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What is Economics
WHAT IS ECONOMICS?
Economics addresses some of the most important questions of society and human behavior and is a fascinating subject of study. At the same time, it is intimately related to day-to-day life and is an indispensable guide for practical decision-making.
A liberal art ...
Economics aims to answer a simple yet fruitful question in the context of all the other disciplines: how do societies solve the problem of providing the material goods and services necessary for life, given the scarcity of resources for satisfying human wants? For example, economics seeks to explain the existence of town markets, such as this one in LeMans, France:
Why would 15 Euros per 2 kg (or 20 Euros per 3 kg) seem like a good deal to the buyer? Why is there a sale ("Promo")? Why did these vegetables come to this market rather than anywhere else? Why is the seller here and not in college? Why is unemployment so high in France, especially for young people?
This leads to more questions: Why do people trade? Why these goods and not others, and why do they organize their trades this way? Why this economic system and not another? What happens when the system doesn’t work as intended? In asking these questions, Economics benefits from the humanities and from the other social sciences and it contributes to their understanding of human nature.
A social science ...
Economics seeks to acquire sure and precise knowledge about what causes what in economic relations. To do this, we use very sophisticated methods to reduce the complex mass of information we read about in the newspapers and the economic history books into more manageable principles and patterns. These we use to understand, explain, and predict economic behavior.
A practical art ...
Families, businesses, and governments depend on economics when they make decisions about their economic future. Economics illuminates issues that relate to people's income and expenses, the products they make, the markets where they sell, their reactions to events, and their world-changing policies.
Some of the most influential people in the world are economists by training and by profession. The world is in great need of economists who are leaders, both professionally and morally.
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Ave Maria University is committed to excellence and the Economics program intends to be a prime example of our rigorous and lively intellectual formation. On the one hand, the program combines the best of economic theory with the quantitative tools that are the mark of the economics profession and with the requisite institutional knowledge. On the other hand, we encourage the philosophical habit of mind and so we actively draw from the other liberal arts, particularly theology, philosophy, history, politics, and the other social sciences. Ave Maria Economics is committed to the Western intellectual tradition and to the Magisterium of the Catholic Church.
Economics majors at Ave Maria University receive a high-quality training in Economics within the context of the Liberal Arts and of Catholic social teaching.
We are trying to form people who will make a difference in the world. Economists, for good or for ill, are immensely influential. Many of them have good hearts and care about the right things, but, all too often, means and ends get confused. Catholic social teaching can be an important contribution to the profession, but it won’t have an impact unless we educate economists with the best of the profession’s analytical and technical skills.
So our aim is to work towards giving students all the language, all the historical and institutional knowledge, and all the abilities of the best undergraduate economics majors in the United States. Most of our students will go into positions in businesses where they will make decisions: we hope to help you interpret the world around you intelligently, ably, and ethically. A small number of our students will go to graduate school in economics and other disciplines, as well as law school and other professional schools. For you, we hope that our education will allow you to compete successfully with the best students of the best schools, and eventually make a difference in the world.
