Because it will give you the tools you need to understand our increasingly interconnected world. With these tools, you can exploit "Big Data" to explore human behavior in numerous economic settings such as labor supply, consumption patterns, health care choices and energy use. You can also examine the overall economy by assessing the links among aggregate output, interest rates, inflation, unemployment levels and international exchange rates.

In this program a student can earn both the Juris Doctor and the Master of Arts in economics in 3 years and 1 summer session.

The program requires 100 credit hours of course work, of which 82 hours must be completed in the law school and 18 hours in the Department of Economics. The department gives credit toward the M.A. degree for 12 hours of pertinent work in the law school, and the law school counts 8 credit hours in economics toward the J.D. degree. The 8 hours of economics courses that count toward the J.D. degree can be chosen from certain courses numbered 500-799 and from all 800-900 level courses. Prerequisites continue to apply, as does the requirement that all students seeking the M.A. degree must have taken several foundation courses that do not count toward a graduate degree in economics: microeconomics, macroeconomics, and calculus. In addition, ECON 700, ECON 701, and ECON 715 must be included in the M.A. program. The student takes only law classes the first year and spreads out the 18 hours of credit in economics in the following semesters (e.g., one course per semester).
The M.A./J.D. degree is a nonthesis degree in economics.