeconomics), ECON 2020 (Principles of Macroeconomics), and ECON 3390 (Exploring Economic Data). In addition, ECON 3180 (Health Economics) and ECON 3456 (Behavioral Economics) would be good, as would ECON 3190 (Environmental Economics), and ECON 3090 (Economics of Gender and Race).
  • Public Policy/Public Administration -  ECON 2010 (Principles of Microeconomics), ECON 2020 (Principles of Macroeconomics), and ECON 3390 (Exploring Economic Data) would be appropriate courses. Most 3000-level department offerings also focus on the economic aspects of policy analysis, governance, and public-sector decision making.
  • Sport Management – ECON 2010 (Principles of Microeconomics) is included as an elective. Suggested additional courses include ECON 3150 (Sports Economics).

  • Sustainable Brewing – ECON 2190 (Economics of Sustainability) is required for the operations track. Complementary courses include ECON 2010 (Principles of Microeconomics), ECON 2020 (Principles of Macroeconomics), ECON 3190 (Environmental Economics), and ECON 3400 (Managerial Economics), which are all electives in this program.

    Don’t see your major or career path?  Contact the Department of Economics for assistance

Courses

Courses that address this wide array of interests and count toward the minor include:

  • ECON 3050–History of Economic Thought
  • ECON 3090–Economics of Gender and Race
  • ECON 3100–Labor Economics
  • ECON 3150–Sports Economics
  • ECON 3180–Health Economics
  • ECON 3190–Environmental Economics
  • ECON 3200–Money and Banking
  • ECON 3210–The Economics of Immigration
  • ECON 3390–Exploring Economic Data
  • ECON 3400-Managerial Economics
  • ECON 3800–International Economics
  • ECON 3840–Economic Development
  • ECON 3870–Studies in Asian Economies
  • ECON 3890–Latin American Economies
  • ECON 4030–Intermediate Microeconomics
  • ECON 4031–Intermediate Microeconomics w/Calculus
  • ECON 4191–Economics Policy Analysis w/Calculus

Questions

Contact College of Arts and Sciences advising for more information.