BSc in Economics - Management Science in La Jolla United States | University of California, San Diego

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.