经济学是对个人，组织和社会如何应对稀缺性的研究，即资源不足以满足每个人的需求这一事实。由于稀缺性需要在资源的替代用途中进行选择，因此经济学家研究了将资源转化为人们想要的产品的技术，以及人们在替代方案中进行选择的偏好。此外，由于社会由许多个人和团体组成，所以经济学家研究市场，政府和其他机构，使社会可以通过这些优势获得合作的优势并解决竞争目标引起的冲突。经济学课程开发工具，并使用它们来分析广泛的社会问题，并研究政府在解决这些问题中的作用。经济学是与工商管理不同的学科。但是，存在很多重叠。两种学科都研究市场，法
Economics is the study of how individuals, organizations, and societies deal with scarcitythe fact that resources are not sufficient to satisfy everyone's wants. Because scarcity requires choice among alternative uses of resources, economists study both the technology by which resources are turned into the products people want and the preferences through which people choose among alternatives. Further, since society is composed of many individuals and groups, economists study markets, governments, and other institutions through which a society might gain the advantages of cooperation and resolve the conflicts due to competing goals. The economics curriculum develops tools and uses them to analyze a wide range of societal problems, and also to study the role of the government in solving these problems. Economics is a different discipline from business administration. However, there are substantial overlaps. Both disciplines study the behavior of people and firms within the context of market, legal, and other institutions. In evaluating economic institutions, economists tend to emphasize the viewpoint of the larger society, and business scholars tend to emphasize the viewpoint of firms. Management science builds on a set of related quantitative methods commonly used to solve problems arising in the private (business and finance) and public (government) sectors. While students will gain some familiarity with the traditional functional fields of business management, this program is more tightly focused and more quantitative than a traditional business administration major. It is not, however, a program in applied mathematics or operational research, since the economic interpretation and application of the tools are continually stressed. Rather, it is a quantitative major in applied economics with a management focus.