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Economics is about understanding the behavior of people. In particular, economics seeks to address how the world can be understood based on the incentives that various economic agents face. In practice, the study of economics involves using both conceptual and empirical tools to examine how people make choices. This theoretical and data work is, in turn, crucial in informing policymakers how to make their decisions.

Our majors gain strong quantitative skills through their courses and end up working in a vast array of professions: consulting, healthcare, banking, finance, pharmaceuticals, and real estate, to name a few, while others find careers in non-profit and public sectors. We also send our students to graduate school in law, business, economics, or public policy to name a few. 

Our majors also tend to have substantial earning power based on their economics degree. According to the Wall Street Journal’s “Degrees That Pay You Back” data, economics majors have the highest mid-career median salary of any non-engineering major.

So, please come visit us in the department and talk to our many faculty about your future major in economics!

NEWS

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  The US will stop making pennies next year. Cash-only businesses are already affected
  The U.S. Mint will stop producing pennies next year — and Wake Forest University Economics Professor Robert Whaples weighed in on NPR, explaining why the coin’s time has passed. Whaples notes that it costs more to make a penny than its actual value, and removing it could simplify transactions and reduce inefficiency. Cash-only businesses are […]
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  Charlotte, Raleigh both want a major league baseball franchise, but who’s ready for the big leagues?
  In this recent feature Professor Todd Mcfall looks at the prospects of Major League Baseball expansion in North Carolina. Read
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  Prediction Markets
  In a recent Bloomberg Opinion feature on the rise of prediction markets and Intercontinental Exchange’s $2 billion investment in Polymarket, Wake Forest economist Dr. Koleman Strumpf, a leading scholar in prediction market research, weighed in on the limits of their current scale. Strumpf noted that while prediction markets offer valuable insight into public expectations, they […]

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