Economics and Business Analytics

Chair: Professor A. E. Rodriguez, Ph.D., University of Texas

Professors: Esin Cakin, Ph.D., City University of New York; John J. Phelan, Ph.D., George Washington University; A.E. Rodriguez, Ph.D., University of Texas; Kamal P. Upadhyaya, Ph.D., Auburn University

Associate Professors: Jiajuan Liang, Ph.D., Hong Kong Baptist University; Ahmet S. Ozkul, Ph.D., Clemson University

Assistant Professors: Patrick Gourley, Ph.D., Colorado State University; Fereshteh Zihagh, Ph.D., University of Texas - Dallas

Lecturer: Brian A. Marks, J.D., Ph.D., Washington University, St. Louis

Faculty in the department have a wide range of research interests, as well as extensive experience in government policymaking, consulting, and industry.

The Economics and Business Analytics Department offers two different majors in Economics (a B.A. in Economics and a B.S. in International Business & Economics that includes the business core as part of its design) and a B.S. in Business Analytics (which is STEM designated). The department also offers a broad set of concentrations and minors.

Degree programs in Economics:

Economics courses provide a basis for an understanding of economic structures, a wide range of domestic and international issues, and trends in the economic life of modern societies. These courses offer training in analysis of economic problems as an aid to the evaluation of economic policies.

The Department offers both a B.A. in Economics (with or without a Behavioral Economics concentration) and a B.S. in International Business & Economics (this degree also uses the Business Core, making it a traditional business degree as well). The department also offers a minor in economics (for non-majors) and a minor in behavioral economics (for non-concentration students). The Behavioral Economics minor addresses the emerging importance of understanding market behavior and the heuristics and biases that impact decision-making in the context of uncertainty.

Degree programs in Business Analytics:

Business analytics refers to the skills, technologies, practices for continuous iterative exploration and investigation of possible uses of extant and developing sources and repositories of data to gain insight and drive business planning, strategy, and profitability. Business analytics focuses on developing new insights and understanding of business performance and business potential based on new sources of data derived from social media, customer databases, and others in combination with statistical methods and predictive analytics.

The Department offers a B.S. in Business Analytics with concentrations available in Global Supply Chain Analytics, Marketing Analytics, and Sport Management. The department also offers a minor in Business Analytics (for non-majors). Our business analytics major is STEM-certified (science, technology, engineering, and math) by the federal government - a measure of quality and analytic rigor.

The department has created an environment for majors from Economics and Business Analytics to engage in experiential learning called the Economics Performance Laboratory (EPL). Within the New Haven EPL, students work on the continuous development of the Connecticut Economic Activity Report, the Economics Collective, regional economic policy analysis (working cooperatively with regional economic policy institutes), and the Liberty Initiative.

The University of New Haven Economics Performance Laboratory is a teaching space. Here you will find trustworthy and reliable information on the state of the regional economy in which we live, with explanations as to their relevance as well as their limitations.

Within the laboratory, students examine, test, deploy, and explain socioeconomic conditions and performance indicators. The students are seniors in the Economics and Business Analytics program at the University of New Haven. Although the students work under the supervision of members of the Economics faculty, they are individually responsible for their interpretation and analysis. We work closely and interactively with the UNH Economics Collective - a student run knowledge generator - that joins the broader community engaged in common efforts and a shared vision: to be relevant.

A big focus of our work is on formulating, constructing and examining non-traditional econometrics. These metrics are constructed by deploying traditional empirical methods as well as data and text mining methods. Our interest is establishing whether these metrics can enhance and improve our understanding of the southern region of Connecticut. Twice a year, the students in the Economics Performance Laboratory publish a Connecticut Economic Activity Report - reflecting student-faculty research. In its last edition, the Report reached 2000 recipients.

The Liberty Initiative at the University of New Haven run out of the Economic Performance Laboratory is a new, unique project that brings interested students, faculty and others together over dinner in a casual setting to share ideas and engage in friendly discussion about liberty with like-minded students, faculty and speakers.

The Liberty Project is for students, scholars, and proponents of free-market Capitalism, understood to represent an economic system where government intervention is limited and property rights are enforced. The Liberty Initiative is premised on the belief that it is our task to defend economic freedom and to vigorously challenge encroachments on our individuality and entrepreneurship potential.

The department encourages internships, which enable students to combine their education with practical, paid work experience in their career field. For additional details, consult your academic advisor and the College of Business Internship and Co-Op Coordinator, Charles "Pete" Peterson, at 203-479-4551.