International Economics, BSFS

The International Economics (IECO) major is grounded in the belief that economic analysis is essential to the understanding of modern world affairs.

IECO students receive rigorous training in quantitative techniques and objective analysis. The major is excellent preparation for careers and leadership positions in the private or public sector. Our students have built highly successful careers in finance, consulting, law, management, media, international development, international organizations, research institutes, government, non-profit organizations, and academia.

Goals and Objectives of the Major

• The International Economics major is designed to develop in students the ability to conduct innovative and rigorous quantitative analysis of all aspects of the world economy. This ability is essential to understanding the economic forces at work in the world and making sound decisions in the face of them. All students are expected to master the theoretical and empirical tools necessary to conduct such analysis.
• Students who select the IECO major will gain experience in the following areas:
• The basic elements of microeconomic theory including consumer choice, the impact on resource allocation of different market structures, game theory, general equilibrium analysis, and asymmetric information.
• The measurement of output and prices, along with theories of economic growth, business cycles, and fiscal and monetary policy.
• The fundamentals of international trade and finance.
• Elementary statistics, probability theory, statistical inference, electronic data acquisition and computer applications.
• The theory and applications of regression analysis, with emphasis on the main techniques for estimating economic relationships and testing economic hypotheses.
• The application of economic theory and empirical analysis to a range of topics including: labor, industrial organization, development, and the public sector.
• The elements of original research and writing, from posing a question, to summarizing the literature, modeling, gathering data, establishing causality and drawing conclusions.

Producing a Senior Thesis

The senior thesis in economics provides students with the opportunity to develop the skills and techniques needed for carrying out a substantive original research project in economics. To achieve this purpose, the course focuses on the writing and presentation of a thesis. Students may choose from a wide variety of topics. Along the way, students learn how to evaluate scholarly literature, formulate and model a hypothesis, locate data and test the hypothesis, write an elegant paper and give a convincing presentation. This course marks the culmination of the IECO major and an introduction to the world of scholarly research.

Each student is responsible for writing an article-length paper, approximately 20-25 pages in length. In the paper, students are expected to evaluate, critique, test, and build upon a current debate of their choosing in the field of economics. Students should develop competing hypotheses, model them formally, and test them using quantitative methods. The papers are written as if they were being presented at a professional conference or submitted to a scholarly journal. The thesis is written in a series of steps, each of which is marked by the completion of a short paper or class presentation.

The senior thesis course is open to all IECO majors but it is not required (students may substitute an additional 4000-level economics class in place of the thesis course). Successful completion of a thesis is, however, a requirement for honors in IECO.

Honors in International Economics

Students can earn Honors in the IECO major by writing a thesis based on original research while taking IECO 4980 during the senior year. This thesis must then be judged as honors quality by the faculty of record for the IECO 4980 course. Students must also earn a major GPA of at least 3.67 (without rounding up) and a cumulative GPA of at least 3.5 (without rounding up). Lastly, students must earn grades of A or A- in Intermediate Microeconomics (ECON 2101) and Intermediate Macroeconomics (ECON 2102).

Requirements for the Bachelor of Science in Foreign Service in International Economics

Courses in the SFS Core requirement serve as foundational requisites of this major.

Prerequisites – Calculus I & II (MATH 1350/MATH 1360 – Calculus I, II or AP Credit, or equivalent) or Essential Math for Econ (ECON 1357); ECON 1001 (Micro); ECON 1002 (Macro)

Co-requisites¹ – ECON 2543 (International Trade), ECON 2544 (International Finance)

¹

It is important to note that ECON 2542 will not count toward the co-requisites for the IECO major. Should you opt to complete ECON 2542 and then at a later date decide to major in IECO, you will be required to complete one higher-level economics course to fulfill the stated co-requisites for the major.

Course List

Code	Title	Credits
ECON 2101	Intermediate Micro	3.000
ECON 2102	Intermediate Macro	3.000
ECON 2110	Economic Statistics	3.000
ECON 2120	Intro to Econometrics	0-3
Total Credits		9-12

Three Applied Courses (at least one course (3 credits) must be in an approved 4000-level ECON course within the Economics department carrying the IECO Applied course attribute.)

One Senior Seminar (IECO 4980 or an approved 4000-level ECON course of 3 credits or more)

Please note that the 4000-level Applied Course and the IECO Senior Seminar must be two separate courses. No double-counting is permitted within the major.

Note: The IECO Field Chair and Curricular Dean will maintain the IECO applied course list. These are typically courses that use or build upon intermediate theory, statistics or econometrics.

Writing in the Major

The field of Economics explores complex economic systems through a combination of deductive and inductive reasoning. Early economists attempted to communicate this reasoning and results of their analyses using words alone. This resulted in long, often convoluted books that were prone to error. Over the years, economists developed mathematical models and statistical tools, which facilitated analysis, reduced error and enabled far greater transparency and brevity in the expression of results. These techniques can be difficult for undergraduates to grasp at first, which is why they are the focus of most of our teaching effort. Yet, as we teach students to build, solve, test and present economic models, we are in effect teaching them to “write” economics.

