Economics

Understanding topics related to production, distribution and consumption of goods and services – topics which often lie at the core of political debate in today’s world

www.bucknell.edu/economics

Career Paths

Bucknell’s economics majors often enter management and sales or become financial and economic analysts. Graduates also have become teachers, accountants, stockbrokers, lawyers, currency traders and social workers. Others are chosen for formal management training programs at large corporations. Alumni from the class of 2009 have secured the following positions:

  • Financial Times, Freelance Audience Development
  • Goldman Sachs, Analyst
  • JSI Research & Training Institute, Inc., Liberia Fellows Program Coordinator
  • MyHometownLink, Co-owner
  • Vanguard, Fund Financial Associate
  • Barclays Capital, Credit Risk Management Analyst
  • Deloitte & Touche, LLP, Human Capital Analyst
  • Eclipse Solar, LLC, Project Manager
  • Epiq Systems, Case Manager

Selected Summer 2010 Student Internships

Internships provide career experience and networking opportunities to economics majors, help them to clarify their goals and enhance their classroom education. Recently, students have interned at:

  • Atlantis WeatherGear
  • Washington DC Office Congressman Bill Pascrell, Jr. (NJ-08)
  • Bnp Paribas - structured finance summer analyst-NYC
  • New Yrok Stock Exchange, NYC
  • Global Mama's - Women in Progress
  • Financial Policy analyst in Mayor's Office, Philadelphia
  • Office of Chief Counsel, Pennsylvania Dept. of Labor and Industry
  • Edelman Public Relations in Sydney Australia

Undergraduate Research

Bucknell offers many opportunities for students to conduct research projects alongside professors who serve as mentors. Recent project titles include:

  • Impact of Various Insurance Types on Level and Appropriateness of Health Care Consumption
  • The Effects of the Use of New Drugs
  • Own-Race Bias among NBA Coaches
  • Income, Trade and Pollution in Central Asia, Russia an China: An Econometric Analysis
  • A Raw Market
  • Estimating Willingness to Pay for River Amenities and Safety Measures Associated with Shale Gas Extraction

Study Abroad

Economics students can benefit tremendously from spending a summer, semester or year abroad. Recently, students have studied in London, Spain and Denmark, but opportunities are available all over the world.

Additionally, the economics department offers a course on the Caribbean in Barbados every summer.

Off-campus study options exist in the U.S. as well, including the Washington Economic Policy Semester at American University.

Students studied in the following locations during the 2009 - 2010 academic year.

  • Hamburg, Germany
  • Buenos Aires, Argentina
  • Bologna, Italy
  • London, England
  • Rome, Italy
  • Barbados, West Indies
  • Prague, Czech Republic
  • Granada, Spain
  • Aix-en-Provence, France

Courses Offered

Economics students choose much of their own course of study, in consultation with faculty members, drawing upon the many courses and specialties of the faculty and, if they choose, focusing on a particular world region.

Core Theory Courses
Economic Principles and Problems
Intermediate Macroeconomics
Intermediate Microeconomics
Intermediate Political Economy

International Electives
African Economic Development
Asian Economic Development
The British Economy: Structures and Policies
China and the World Economy
Comparative Economic Sys.
European Economic History
The French Economy: Structures and Policies
International Economic Theory
International Economics
International Monetary and Financial Economics
Latin American Economic Development
Political Economy of Global Resources
Political Economy of the Caribbean
Seminar in International Economics

Other Electives
American Economic History
Econometrics
Economic Development
Economic History of Women in the United States
Health Politics and Health
History of Economic Thought
Honors Thesis in Economics
The Idea of Capitalism in Economic Thought
Independent Study
Industrial Organization
Labor Economics
Law and Economics
Macroeconomic Policy
Marxian Economics
Money and Banking
Money and Financial Institutions
Political Economy of Media and Advertising
Public Finance
Resources and teh Environment
Sports Economics
Unemployment and Poverty
Urban Economics

Related Student Organizations and University Programs

Bucknell Business Leaders

Bucknell Caucus for Economic Justice

Microfinance Initiative at Bucknell

Omicron Delta Epsilon (economics honor society)

Phi Beta Lambda (business/career group)

Student Managed Investment Fund

Students for Fair Trade

Program Details

  • Economics students at Bucknell study topics related to production, employment, the distribution of income, and international economics relations.
  • The economics department offers an extensive introduction to economic theories and how those theories are used to explain observed behaviors and public policies.
  • Students are encouraged to apply these theories to developing approaches to economic challenges associated with economic growth, unemployment, inflation, poverty, and discrimination. 
  • Majors study microeconomics, macroeconomics and political economy, and choose electives in these areas as well as in the areas of international economics, economic development, the financial system, economic history, history of economic thought, and econometrics.
  • A number of courses focus on the global economy and on specific areas of the world including Africa, the Caribbean, the Pacific Rim, Latin America, and Europe.  Many of our majors study abroad in one of these areas.
  • The economics major is flexible:  Approximately half of our majors combine a major in economics with a second major.
  • Students interested in economics and mathematics can select the interdisciplinary Studies in Economics and Mathematics major.
  • Some graduates enter careers in management, finance, sales, economic analysis, teaching and social work.  Others continue their education in law and other graduate or professional programs.

