Overview courses of macroeconomics are essential before taking most other economics classes. Macroeconomics gives the big picture ideas of economics, focusing on trends and behaviors of the entire economy. Macroeconomics usually centers around the neo-classical and Keynesian theories of economics. Keynesian theory believes that the government should intervene in the economy to help stabilize it. Neo-classical theory believes that the market works best at controlling the economy, and the government need only enact policies like adjusting interest rates and altering the available supply of money. After taking a macroeconomics overview course, students can then take courses in international trade theory, developing economic markets and other courses focusing on monetary and fiscal policy.
Microeconomics courses focus on individuals' actions and how they influence the economy. In an overview course of microeconomics, students will operate under the assumption that the market works perfectly, and only supply and demand influence prices and output. With this assumption in mind, the students also study the markets as if people only make decisions that are in their best interest. That relaxes different assumptions to help the student better understand how the current economy works. Students learn about opportunity costs where they consider what is being given up by pursuing a certain activity. They also learn about revenues and profits in a business. After finishing this course, students can study more about individual consumer decisions and price fluctuations in the market.
Courses in econometrics generally have prerequisites of a statistics course, possibly a calculus course and courses in micro and macroeconomics. The B.A. doesn't always require econometrics, but the B.S. does. Econometrics is the combination of economic theory with statistics. Courses in econometrics allow students to go beyond the simple supply and demand relationships, and take on more complicated issues in the economy. Studying econometrics can help to understand real-world applications of economics without the assumptions learned in earlier required courses.