This fall, the College will add a fourth track to its economics major: economics with a specialization in politics and policy (EPP). Victor Lima, the director of undergraduate studies in the economics department, told the Maroon in April that the new specialization—along with the major’s other specializations—would help students “differentiate themselves a little bit” from the nearly 2,000 students pursuing economics across its different tracks.
But “a little bit” doesn’t even begin to describe how different EPP is from the standard track. And it’s not the first time the economics department has used the term “specialization” to repackage a substantially different degree. The business economics specialization, often characterized as economics with a lower “barrier for entry,” now accounts for more than half of all economics majors in the College and has been the main driver of the major’s explosive growth over the past decade.
The quantitative rigor of both EPP and its spiritual predecessor, business economics (Bizcon to those in the know), is notably lighter than that of the standard and data science tracks. Students can trade the traditional economics core sequence for more introductory-level courses, including Economics for Everyone—though an economics major should arguably be studying economics for economics majors—and forgo a number of advanced math requirements, including Calculus III, Mathematical Methods for Economic Analysis, Linear Algebra, and a Statistical Models course.
In fact, under either specialization, students can earn a B.A. in economics without taking a single 200-level economics course. It’s even possible for a standard track economics student and an EPP or Bizcon student to take no common major classes and still graduate with the same degree.
But if students can earn the same degree with no course overlap, in some cases without ever progressing beyond “introductory” economics, what exactly is an economics degree from UChicago supposed to signify?
The economics department is not just another academic department at UChicago. It’s part of the very heart of this school’s academic legacy. For the better part of the last century, the Chicago School has shaped the discipline, influencing 34 separate Nobel laureates and producing generations of leading economists. The University of Chicago is an economics school. But that reputation depends, at least in part, on the degree continuing to signify a substantive education in economics.
UChicago economics graduates should not need to qualify their degrees by explaining which—in Lima’s words—“flavor” of economics they studied. Economics should be economics. Any specializations added to the major should still have the same core requirements as the standard track, and to say that you were an economics major in the College, whatever slight variations the curriculum may undergo over the years, should ultimately signify the same academic foundation.
Other departments that offer specializations—the mathematics department, for instance—prove that specialization doesn’t have to mean abandoning core requirements. The most substantive difference between the standard B.S. in mathematics and a B.S. in mathematics with a specialization in economics is the electives. Standard math majors focus on options in the physical sciences division, while math-spec-econ students take electives in the economics department. (Ironically, math-spec-econ actually shares more requirements with standard economics than Bizcon or EPP.)
Of course, EPP and Bizcon aren’t all bad. On paper, they have at least one clear benefit: efficiency. For those who double major in economics and political science or public policy—popular combinations on campus—EPP allows for exploration of both fields without the typical hazards of double majoring, like packed schedules and little room for non-major classes. EPP frees up space for more electives, quarters abroad, or even an additional major. For students of the Wall Street persuasion, Bizcon offers access to Booth classes and a chance to network early with peers who are interested in the same career paths.
But neither is really an economics major, and neither should be categorized as such.
Oxford University’s Philosophy, Politics, and Economics (PPE) course—the blueprint for dozens of similar programs at universities across the U.S. and U.K., including EPP—is distinct from its Economics and History and Economics and Management degrees. Oxford allows economics to exist in three distinct forms, not unlike the different specializations at UChicago, but does not pretend that they are the same degree. Why can’t UChicago do the same?
Last spring, Lima told the Maroon that he could imagine a reality where every single student in the College graduates with some “flavor” of an economics degree. Expansion isn’t inherently a bad thing, but growth for the sake of growth, growth that disregards first principles, is dangerous. If the College continues to stretch and reshape the economics major to fit virtually every student’s interests—business, politics, public policy, data science, whatever the department sees fit to add next—at what point does that label cease to communicate anything meaningful?
If what students want is more individualized ways to study economics, whether in politics and policy or business, the better institutional answer isn’t to keep forcing EPP and business economics under the umbrella of the economics major. It’s to let them exist as standalone majors. Luckily, they already have the curricula to do so.