Faculty

Erdogan Bakir
B.S., M.S. Middle East Technical University, Ankara; Ph.D. University of Utah
Scholarly interests: political economy, macroeconomics, structure of the U.S. economy since 1945, political economy of financialization, heterodox growth theories

Nina Banks
B.A. Hood College; Ph.D. University of Massachusetts at Amherst
Scholarly interests: political economy, gender and race, women in the world economy, labor economics, poverty, welfare, African American women’s economic history, households and economic transformation, Mexican self-employment

Wei Ge
B.S. Chinese Electronic Science and Technology; M.A., Ph.D. Pennsylvania
Scholarly interests: economics of the Pacific Rim, international trade and finance, the process of transition toward a market economy, economic transition, trade and financial liberalization, economic development

Winston Griffith
B.S.West Indies; M.A., Ph.D. Howard
Scholarly interests: economic development, international economics, development issues in the Caribbean, political economy of the Caribbean

Paula Kazi
B.S., M.S. University of Dhaka, Bangladesh; Ph.D. Michigan State University
Scholarly interests: retirement decisions and family obligations, human capital investment in AIDSaffected Ghanaian households

Thomas Kinnaman
B.A. George Mason; M.A., Ph.D. Virginia
Scholarly interests: mathematical economics, environmental economics, law and economics, the use of economic incentives in environmental policies, the study of household recycling incentives and policy

Janet Knoedler
B.A., M.A. Illinois-Springfield; Ph.D. Tennessee
Scholarly interests: industrial organization, economic history, economics and technology, economics of technological change, institutional economics

David Kristjanson-Gural
B.A., M.A. Manitoba; Ph.D. Massachusetts-Amherst
Scholarly interests: principles of economics, political economy, Marxian economics, political economy of media and advertising, class analysis, theories of demand

Gregory Krohn
B.A. California at San Diego; M.S., Ph.D.Wisconsin at Madison
Scholarly interests: macroeconomics, finance, forecasting, religion and economics, optimal taxation and economic growth, economics education, economics of religious organizations

Christopher Magee
B.A. Swarthmore College; Ph.D. Wisconsin at Madison
Scholarly interests: economic principles, econometrics, macroeconomics, economics of politics and lobbying, campaign contributions and legislative behavior, industry lobby formation, U.S. trade policy

Berhanu Nega
B.A. State University of New York, New Paltz; Ph.D. New School for Social Research
Scholarly interests: African democracy and economic development, agriculture and land policy in Africa and Ethiopia, African international competitiveness

Geoffrey Schneider
B.A. Northwestern; Ph.D. North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Scholarly interests: economic principles, African economic development, political economy, economic development, the history of economic thought, economic history, pedagogy

Nancy White
B.S., B.A. Minnesota State at Moorhead; M.A., Ph.D. Colorado
Scholarly interests: public finance, urban and regional economics, economic principles, microeconomic theory, fiscal policy, U.S. household migration

Amy Wolaver
B.A. James Madison College, Michigan State; M.S., Ph.D.Wisconsin
Scholarly interests: economic principles, microeconomics, health economics, employer-provided health insurance markets, the effects of heavy drinking in college on academics

Selected Faculty Publications

Bucknell’s economics faculty members’ scholarship has recently appeared in the following journals:

Berkeley Electronic Press

Contemporary Economic Policy

International Journal of Community Currency Research

Journal of Economic Issues

Journal of Economic Perspectives

National Tax Journal

Rethinking Marxism

Review of Regional Studies

The Journal of Economic Education

National Tax Journal

Journal of Economic Perspectives

Faculty Distinctions

  • Wei Ge - consultant to the United Nations
  • Winston Griffith - consultant to the World Bank
  • Geoffrey Schneider - founding member, Bucknell Caucus for Economic Justice
  • Nancy White - president of the Southern Regional Science Association

Graduate and Professional School

Many economics majors attend graduate school, either immediately after graduating from Bucknell or in the years beyond. Our economics students also go on to law school or earn MBAs. After earning advanced degrees, Bucknell economics alumni teach at universities, work for consulting firms, forecast economic conditions for a variety of businesses or perform policy analyses for government agencies. Recently, alumni have gone on to:

  • College of William & Mary
  • Columbia University
  • George Washington University
  • Harvard Law School
  • Penn State University
  • Rutgers University
  • New School University
  • University of Michigan Medical School
  • Johns Hopkins
  • University of Illinois (Urbana-Champaign)

Quick Facts

Number of full-time faculty: 16

Average number of majors per class year: 100