The department offers a two-semester Honors Program in Economics (ECON 498 in the fall semester and ECON 499 in the subsequent spring semester) available to qualifying ECON and MTEC majors. This program, which provides for 3 hours of ECON and MTEC credit (ECON 498) and 6 hours of university credit (3 hours each for ECON 498 and ECON 499), is supervised by Professor Flávio Cunha, who meets with all students during the semester, leads discussions, makes assignments, guides research, observes and critiques presentations, and grades final papers – in some cases with input from other faculty members who are also providing guidance and supervision for individual student research projects. To enter the Honors Program, students must have a GPA > 3.67 in all courses taken toward fulfilling their departmental requirements, must have completed all of the new core requirements, must have completed the 400-level course or courses most closely related to their area of research, and must receive the approval of the instructor. MTEC majors: Please note that the Honors Program does not substitute for the capstone course (ECON 496 or ECON 497), which is a required course for all MTEC majors; however, ECON 498 does count toward MTEC major requirements as a 400-level elective.
Course Descriptions
ECON 498 – Honors Program in Economics-I
Credits: 3
Grade Mode: Standard Letter
Research in a workshop setting open to ECON and MTEC majors. Students must have a GPA of at least 3.67 in all courses required for their major, and must have taken all ECON courses directly related to the topic of their research. Students develop a research idea, construct an economic model with testable hypotheses, test those hypotheses, and write and present in an academic quality paper. Instructor and department approval required. Instructor may impose additional pre-requisites.
College: School of Social Sciences
Department: Economics
Pre-requisite(s): ECON 203 AND ECON 209 AND (ECON 300 OR ECON 305)
ECON 499 – Honors Program in Economics-II
Credits: 3
Grade Mode: Standard Letter
Continuation of ECON 498. University credit only.
College: School of Social Sciences
Department: Economics
Pre-requisite(s): ECON 498