Economics Department Newsletter

See the Advisors page for expanded office hours for the registration period. You may also send questions about major requirements and course offerings to econ-advising@columbia.edu.

You should complete a checklist for your major before contacting econ-advising. Newly revised checklists are posted at Requirements and Forms | Department of Economics at Columbia University

Seminar instructors, titles, descriptions and schedule will be posted shortly on the Senior Seminar Descriptions page. Additional seminars will be added in the coming weeks. Senior seminars are closed to online registration. Seminar seats are allocated through the Senior Seminar Lottery.

Senior Seminar Lottery

To participate in the lottery for a senior seminar, you must register for GU4911 Section 000, ECONOMICS SEMINAR REGISTRATION.

To be eligible to register for GU4911 sec 0, you must

• be a rising senior
• be a major in economics, financial economics or economics-math,
• have completed all of the prerequisites (UN3211, UN3213 and UN3412) before Fall 2026
• not currently be taking nor previously taken an economics senior seminar.

Details about the senior seminar lottery can be found on the Senior Seminar Registration page.

Students who plan to take a seminar in Fall 2026 must read the posted information, and participate in accordance with the outlined procedures and deadlines.

Students Not Eligible for the Seminar Lottery

If you are not eligible for the lottery (see criteria above), then you may be able to take a senior seminar provided that you have satisfied all of the seminar pre-requisites. Beginning the second week of classes, qualified students will be allowed to register for any open seminar seats. See the Senior Seminar Registration page for details.

Joint Majors with Political Science, Philosophy and Statistics

The seminars for these joint majors will be offered in Spring 2027.

4370 Political Economy

The political economy class is offered only in the Fall semester. Seniors in the joint major with Political Science who have not previously taken GU 4370 Political Economy MUST take GU4370 in the Fall semester.

Rising Juniors planning on graduating early (i.e. before Spring 2028) must also take the course in Fall 2026.

Accounting and Finance

Outside of the major in Financial Economics, economics students may not take accounting for major credit.

Students in the Financial Economics major may take any of the three courses ECON (or ECOB) UN 2261, BUSI UN3013 or IEOR E2261 to fulfill the accounting requirement for their major. If you have questions about the business or IEOR courses, please contact the business concentration at BusinessManagement@gsb.columbia.edu or the IEOR department directly.

College Business Courses

Columbia College offers several business oriented classes. The department does not offer these courses and does not have any information about them. If you have questions about these courses, please contact BusinessManagement@gsb.columbia.edu for information.

• Only Financial Economics majors may take any of these courses for elective credit. See the bulletin or checklists for restrictions on the number and identity of the business courses you may take for your major.
• If you are an Economics major or Joint major then you may NOT take any of these business courses for major credit.

5000 and 6000 Level Courses

Graduate level courses in economics (courses numbered 5000 and above) are closed to online registration by undergraduates.

Undergraduates may be admitted to a first year PhD course. Prior to taking any of these courses, it is expected that you have successfully completed one or (preferably) more of the advanced undergraduate courses (GU4211, GU4213 and GU4412), higher level statistics (such as the year-long sequence GU4203-4204), and at least one semester of mathematical analysis (GU4061).

If you are interested in taking one of the first year PhD courses then complete the google form at

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfrYSv-yHlNp7BgMP1ZMcFUw3Bj-zohZgirUV3g8ldZiWiquQ/viewform?usp=publish-editor

The deadline to submit the form is August 17. The DUS and the DGS will review the requests at that time. You will be notified of our decision by the end of August.

Pre-requisite Blocks

All 3000 and 4000 level elective courses offered by the Columbia Economics Department require at least UN 3211 Int Micro and UN 3213 Int Macro as prerequisites and all course prerequisites are listed at Course Prerequisites | Department of Economics at Columbia University.

Only students who have completed or are currently registered for UN 3211 and UN 3213 at Columbia will be able to register for these upper-level elective classes. You must complete UN 3211 and UN 3213 before you take any of the 3000 or 4000 level elective classes.