Georgetown Core Curriculum

The Georgetown Core Curriculum (Georgetown Core) is a distinctive expression of Georgetown University’s identity as a student-centered research university rooted in the Jesuit and Catholic tradition. The Georgetown Core is a two-tiered program. The first tier – the “shared core” – has been created and approved by the Main Campus Core Curriculum Committee and is shared by all undergraduates as a common core experience. The second tier of the requirement – the “school-specific core” – is designed and determined by each of the undergraduate schools, embodying the shared learning goals of the university Core while furthering the specific mission and tradition of each school. Both the shared and school-specific cores change over time, balancing the traditional ethos of a liberal arts education with the changing needs of our students in a changing world. Ultimately, it is the hope that the entirety of a Georgetown education – the cores, majors and minors, and electives – will lead students to embody as life-long habits the goals described in the Georgetown Core Curriculum Learning Goals.

More information about the Georgetown Core Curriculum can be found on the Provost’s Core Curriculum website.

Georgetown Shared Core Requirements

The core requirements that form the first tier, the common experience across the University, are outlined below. Georgetown courses fulfilling each of these requirements are designated “Core: [specific requirement]” in the Attributes in the Schedule of Classes.  

Philosophy – 2 Courses

Through the Core, the Philosophy Department is committed to providing courses that promote students’ personal growth as human beings in search of meaningful lives, foster their development as responsible citizens, and offer effective introductions to the discipline of philosophy. The learning goals shared by courses in the Philosophy Core are:

• Understand what philosophy is, how it differs from other academic disciplines, and what its primary areas of inquiry are.
• Understand and construct arguments. 
• Describe and analyze complex problems.
• Read, write and speak effectively. 
• Engage critically and constructively with moral problems and decisions.
• Apply philosophical analysis, argumentation, and critical reflection to the study of other disciplines.

Please refer to each school/college curriculum for specific courses that will fulfill this requirement.

Theology and Religious Studies – 2 Courses

Through the Core, the Theology and Religious Studies Department is committed to fostering in students a critically appreciative awareness of the religious dimension of human existence, and to assisting students in reflecting upon their own experience and understanding in that enlarged context. The first course provides this foundation while the second course allows students to develop their critical awareness by applying it to a particular area of interest in religion or theology. 

The learning goals shared by courses in the Theology and Religious Studies Core are:

• To consider reflectively your relationship to the world, your fellow humans, and God.
• To foster a critically appreciative awareness of the religious dimension of human existence.
• To assist you in reflecting upon your own experience and understanding in that enlarged context. 
• To develop your critical awareness by applying it to a particular area of interest in religion or theology.

Problem of God¹ (THEO 1000) and one Theology and Religious Studies elective fulfill the Theology and Religious Studies requirement. Introduction to Biblical Literature (THEO 1100) may be substituted for Problem of God or may be used as an intermediate level elective.

¹

Transfer students are exempt from the Problem of God requirement and may select any two intermediate level courses, including Introduction to Biblical Literature, to fulfill the core requirement in Theology & Religious Studies.

Writing – 2 Courses

The writing requirement provides students with opportunities to connect their writing with critical reading and thinking, inquiry, and analysis.  The Writing and Culture Seminar, WRIT 1150, approaches writing through three interrelated frameworks: writing as a tool for inquiry, writing as a process, and practice writing in different rhetorical situations. Each section focuses on a cultural theme, with readings and assignments that engage students with compelling questions and problems.  Seminar readings provide texts for analysis as well as models and motives for student writing. Students are encouraged to complete this course during their first year at Georgetown. The learning goals shared by different sections in the Writing and Culture Seminar are:

• Experiment with diverse strategies for planning, drafting, and revising writing.
• Adapt writing to respond to, engage, and persuade audiences.
• Employ rhetorical strategies for analyzing, designing, and communicating in writing and other forms of media.
• Engage in writing as a form of thinking, inquiry, and learning.

The second half of the Writing Core is an intensive writing experience located within the student’s chosen major, embedded within the requirements as determined by that program. Each major’s Integrated Writing requirement is established by the department or program in order to express the unique conventions and practices of the discipline. The learning goals shared by courses in the Integrated Writing Core are:

• To prepare students to use the relevant forms, styles, and conventions of writing within their chosen major(s). 
• To employ writing as a method to enhance students’ learning of concepts, materials, and methods in their major.

Courses fulfilling this requirement are identified within each major.

Humanities: Art, Literature, Music, and Media (HALM) – 1 Course

(Formerly Humanities: Art, Literature and Culture (HALC))

The Humanities: Art, Literature, Music, and Media (HALM) requirement serves to deepen students’ understanding and experience of a range of creative media representing cultural expressions from various historical periods and world regions, from the local to the global.

Through reading, listening, viewing, analyzing, writing, and/or creative practice, students acquire the intellectual and practical tools to interpret human experiences portrayed in the arts, literature, music, and media.

HALM Learning Goals:

• Understand how art, literature, music and/or media have historically shaped and been shaped by cultures.

