You'll have the chance to explore activities outside the classroom in numerous ways that will also allow you to build new skills, relationships, and networks. These include:
- Becker Brown Bag Series - The Becker Brown Bag Series was created to provide an informal setting in which prominent economists can present cutting-edge research and engage MBA students in discussion.
- Myron Scholes Global Markets Forum - The Myron Scholes Global Markets Forum brings business leaders, policy makers, and distinguished academics together to address the Chicago community on topics of current interest.
- Annual Business Forecast - Held in cities around the world, Chicago Booth professors and alumni, who represent some of the best minds in business, take a look at what they see as the trends shaping the coming year. Read coverage of one of last year's events.
- Annual Conference on Chicago Economics - Hosted by the Becker Center on Chicago Price Theory, the conference provides a forum for top economists, policy makers, and business leaders to discuss important economic questions. Learn more about the conference.
- Applied Economics Workshop - New applied research in microeconomics and related fields is presented by Chicago faculty and PhD students, as well as invited speakers. See past topics.
You’ll have the option of taking courses that address your individual career choices. Samples include:
- Macroeconomics - This course analyzes the economic performance of the US and other national economies. How the government and its policies shape the rules of the game for business activity and influence the economic performance of businesses and nations are stressed. Specific topics include measuring national economic performance, the determinants of productivity and output growth, consumption and investment, labor markets and unemployment, inflation and monetary policy, taxes and government spending, and economic fluctuations.
- Money and Banking - This course examines the role of money and credit in the economy, with an eye toward understanding government regulation of financial markets and Central Bank operations. The economics of the financial system with a special emphasis on the theories and history of payment and credit instruments, and the management of risk by financial intermediaries is considered. Building on the foundations of money and credit, we will investigate the macroeconomic consequences of government involvement in financial markets, and the policies of the Federal Reserve in particular - from promoting financial stability to the management of the business cycle.
- International Financial Policy - This course will help students develop an understanding of issues in international macroeconomics that are important for managers operating in the global marketplace. It will cover theories of the determination of exchange rates and interest rates, the management of foreign exchange risk, international capital flows, debt and currency crises, international monetary and exchange rate regimes, the roles of the international financial institutions in developing countries, and other characteristics of international financial markets.
- Microeconomics - This course will provide students with an understanding of the basics of microeconomic theory and their application to business decisions. Topics include: the theory of consumer choice and demand; production and the behavior of firms; market power and market structure; the efficiency of competitive markets; factor markets; externalities; the economics of information, and behavior under uncertainty.
You’ll study with professors who conduct groundbreaking research and are recognized around the world for pioneering many of the economic concepts that govern business and public policy.
Gary S. Becker, won the 1992 Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences "for having extended the domain of microeconomic analysis to a wide range of human behavior and interaction, including non-market behavior." He has pioneered study in the fields of human capital, economics of the family, and economic analysis of crime, discrimination, addiction, and population.
Marianne Bertrand, is an applied microeconomist who has done work on racial discrimination, CEO pay and incentives, and the effects of regulation on employment, among other topics in labor economics and corporate finance.
Matthew Gentzkow, studies empirical industrial organization, with a specific focus on media industries. His research has been covered in major national media, including the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, the Financial Times, Forbes, the Chicago Tribune, and Slate.
Austan D. Goolsbee, having served as an economic advisor to President Barack Obama, Goolsbee has been named one of the 100 Global Leaders for Tomorrow by the World Economic Forum, a Switzerland-based group that builds partnerships between business and society. He studies the internet, the new economy, government policy, and taxes.
Chang-Tai Hsieh, conducts research on growth and development. He has been a visiting scholar at the Federal Reserve Banks of San Francisco, New York, and Minneapolis, as well as the World Bank's Development Economics Group, and the Economic Planning Agency in Japan.
Erik Hurst, studies macroeconomic policy, consumption, time use, entrepreneurship, and household financial behavior. His research on "Measuring Trends in Leisure," which appeared in the Quarterly Journal of Economics in 2007, was written up in the New York Times, the Washington Post, and the Economist.
Kevin M. Murphy, is the first professor at a business school to be chosen as a MacArthur Fellow. He was selected for "revealing economic forces shaping vital social phenomena such as wage inequality, unemployment, addiction, medical research, and economic growth." In 2007, Murphy and fellow faculty member Robert Topel won the Kenneth J. Arrow Award for the best research paper in health economics.