<p>How math-involved is economics? Is the math mostly calculus-based? If I do not enjoy math, would I most likely not like economics as well? Thanks for any help.</p>
<p>from what i have understood, economics at an undergraduate level is little but math formulas and charts, although this is obviously an over-generalization.</p>
<p>i like economics, but avoided it as a major because of its math component.</p>
<p>Lower level (first year) econ courses have a little math, but it's very basic. We did no calculus in my micro class - it's mostly algebra and graph analysis. As you go up in econ, most courses seem to split between the math-econ route (macro/micro analysis with calculus) or the international development route (econ-IR type courses). I imagine that the latter would have less math.</p>
<p>If you want to major in econ, however, you have to take a lot of the more math oriented analysis courses. Most of the upper level econ courses (even the IR type ones) at my school require you to have at least one year of calc.</p>
<p>Intermediate micro/macro economics involve a fair amount of calculus, and you'll see a lot of mathematical analysis when you get to econometrics and game theory.</p>
<p>It depends on which part of Econ - econometrics and research is heavily stat/calc based, whereas policy is less math/calc, and finance is a lot of DE. However, to succeed in finance (the most common path for Econ majors) you don't neccesarily need to have much past statistics and calc 2.</p>
<p>if you don't enjoy math, you will not be able to get a graduate degree such as a PhD in Econ since grad programs are heavily math based.</p>
<p>As for undergrad, the amount of math depends on what school you attend. At UCLA, for example, Econ requires taking the same calculus series as the engineers do.</p>
<p>
[quote]
It depends on which part of Econ - econometrics and research is heavily stat/calc based, whereas policy is less math/calc, and finance is a lot of DE
[/quote]
</p>
<p>What is DE?</p>
<p>I'm sorry, DE is differential equations. DE is important in trading and anything in finance that requires modeling (which is alot). However, having a solid calculus background, good statistics skills, and just a good overall quantitative ability are important in finance - not high level courses. Thinking quickly and understanding large amounts of information are what matters.</p>
<p>PhD's in Econ mean you need to take higher level math courses - Calc 3, Differential Equations, Linear Algebra, and Probability and Statistics coursework. Econometrics classes as well, which rely alot on statistics.</p>
<p>Thanks for the thorough explanation. I've been considering a career in finance so your information is very helpful.</p>
<p>Undergraduate economics requires basic high school math (elementary algebra, graphs) plus college-level calculus , linear algebra, ordinary differential equations (usually the easier ones), and statistics. Graduate economics is on the other hand very math-intensive, requiring advanced knowledge for example of stochastic processes, optimization theory, and dynamic systems.</p>
<p>You might want to go over to the Caltech board and ask resident guru Ben Golub about this. He is a math major who is going to graduate school in theoretical economics, and is very big on this kind of stuff.</p>