General Focus
Economics – “What are the grand laws by which the society operates, when do markets work or fail, what are socially optimal activities and policies on the part of economic players?
Business – “What determines the success or failure of organizations, how do organization interact – both competitively and cooperatively – with one another, how to lead organizations?
Disciplinary Focus
Growing from being mostly uni-disciplinary, nowadays, economics also draws on concepts from psychology, neuroscience, biology, data science, organization theory, and more.
The business major is intrinsically interdisciplinary. It teaches and draws on some economics, but also on data science, organization theory, psychology, neuroscience and more.
Unit of Analysis
Economics studies entire economies and even interactions among economies (international economics). It also covers the perspective of individual units — businesses, consumers, etc. — but is most interested in how these parts interact and aggregate.
Business is focused on individual organizations and their constituent parts such as groups and teams. It also studies interactions among organizations in the forms of marketplace competition, alliances, etc.
Tools/skills Gained
Economics helps one to: ask insightful questions and analyze complex problems; gain a toolkit to study real-world problems; learn statistical and econometric techniques; and more
- Gives you a high level of mathematical and statistical skills to understand the logic of complicated data, to see how things relate to each other and the ability to apply economic principles and models to problems in business, finance and the public sector
Business helps one to: develop quantitative skills and techniques used in business; study how organizations, groups, and teams function; develop strategic thinking and personal leadership skills; and more.
- Teaches direct, marketable skills in specific areas of business
Instruction Mode
Economics is taught in Arts & Sciences style, with lectures, discussions, problem sets, essays, etc.
Business is taught partly via lectures and partly via discussions of in-depth case studies.
Career Paths
Both Economics and Business are highly flexible degrees offering wide ranges of career paths with substantial overlap.
Economics serves as a general-purpose education – being one of the central disciplines underpinning the study of business and management and public policy. It also opens the door to specialized career paths such as economic policy jobs and economics consulting. Similar to the Business major, it can lead to careers in business or finance.
Business leads to career paths in business or finance, including management consulting, research analyst jobs, and marketing jobs. It also opens the door to many other fields — such as the media sector, the world of start-ups, the nonprofit sector, and government.
Both Economics and Business are paths to MBA programs. An Economics degree is a path to master’s and PhD programs in Economics.
Who Takes Which Major
Think about both the characteristics of each major and your own interests to arrive at the best fit.
Economics – Keeps many doors open without specializing too early – so, a good fit if you want to start broad and learn further skills later on the job.
Business – Imparts applicable skills early and spends less time on a broad systematic view – so, a good fit if you are reasonably clear about the direction in which you want to begin your career.
