Carnegie Mellon University

Economics

Rapid technology advancements and the ubiquity of data are transforming industries and disrupting traditional business and economic models. Carnegie Mellon University is ideally positioned to take advantage of these global trends and changing needs by leveraging campus-wide strengths that lie at the intersection of business, technology, analytics and human behavior.

Why Carnegie Mellon for Economics?

The Tepper School of Business counts nine Nobel Laureates among its former students and faculty and includes current professor and laureate Finn Kydland. The school’s faculty members are renowned for being at the forefront of integrating data intensive models into economics. 

CMU has also played a key role in the development of behavioral economics, with the late Nobel Laureate Herbert A. Simon and George Loewenstein, a current Dietrich College of Humanities and Social Sciences professor, co-founders of the field. 

More Degree Options and Opportunities Than Anywhere Else

Students at both the undergraduate and graduate levels have access to world-renowned faculty, cutting-edge resources, exciting research and collaboration opportunities as well as a rich array of degree options. 

Undergraduate

The Undergraduate Economics Program is a collaboration of the Tepper School of Business and Dietrich College. It contains four distinct majors: the B.A. in economics, the B.S. in economics, the joint B.S. in economics and statistics and the joint B.S. in economics and mathematics. This rich menu of majors allows students to customize their CMU economics experience. Each provides an in-depth, analytical education that emphasizes the interplay of economic models and quantitative analysis. Students learn how to harness economics and data to design better public policy and make more effective business decisions. They are educated by and research alongside faculty who at the forefront of advancing economics. Current areas of faculty research include the design of crypto currencies, online platforms and other digital marketplaces; the origins and mitigations of financial crises; the economic impact of transformative technological change; reform and innovation in health markets, the economic consequences of climate change; and trade policy and tax reform in a globalized economy.

Additionally, the Dietrich College’s Department of Social and Decision Sciences offers the first-of-its-kind B.S. in behavioral economics (formerly the B.A. in behavioral economics, policy and organizations). The B.S. in behavioral economics gives students the opportunity to explore this emerging field at the intersection of economics and psychology, providing a solid grounding in quantitative methods. The department’s exceptional behavioral economics faculty regularly consult with government and business to design interventions to improve public policy, profitability and society.  Current areas of research include health, crime, discrimination, happiness, innovation, risk taking in financial markets, political polarization and perceptions of climate change.

Graduate

Carnegie Mellon offers three opportunities for economics graduate study:

Ph.D. in Behavioral Economics
Joint between the Tepper School and Dietrich College

Ph.D. in Economics
Offered by the Tepper School 

Ph.D. in Economics and Public Policy
Joint between the Heinz College of Information Systems and Public Policy and Tepper School