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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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  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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  Are professional economists truly objective when forecasting GDP?
  In a new article, Professor Aeimit Lakdawala, WFU Economics Professor, dives into how subtle biases—like political leanings or institutional ties—can influence even the most expert economic forecasts.His research challenges the idea of purely objective forecasting and asks: Can we ever fully remove bias from economic prediction? Read the full piece news.wfu.edu
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  Bettors Lose Millions Predicting the New Pope as Polymarket Edge Fizzles Out
  “Polymarket prices seem to be wrapping up the views of smart money pretty well,” Koleman Stumpf, an economics professor at Wake Forest University in North Carolina, told CoinDesk at the time, noting that Polymarket bettors appeared to have a slight edge in predicting the election outcome.

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