• Develop generative habits of mind and exercise critical thinking skills for a world in flux: openness, resilience, curiosity, creativity, imagination.

• Activate knowledge through creative, analytical, and/or critical approaches in individual, collaborative, and/or public-facing projects.

​HALM courses must be Georgetown University courses and cannot be fulfilled by transfer credits; they must be 3-credit courses. Courses that can fulfill other Core requirements (such as HIST, PHIL, THEO) are ineligible.

In 2026-27, the older “HALC” designation (Humanities: Arts, Literature, and Culture) will be replaced with HALM (Humanities: Arts, Literature, Music and Media). For this academic year, courses with the designation will be tagged with both HALC and HALM. In Fall 2027, the tag HALC will be retired in favor of HALM.

Science For All – 1 Course

The natural sciences, and the technologies that they enable, are woven deeply into the fabric of our lives and are central to many of the important political and social challenges that we face.  They are also pinnacles of intellectual accomplishment in humanity’s ancient and ongoing quest to understand the world in which we live. Thus we believe that to function as liberally educated, ethically responsible citizens, as stewards of the planet, and as effective leaders, all Georgetown students should understand scientific modes of thought and concepts, both in the abstract and as they are exemplified in at least one major area of scientific inquiry.  The Science For All (SFA) Core requirement is grounded in these beliefs. The learning goals shared by courses in the Science for All Core are:

• To understand the basic principles and some current research challenges of one or more areas of science.
• To understand science as a set of methods of inquiry that involve forming and testing hypotheses through the analysis of quantitative and qualitative data.
• To consume and interpret scientific information with critical understanding of the balance of certainty and uncertainty that research findings inevitably reflect.

Quantitative Reasoning and Data Literacy – 1 Course

This requirement applies only to students in the class of 2028 and later.

The Quantitative Reasoning and Data Literacy (QRDL) requirement will help students learn to understand how real-world interpretation of data progresses from a set of numbers, frequently incomplete and with measurement errors, to a visual distillation that clearly conveys meaning. While mathematics and statistics provide a necessary foundation for quantitative reasoning and data literacy, the power of pure mathematics lies in its abstraction. In contrast, QRDL emphasizes a distinctive variety of concrete contexts and applications. The learning goals shared by courses in the Quantitative Reasoning and Data Literacy Core are:

• To build a quantitative toolbox that allows students to become comfortable performing and/or evaluating quantitative analyses.
• To translate and make meaning of data and quantitative analyses as they apply to complex problems.
• To effectively communicate statistical methods and results both visually and textually to a diversity of audiences with considerations to contextual, social, or ethical issues.

Engaging Diversity/Pathways to Social Justice

For students in the class of 2025, 2026, or 2027

Engaging Diversity (2 courses)

All Georgetown students are required to take two Engaging Diversity courses as overlays, meaning that the courses may count toward another degree requirement (Core, major, or minor). One of these courses must be labeled with a “Core: Diversity Domestic” attribute and one must be labeled with a “Core: Diversity Global” attribute.

In courses designated as fulfilling a diversity requirement, students will engage with different cultures, beliefs, and ideas. These courses will explore conditions that contribute to unequal access and influence. Finally, these courses should enable students to reflect on their own identities as they also deepen their understanding of the experience of others. The learning goals shared by courses in the Engaging Diversity Core are:

• To prepare students to be responsible, reflective, self-aware and respectful global citizens through recognizing the plurality of human experience and engaging with different cultures, beliefs, and ideas.
• To be better able to appreciate and reflect upon how human diversity and human identities shape our experience and understanding of the world.

For students in the class of 2028 and later

Pathways to Social Justice (3 courses)

Georgetown’s Pathways to Social Justice (PSJ) curriculum prepares students to critically analyze historical and contemporary power differentials. By fulfilling the Pathways to Social Justice requirement, students will gain a better understanding of how social, political, geographic, economic, and other cultural factors shape experiences of the world, as well as how these factors contribute to marginalization and inequality. PSJ courses will also explore how communities have resisted marginalization, and will focus on axes of identity that have formed the basis for historical and contemporary marginalization and oppression, including race, gender, class, caste, disability, religion, sexual orientation, and gender identity.

A cornerstone of this requirement is the one-credit University Seminar in Race, Power, and Justice which is designed to ensure that every student at Georgetown develops a baseline vocabulary for discussing racial difference and marginalization. This seminar will provide the foundation for each student’s engagement with other PSJ-attributed “overlay” courses offered across Georgetown’s Main Campus and should be taken in the first year. 

In addition to the required one-credit University Seminar in Race, Power, and Justice, the requirement also requires students to take two overlay courses (meaning that these courses may count toward another degree requirement, whether core, major, or minor). Eligible courses have the “Core: PSJ” attribute.

Each course in the Pathways to Social Justice Core works toward at least three of these shared priorities:

• Inclusive Scholarship
• Intersectional Approaches to Identity
• Historical Legacies of Inequality and Their Contemporary Impacts
• National, Regional, and Global Comparisons
• Imagining Justice