Program Overview

The Associate of Arts (Economics) Degree is a foundational degree consisting of 60 credits in total, typically completed over a two-year period.  Upon completion of the Associate of Arts (Economics) Degree program, students may choose to enter the workforce or continue their undergraduate studies.

Economics is the study of production, consumption and allocation decisions under conditions of scarcity, or as economist Steven Landsburg says, “People respond to incentives. Everything else is noise. The field is broken down into macroeconomics, the performance of the economy as a whole, and microeconomics, the economic behavior of consumers or firms. Macroeconomics includes topics such as economic growth, inflation, changes in employment and unemployment, international trade performance, and the relative success or failure of government and Federal Reserve economic policies. The general concern of microeconomics, on the other hand, is the efficient allocation of scarce resources between alternative uses. Therefore, microeconomics looks at the determination of price through the optimizing behavior of consumers and firms, with consumers seeking to maximize happiness and firms, profit.

Career Opportunities

An associate degree in economics can provide graduates with access to many promising professional opportunities. These programs can lead to entry-level careers in various social sciences and business and occupations. These degrees may also pave the way to further training in economics or a related discipline.

Graduates with an associate degree in economics possess skills they can use in many careers and industries. They can access various business and financial careers, for example, a sector in the addition of more than 476,000 jobs between 2019 and 2029

Program Learning Outcomes

Students completing this program will be able to:

• Analyze social science concepts and theories.
• Evaluate diverse viewpoints related to the human experience.
• Produce evidence-based arguments.