Currently, the system will not recognize transfer credits. If you have received transfer credit from the Columbia Economics Department for either UN 3211 or UN 3213 then we will assist you to register for your Columbia 3000 and 4000 elective courses after registration closes in April.  So that we can follow up with you later this month please fill out the following google form

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSe7b5EBBVVLbjpUpyixgK9WkNi1CyidSSc_EoOIc0Uwus_1BQ/viewform?usp=dialog

Do not fill out the form if you have not received Economics Department transfer credit for UN 3211 or UN 3213.

Note that Barnard has not instituted prerequisite checks for their upper-level courses. You must check the Barnard bulletin for details regarding the prerequisites of their courses.

The following elective courses are open for registration for Fall 2026. Additional elective courses will likely be added but they are unlikely to be open for registration in April. Please check the Barnard bulletin to review their Fall course offerings.

 

Fall Electives	Prerequisites	Fin Ec Elective	Econ-Phil Elective
UN 2105 American Economy	UN 1105
UN 3025 Financial Economics	UN 3211, UN 3213, STAT UN 1201
GU 4020 Econ of Uncertainty and Information	UN 3211, UN 3213, STAT UN 1201	✔️	✔️
GU 4228 Urban Economics	UN 3211, UN3213, STAT UN 1201		✔️
GU 4251 Industrial Organization	UN 3211, UN 3213	✔️
GU 4280 Corporate Finance	UN 3211, UN 3213, STAT UN 1201
GU 4301 Growth and Development	UN 3211, UN 3213		✔️
GU 4321 Economic Development	UN 3211, UN 3213		✔️
GU 4370 Political Economy	UN 3211, UN 3213, STAT UN 1201		✔️
GU 4438 Economics of Race in the US	UN 3211, UN 3213		✔️
GU 4465 Public Economics	UN 3211, UN 3213	✔️	✔️
GU 4500 International Trade	UN 3211, UN 3213	✔️	✔️
GU 4840 Behavioral Economics	UN 3211, UN 3213	✔️	✔️
GU 4850 Cognitive Mechanisms and Economic Behavior	UN 3211, UN 3213, STAT UN 1201	✔️	✔️

 

Spring (Tentative)

We plan to offer the following courses in the Spring of 2027. Other courses may be added or substituted later. An updated list will be included in the Summer Mailing in August and posted on the website.

• 2257 Global Economy
• 2261 Accounting and Finance for Economics*
• 3025 Financial Economics
• 3265 Money and Banking
• 3902 Economics of Public Policy
• 4211 Advanced Microeconomics
• 4230 Economics of NYC
• 4251 Industrial Organization
• 4280 Corporate Finance
• 4400 Labor Economics
• 4415 Game Theory
• 4480 Gender and Applied Economics
• 4500 International Trade
• 4505 International Macro
• 4630 Climate Finance
• 4710 Finance and the Real Economy
• 4750 Globalization and its Risks
• 4860 Behavioral Finance

 

*As stated above, Accounting does not fulfill elective requirements for any program in economics. It does fulfill the accounting requirement for the Financial Economics major.

Please review the information posted on the Honors and Prizes page. There will be an information session on April 21. Details about the information session will be sent out shortly.

If you would like to receive preliminary feedback on your thesis idea, then submit a Preliminary Proposal. Details regarding what to include in the Preliminary Proposal are included at the end of this newsletter. You will submit this proposal via the google form at

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSclOX2tuZEBE1UDF6A8iY2A2M9rKZVzkrWWDgVLAZZbJ6ebHA/viewform?usp=sharing&ouid=105913053973647048326

The deadline for the preliminary proposal is May 15. The final proposal for the honors seminar will be due on August 17 (no late proposals will be accepted). The honors seminar is closed to online registration. Students will be admitted to the honors seminar at the start of the semester.

The department limits the number of courses that students may take outside of the Columbia Economics Department.

