Why Economics?

We ask the big questions: How long does it take for a city’s investment in renewable energy to pay off? Is it less expensive to eat locally-produced food? How does the NBA determine ticket prices? From social issues to the business world, economics touches almost all aspects of our lives, and these are just a few real-world topics our students have researched. As North Carolina’s public liberal arts university, UNC Asheville offers unique opportunities to economics majors, including small, collaborative classes, faculty mentorship, and the chance to apply economics to contemporary concerns, like the environment, human diversity, and globalization.

What You’ll Learn

Within the general major in economics, students can focus on their interests in areas such as environmental economics, international economics, monetary economics and finance, and beyond.

All economics majors undertake a research project, and many graduates use this research as a stepping stone to graduate school or a career in a variety of fields, including finance, small business, education, the nonprofit sector, government, and more.

Economics Speaker Series

Watch UNC Asheville Economics’ September 3, 2020 lecture on economic inequality by Dr. Heather Boushey. She is the President and CEO of the Washington Center on Equitable Growth and author of Unbound: How Inequality Constricts Our Economy & What We Can Do About It. You can watch it here.

Watch UNC Asheville Economics’ September 17, 2020 lecture on economic growth by Dr. Dietrich Vollrath. He is Professor and Chair of the Economics Department at the University of Houston and author of Fully Grown: Why a Stagnant Economy is a Sign of Success. You can watch it here.

Watch UNC Asheville Economics’ October 8, 2020 lecture by Dr. Tomáš Sedláček, Chief Macroeconomic Strategist at Czech commercial bank CSOB. He is the author of Economics of Good and Evil: the Quest for Economic Meaning from Gilgamesh to Wall Street. You can watch it here.