Business Economics
Qualifications
Overview
Business Economics applies the tools and rigour of Economics to business situations. Students focus on a broad range of analytical and business skills and take courses that apply economic reasoning and insight to problems in business or the non-profit sector. The focus is on managerial economics and informed decision making.
By incorporating valuable skills from business disciplines in finance, accounting, or management, graduates with a major in Business Economics will enhance their work-readiness and ability to engage and connect with the wider world.
- UC is the only Aotearoa New Zealand university to offer a pathway that combines Economics with at least one other commerce discipline in a formal major.
- The Business Economics major at UC combines knowledge of an academically rigorous discipline with skills that equip graduates to be work-ready. For example, the third-year capstone course ECON 310 Economic Thinking for Business has a strong community engagement emphasis. It looks at the application of economics with regard to incentives, opportunity cost, and constrained optimisation to actual business and real world problems. This sort of learning ensures that graduates can demonstrate the use of skills that employers demand and value.
- Students majoring in Business Economics can also take advantage of the Economics and Finance internship courses to further their work-ready skills in real businesses.
While previous study of economics is useful preparation, it is not essential to have studied economics at secondary school level. The Business Economics major does not require mathematics.
A broad education, including history and English, is useful to develop the ability to write clearly and analyse written material.
UC offers a major in Business Economics as part of the Bachelor of Commerce.
Business Economics major
Students complete these courses throughout their degree for the Business Economics major:
100-level
FINC 101 Personal Finance is also recommended.
200-level
- ECON 207 Intermediate Microeconomics – Households and Government
- ECON 208 Intermediate Microeconomics – Firms and Markets
- FINC 201 Business Finance
- ECON 213 Introduction to Econometrics or ECON 214 Data Analytics for Business Economics
300-level
Students must also complete a minor in another subject from the Bachelor of Commerce (other than Economics) to complete the Business Economics major requirements.
For the complete three-year Bachelor of Commerce Business Economics major degree plan, see the UC Business School | Te Kura Umanga website.
Graduates in Business Economics are well prepared for employment in many areas of government and business, where it is recognised that an economist's education provides valuable training for a professional career, as well as good preparation for an executive, entrepreneurial, or administrative career.
The inclusion of a second business discipline gives breadth to a degree that requires good analytical and problem-solving skills.
Professional business economists are employed to conduct research and give advice on economic matters in various organisations such as government ministries and state-owned enterprises (eg, Treasury, Health, Social Development, Agriculture and Forestry, Foreign Affairs and Trade). Graduates also find work in marketing organisations, Te Pūtea Matua | Reserve Bank, Tatauranga Aotearoa | Stats NZ, trading and merchant banks, stockbroking, insurance, trade commissions, local authorities, market research and other consultancies, and large businesses.
Those who are passionate about economics and education can also go on to teaching careers in schools or universities.
Find out more about what you can do with a degree in Business Economics.
Contact us
Department of Economics and Finance
Phone +64 3 369 3888
Email studybusiness@canterbury.ac.nz
Location
Reception Level 2, Meremere Building – see campus maps
Postal address
College of Business and Law | Te Rāngai Umanga me te Ture
University of Canterbury | Te Whare Wānanga o Waitaha
Private Bag 4800
Christchurch 8140
New Zealand
Browse related subjects to Business Economics
Choose an area that you are interested in and learn how UC's extensive range of study options can let you study what you want to.
Statistics
We are increasingly becoming a data-driven society with advances in technology and the accumulation of massive data in many fields. Statistics is the profession ...
Information Systems
We live in an ‘Information Age’ where access to information, information systems, and digital technology play a major role in organisations. With information ...