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The Economics Department provides a wide selection of courses analyzing market behavior and the interactions among consumers, firms, and governments. Economic tools, which are applicable to a broad range of topics, are used to investigate how individuals and firms make decisions in private and public spheres and the consequences of resulting resource allocations. As our course offerings illustrate, economics is central to the study of poverty, discrimination, growth, unemployment, the environment, international trade, and development, encompassing everything from fertility rates and crime to the cyclical nature of a country’s aggregate production.
Economics classes emphasize theoretical modeling, empirical analysis, and critical thinking. After completing core courses in microeconomic and macroeconomic theory, students choose from a wide variety of electives. Within the major, students may elect a concentration in financial markets or mathematical economics. The economics major provides undergraduate students with an excellent background for employment and graduate work in numerous fields, including economics, business, law, government, health care, and education.
David Shaw | Adventures in Entrepreneurship and Venture Capital
Wednesday October 10, 7:30 p.m., Room 141, Diamond Building
David Shaw, managing partner of Black Point Group, has wide-ranging interests in technology companies and public service. Among many business interests are IDEXX (founder/CEO), Ikaria (founding CEO/chair), and the film Albert Nobbs (executive producer). He has served on the faculty of Harvard’s John F. Kennedy School of Government and the advisory board of the Center for Public Leadership. He is treasurer of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (publisher of Science), founding chair of the Sargasso Sea Alliance (ocean conservation), a director of the National Parks Foundation, and a science advisory board member to Discovery Communications. Shaw was awarded an honorary doctor of laws degree by Colby in 2012.
New Faculty Joining the Department this Fall
Prof. Donihue and Economics Students Publish Statistical Abstract of the Belgrade Lakes Watershed
Colby hosted CBB Annual Economics Conference in April 2012
Rao presents paper on domestic oil producers and the effects of taxes
Nirupama Rao, Assistant Professor of Economics and Public Policy at New York University’s Wagner School of Public Service, came to Colby College on November 30 to present her paper “Taxing Exhaustible Resources: Evidence from California Oil Production.” She studies the reaction of domestic oil producers on the levying of excise taxes. (Click here for full story).
Alumnae pursue Ph.Ds in graduate school
Health and life satisfaction in East and West Germany post-reunification, and teacher quality, happiness, and retention in public and charter schools. These are two areas of research alumni Jacqueline S. Smith Zweig, ’04, and Lauren Calimeris, ’03, respectively, have been spending their time on in the past few years. (Click here for the full story)
Vuletin discusses developing countries’ escape from procyclicality
In a recent article, Assistant Professor Guillermo Vuletin from the Colby Department of Economics, along with Professors Jeffrey Frankel (Harvard University) and Carlos Végh (University of Maryland), discusses how, in a historic shift, many developing countries were able to escape from procyclical fiscal policies. (Click here for the full story)
Bowdoin hosts CBB Annual Economics Conference
On Saturday April 30th, students and faculty from Colby, Bates, and Bowdoin came together for the Second Annual CBB Economics Conference. Faculty and students spent the day presenting their research on many fields of specialization within economics. Senior economics majors were encouraged to present their honors work while underclassmen could learn and ask questions about professional economic research. (Click here for the full story)
Q&A with Professor Findlay
Pugh Family Professor of Economics David A. Findlay discusses Economics, the economy and teaching at a top liberal arts college. (Click here for the full story)