Economics - Honours and 4-Year General

Honours Economics is the department's main program that serves as preparation for employment in the private sector or government, and as preparation for advanced studies in a variety of professional and academic programs. 

A minimum Economics major average of 70% is required to obtain an Honours degree. Students who achieve an Economics major average of at least 65% but below 70% are awarded the 4-Year General degree.

Honours Economics with Intensive Specialization builds on the Department’s Honours Plan by adding a level of advanced courses and providing students an opportunity to engage in independent supervised research (ECON 472). The specialization also requires a minimum Economics Major average of 75%. The plan is recommended for students interested in pursuing graduate studies in Economics and becoming a research economist working in business, government or academia.

Students majoring in Honours Economics or Four-Year General Economics can pursue a topic specialization in the following areas:

  • Financial Economics
  • Public Policy
  • Econometrics

Note: Honours students may choose to pursue the Intensive specialization and one of the above topic specializations. Students may only choose one topic specialization.

Suggested Course Sequence for Honours and 4-Yr General Economics

Students majoring in Economics are encouraged to plan to meet their course requirements in the order illustrated in the table below. This chart includes only major required courses and potential pre-requisites.

1A ECON 101 MATH 103 (see sequence notes)
1B ECON 102 MATH 104 (see sequence notes)
2A ECON 211 ECON 221
2B ECON 290 ECON 322 ECON 2XX/3XX/4XX
3A ECON 391 ECON 323 ECON 2XX/3XX/4XX
3B ECON 393 ECON 306 ECON 2XX/3XX/4XX
4A ECON 406/7/8/9 ECON 4XX
4B ECON 4XX

Average Requirement

All courses with the ECON course code count towards your Economics Major Average (MAV). Honours Economics MAV must be 70% or higher. Economics 4-Year General MAV must be 65% or higher.

Course Offerings

Electives may change term over term. To see the electives planned for the upcoming year, navigate to our current course offerings and utilize our additional course selection resources.

Specializations in Economics

Most specializations can fit into the electives laid out in the standardized plan. There are no specific average requirements for a topic specialization. As long as you meet your Economics plan requirements, you can consider a specialization. The intensive specialization requires a MAV of 75% or higher. You can pair the intensive specialization with any of the three topic specializations, however, you may only choose one topic specialization.

Sequence Notes

If you have not taken 4U Advanced Functions or 4U Calculus and Vectors you should take MATH 103 and MATH 104 in your first year. If you can only take one of the Math courses, take MATH 104 in the Fall term. MATH 103 and MATH 104 are offered in both the Fall and Winter terms. 

Undergraduate Calendar Links

Degree Requirements

There are additional requirements needed to ensure you meet your degree requirements for the Bachelor of Arts! 

  1. Overall Credits — 20.00 CR/units
    • All of your courses go towards this goal. After meeting all of your specific requirements, this may mean adding some extra electives to get to this point. 
    • Remember most courses in Arts are 0.5 CR/units.
  2. Cumulative Average (CAV) — 60%
    • All courses taken at UW with a grade associated will compile your cumulative average.
  3. Level Requirement — 8.0 CR at the 200-level or higher
    • The Economics plan includes 7.0 CR for this requirement. 1.0 CR of additional courses at the 200-level or higher are required.
    • Students who complete ARBUS and Economics automatically meet this requirement.
  4. Undergraduate Communication Requirement
    • If you started in Arts prior to Fall 2025, you need Arts 130 and Arts 140.
    • If you started in Arts in Fall 2025 or later, you need Arts 160.
    • If you transferred into Arts from a different faculty or institution, consult an advisor to check if you meet this requirement.
  5. Arts Breadth — 5.0 CR
    • You may only use 1.0 CR of ECON courses towards the Social Science Arts Breadth.
  6. Additional Plan Requirements
    • If you are enroled in ARBUS make sure you complete those course requirements.
    • You may choose to add a minor or two to your degree. You will need to make sure you meet those requirements as well.
  7. Coop Requirements
    • These are non-academic requirements. PD courses do not contribute to your overall academic credits.
    • Please see the coop page for sequencing and requirements.

Consider Adding a Minor to your Degree

If you're not sure what to choose, here are instructions on how to browse the Undergraduate Calendar for minor plans.

  1. Choose "Programs and Plans" on the left.
  2. Then choose the "Undergraduate Credential Type" drop-down menu on the right. 
  3. Choose Minor
  4. You can then either scroll through for a topic that interests you or search by keyword.
  5. Remember to check at the top of the listing whether it’s open to all students or students of a specific faculty. Some minors, for example, are only offered to Math Faculty students! 

Degree Audit

Still unsure whether you are meeting your requirements? Request a degree audit from an academic advisor! Additional plans need to be confirmed by the advisors in that area, so you may need to reach out to multiple advisors to get a full degree audit.

Economics Curriculum

The Economics Curriculum was created to support deep learning in the discipline. The chart below provides context on what you're learning, when you will learn it and how the courses interact with each other to create the overall scope of your learning! 

Economics Curriculum Chart

Curriculum Image Description

The Economics Major Curriculum Chart is an overview of the Economics major plan, its overall goals and the classes that work towards this goal. This is not an official listing of requirements, but relates required courses with curriculum goals. 

In the first year you start with the principles: how economists interpret the world. The courses in the first year are ECON 101: Microeconomics and ECON 102: Macroeconomics.

In the second year, you start with basic methods: how to think clearly about quantities and relationships. The courses are ECON 211: Math for ECON and ECON 221: Stats for ECON. 

In the second year, you then start two separate curriculum goals. The first being Methods Guided by Theory: Learn to explain and predict economic behaviour and market outcomes using data. ECON 322: Econometric Analysis 1 is under that goal. The second curriculum goal is Economic Theory: How economists frame economic behaviour. ECON 290: Models of Choice is under that second goal. 

In the second year you can also start learning applications of economics: what economists have concluded about presiding problems. Some example courses in second year that are under applications are:

  • ECON 206: Money and Banking 1
  • ECON 207: Growth and Development 1
  • ECON 212: Game Theory
  • ECON 241: Public Economics
  • ECON 254: Economics of Sport
  • ECON 255: Economics of Natural Resources
  • ECON 256: Health Economics

In the third year, you continue with the Methods Guided by Theory curriculum goal by taking ECON 323: Econometric Analysis 2. You also continue with the Economic Theory curriculum goal by thinking about interactions in an economy and the well-being of society. ECON 391: Market Equilibrium, EOCN 393: Market Failures, and ECON 306: Macroeconomics fall under this goal 

In the third year, there are additional courses available under applications for students to study markets and decisions. ECON 332: International Finance, ECON 371 & ECON 372: Business Finance 1 & 2, and ECON 361: Cost-Benefit Analysis are these third year applications. 

In the fourth year, you can continue with the Methods Guided by Theory curriculum goal by leveraging your learning with more advanced techniques. The elective options for this curriculum goal are ECON 421: Econometric Theory, ECON 422: Microeconometrics, ECON 423: Time Series, and ECON 424: Machine Learning.

In the fourth year, you can continue with the Economic Theory curriculum goal by learning how theoretical foundations help us study economies. The Macro breadth requires one of ECON 406: Money and Banking 2, ECON 407: Growth and Development 2, ECON 408: Business Cycles, or ECON 409: Workers, Jobs and Wages under this curriculum goal. 

In the fourth year, you can also take advanced applications to examine current research on real world problems. Some of the elective options under this goal are ECON 441: Public Economics, ECON 451: Law and Economics, ECON 456: Health and Economics or ECON 483/484: Special Topics.