Front of the Landau Building of Economics

Economics BA

The undergraduate Bachelor of Arts degree provides an excellent background for those who plan on government and private enterprise careers and those pursuing graduate degrees in professional schools or economics. 

The department expects undergraduate majors in the BA program to be able to:

  • Understand the core knowledge within Economics
  • Analyze a problem and draw correct inferences using qualitative and/or quantitative analysis
  • Write clearly and persuasively and communicate ideas clearly
  • Evaluate theory and critique research within the discipline

Course Requirements

Core Economics Courses (30 Units)

The Department encourages students to complete the core courses before undertaking the upper division courses, and if possible by the end of the sophomore year. 

Beginning Fall 2024, students must earn a grade of C or better in courses completed for the Economics core requirements. 

The following courses are required:

  1. ECON 1 (5 units). This is the only Econ core course that may be double-counted. 
  2. ECON 102A (5 units): it is recommended that students satisfy this basic statistics requirement before proceeding with the rest of the program. Prerequisite: Math 20 or equivalent. Please note: results from the Math Department placement diagnostic exam cannot serve as a substitute for completion of the math prerequisite. Students interested in receiving transfer credit or AP score waivers for Math prerequisites should submit the Econ Math Requirements Waiver Petition.
  3. ECON 50 OR ECON 50Q (5 units): basic price theory. Prerequisite: Econ 1 and Math 20 (or equivalent).
  4. ECON 51 (5 units): intermediate micro. Prerequisites: Econ 50. 
  5. ECON 52 (5 units): intermediate macro. Prerequisites: Econ 50. 
  6. ECON 102B (5 units): econometrics. Prerequisites: Economics 102A.

The material in ECON 102B is used in several field courses. Students are advised to take ECON 102B early in their program.

Field Courses - 3-5 units each (must be taken at Stanford in California) (23-25 units required)

Full list of field courses for the Econ BA

  • ECON 47: Media Markets and Social Good
  • ECON 102C: Advanced Topics in Econometrics
  • ECON 102D: Econometric Methods for Public Policy Analysis and Business Decision-Making
  • ECON 108: Data Science for Business and Economic Decisions
  • ECON 111: Money and Banking
  • ECON 112: Financial Markets and Institutions: Recent Developments
  • ECON 113: Historical perspectives on inequality and opportunity in America
  • ECON 115: Causality, Decision Making and Data Science
  • ECON 118: Development Economics
  • ECON 125: Economic Development, Microfinance, and Social Networks
  • ECON 126: Economics of Health and Medical Care
  • ECON 127: Economics of Health Improvement in Developing Countries
  • ECON 131: The Chinese Economy
  • ECON 135*: Finance for Non-MBAs
  • ECON 136: Market Design
  • ECON 137: Decision Modeling & Information
  • ECON 140*: Financial Economics
  • ECON 141*: Financial Markets
  • ECON 144: Family and Society
  • ECON 146: Economics of Education
  • ECON 147: The Economics of Labor Markets
  • ECON 149: Management Economics
  • ECON 150: Economic Policy Analysis
  • ECON 152: Advanced Microeconomics
  • ECON 155: Climate Change and Global Inequality
  • ECON 156: Energy Markets and Policy
  • ECON 157: Imperfect Competition
  • ECON 158: Regulatory Economics
  • ECON 160 (or 180 or 167G)**: Game Theory and Economic Applications (Honors Game Theory; Game Theory & Social Behavior)
  • ECON 165: International Finance
  • ECON 166: International Trade
  • ECON 175: Environmental Economic Theory
  • ECON 177: Empirical Environmental Economics
  • ECON 178: Behavioral Economics
  • ECON 179: Experimental Economics
  • ECON 185: Data Science for Environmental Business
  • ECON 198/ECON 199D***: Junior Honors Seminar / Honors Thesis Research
  • ECON 200-Level courses: Advanced undergraduate majors with strong quantitative preparation may enroll in graduate (200-level) courses (excluding 239D & 299) with permission of the Director of Undergraduate Studies and the course instructor (see Section XII.A). Submit a completed “Course Substitution” form to the Econ Academic Office.

* Students may only count units from one of the following towards their major as the courses are too similar in content: ECON 141, ECON 140, or ECON 135.

**Students may count toward the econ field course requirement ECON 160, ECON 167G, or ECON 180. The others may count as electives.

***Students enrolled in the ECON BAH may take up to 10 units of 199D. The successful completion of an honors thesis and at least five units of credit in ECON 199D may replace the requirement for Economics 101 (WIM). The remaining units of ECON 199D may be used to meet the minimum field requirements for the major, as long as the number of units for the BAH is at least 85.

Electives (20 Units)

Choose from any ECON courses taken for a letter grade. 

Up to 10 units of electives may be fulfilled by some combination of the following:

Please note:

  • Due to similarities in coursework, econ students may choose one course in each pair for their elective requirement:
    • ECON 135 or ECON 140
    • ECON 143 or ECON 148 
  • Students may count ECON 160 or ECON 167G or ECON 180 toward field requirements; the other courses can be counted as elective units.
  • Advanced undergraduate majors with strong quantitative preparation may enroll in graduate (200-level) courses with the permission of the Director of Undergraduate Studies and the course instructor.
  • The department does not give credit for internships. Thus ECON 139D: Directed Reading, cannot be used to obtain credit for internships.
Economics Capstone (Writing in the Major) (5 units)

Beginning with the graduating class of 2025, all Stanford Students will be required to complete a Capstone Project as part of their major. 

The Economics Capstone is made up of two requirements: 

  1. An ePortfolio completed with the student's advisor during their junior year and 
  2. Completion during senior year of either 
    1. ECON 101 or 
    2. an Economics Honors Thesis 

Both components are intended to allow students to apply the knowledge and skills they have gained in their course of study and to strengthen the relationships between students and mentors. 

Successful completion of either ECON 101 or the Economics Honors Program will also count for the Economics Writing in the Major requirement. 

More details about each component can be found on the Economics Capstone page. 

Other Requirements
  • At least 55 of the 80 units required for the major must be taken at Stanford in California. 
  • No courses receiving Department of Economics credit under the preceding requirements may be taken CR/NC.
  • MATH 20 (or equivalent) is a prerequisite for an Economics BA degree. It may be taken for credit to meet the ECON 50 prerequisite.
  • Students scoring a 5 on both the advanced placement (AP) microeconomics and macroeconomics tests or a score of 7 on International Baccalaureate (IB) higher-level economics test may petition the Director of Undergraduate Studies to have the ECON 1 course requirement waived. Students do not receive units credit for placing out of ECON 1. 
  • A grade point average (GPA) of C= (2.0) or better must be received for all units applied toward the Major. 
  • To use transfer credit in partial satisfaction of the requirements, the student must obtain written consent from the department's Director of Undergraduate Study, who will establish the amount of credit to be granted toward the department requirements. 
  • The maximum time limit for satisfactory course completion is one year from the date a grade of incomplete ("I") is given. Instructors may require that a course be completed anytime up to the one-year time limit. Students are responsible for seeing that all Incompletes are cleared within the time limit. The university's rule is that an Incomplete not cleared within the time limit becomes a NP. 
  • Students must complete their declaration of the major no later than the last day of the quarter, one quarter before anticipated degree conferral.