Economics
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Economics

Overview

Do you want to engage in discussions about health care, financial markets or Social Security reform? Or perhaps you'd like to investigate why working women earn a fraction of what men earn, or the effectiveness of policies aimed at improving the environment, or even the impact of our economy's growing globalization. If you are interested in developing a coherent framework to answer questions like these, then you should consider studying economics at Hamilton. More ...

Academic Program

Research Opportunities

Economics students at Hamilton have opportunities to conduct original research either over the summer as part of the Levitt Fellows or Emerson Grant programs or during their senior year as part of the Senior Program Examples of past topics include climate finance, the labor market and the "Great Recession", and entrepreneurship among immigrants.

In addition some concentrators work during the academic year and in the summer as research assistants with faculty members, and the results of their collaborations have appeared in co-authored papers in professional journals.


The Senior Program

The Senior Project in economics can be satisfied either by a project in a designated 500 level course or by a Senior Thesis. Projects require a paper or a series of papers demonstrating a mastery of advanced methods, an understanding of the scholarly literature on a topic or an understanding of the evolution of important issues in the discipline. The Senior Thesis is a written report of an original research project undertaken in the department's Research Seminar (Economics 560). Students participating in this seminar make a number of presentations of their work in progress during the semester and usually submit their theses to the department for consideration for department honors. On several occasions, these theses have become the basis for collaborative work with faculty supervisors that has resulted in  publications in professional journals. More ...


Resources

The Economics Department is headquartered in the newly renovated Kirner-Johnson Building. Classrooms are "technology-enhanced," including either a projection screen and data projector or a LCD screen on the wall, and are equipped with large flat-screen computer monitors that allow students to collaborate. "Annotation screens" allow students and professors to add comments to computer displays. Four tiered "case study" classrooms have two rows of seats in a horseshoe configuration to further encourage student-teacher and student-student interaction.

The Economics Department regularly sponsors guest lecturers and holds a joint seminar series with the Economics Department at Colgate University for faculty and students. The department also regularly receives funds from Procter & Gamble for academic needs.