• All majors and joint majors must take a minimum of 5 lecture courses in the Columbia Department of Economics. ECON UN3025 and ECON UN3265 will be considered Columbia Department electives regardless of the instructor.
• Concentrators must take a minimum of 4 lecture courses in the Columbia Department.
• The remaining credits for economics lecture courses may come from AP, Barnard elective courses (2000 or 3000 level), and transfer credits (either taken before registering at Columbia or from study abroad).
• Students must take their senior seminar in the Columbia Department of Economics.
• The Department does not have restrictions on the number of non-economics courses taken outside Columbia to fulfill major requirements. For example, a student who has AP credits for Calculus-I will be able to take the same number of economics courses outside the department as a student who does not have such credits.
• Note that in the case of joint majors, courses taken to fulfill the requirements of the affiliated department are subject to the rules of that department. For example, a joint major with political science must check with the Political Science department on whether or not a particular class taken outside of Columbia is acceptable for the joint major.

• All students who plan to study abroad in the Fall must see Sunil Gulati during the Spring advising period to get preliminary approval for any economics courses that they intend to take abroad.
• All students who hope to take classes this Summer outside of Columbia University must also see Sunil Gulati now to get preliminary approval for any economics courses.
• Note that students must also have approval from their school to take Summer courses outside of Columbia.
• The Economics Department cannot give you credit for courses that have not been approved for transfer credit by your School.
• Please review the Transfer Credit Information page for details about the courses that may be accepted for transfer credit.

In early September, the department will post on the wiki page the names of faculty members and PhD students who are looking for research assistants and descriptions of their projects There is no pre-registration during the April registration period for these research positions. More information about research credit can be found on the Opportunities and Registration Information pages of the website.

We also occasionally receive requests for research assistants from other divisions of the University. We also post these announcements on the wiki which you should check periodically for new announcements.

The department of economics provides financial support for CC and GS students who take unpaid summer internships that focus on research. By introducing students to original research, a summer internship can provide the foundation for an honors thesis or develop an interest in pursuing a graduate degree.  We are looking to support up to 5 CC and 2 GS students. We will provide each student with a stipend of $5000.

To apply for this stipend you must be a declared economics major, financial economics major or joint major.

To apply for one of these fellowships you must complete by April 17 the google form at

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSceKZiOpf7MyMQJzByDpbvcnldGBv1vV58gYXsX-l0ZTWYocQ/viewform?usp=sharing&ouid=105913053973647048326

On the form you will be required to submit a brief one-to-two-page description of the summer position. This description should include the name of the person or organization that will be supervising your work. It should also include information about the project that you will be working on and the tasks that you will be doing to support the project. You must also submit documentation that you have been offered the position. A copy of an email or letter is sufficient proof.

This money is meant to support research, so the internship must be research in nature and cannot focus on office or clerical tasks. Preference will be given to students working with Columbia University faculty (the faculty need not be in the economics department).

When the department receives announcements and advertisements from other institutions we post those announcements on the undergraduate wiki. You will use your Columbia UNI and password to access the site. We post job, RA, TA and internship information on this site. You will also find announcements of lectures, academic programs and other opportunities that we think may be of interest to students in economics.

The department expects to hire undergraduate TAs again next year. Undergraduate TAs have many of the same responsibilities as the graduate TAs in the department. In August you will receive an email listing the TA positions and their requirements. Please do not apply for a position before you receive this email.

You will submit this proposal at

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSclOX2tuZEBE1UDF6A8iY2A2M9rKZVzkrWWDgVLAZZbJ6ebHA/viewform?usp=publish-editor

You must be logged in to your lionmail account to access the google form.

Your preliminary proposal must include the following information:

 

1. Proposed topic

Most theses include a substantial empirical component. Try to formulate a question that you would like to ask and answer in your thesis. Be sure to think about how you would answer such a question (eg indicate what data set(s) you would use to answer the question). You should also include a short bibliography (3 citations is sufficient) of papers that you have either already reviewed or that you plan to review this summer.

2. Relevant Coursework (List the courses that you have taken in economics or other departments at Columbia or elsewhere that is relevant to your proposed topic- Do NOT include the core econ classes):
3. Other Relevant Experience (If you have work, research or other experience that is relevant to the topic then list it here)
4. Have you spoken with one or more Columbia faculty members about your proposed topic? If “yes” then, list the names of the faculty members that you have consulted.