Chair's Message

Economics is a core liberal art and teaches essential professional skills

Liberal Arts refer to knowledge and education which realize the freedoms and responsibilities of citizenship and strive toward understanding the world and society. This goal has been the cornerstone of American higher education as it aimed to provide wide public access. The latter fact means that the college education’s mission is to also be a springboard to productive careers. Students come to college in pursuit of both these goals. We in the Department of Economics believe that our discipline is uniquely positioned to carry the missions of Liberal Arts education. It provides our students with fundamental tools for lifetime careers in the changing world and with a systematic conceptual foundation to analyze it.  

As is well known, our discipline is driven by the analysis of data. Therefore, our students learn econometric methods of data analysis along with the modeling and computational skills to guide data driven solutions of the problems of business strategy and public policy. We offer these comprehensive curricula at the Bachelors, Masters, and Ph.D. levels. IU Economics faculty possess cutting edge strengths in all the areas central to this training: from macroeconomics and monetary policy, to industrial organization and international trade, to game theory and experimental methods, and to financial and micro-econometrics. It is no accident that many of our graduates are among IU’s most successful alumni. If you are not one already, we very much hope to help you get there.

Michael Kaganovich
Professor and Chair