What influences our world and drives change? How do policies, economies, and legal systems interact to influence business, government, and society? Understand how decisions at every level impact the future of society.
Uncover areas of study that deepen our understanding of policy, economics, and business, spark new ideas, and lead to impactful discoveries.
Students build on the set of skills and knowledge they have acquired through other Northwestern coursework to prepare for employment in the business world. This minor also allows students to connect their study of business and management fundamentals to broader areas of academic inquiry.
Economists study how individuals, families, companies and nations confront difficult choices about how to use limited resources to meet various needs and wants. Economists study how these choices are made in various settings, evaluate the outcomes, and search for alternative forms of economic organization.
Students receive interdisciplinary training that emphasizes the reciprocal relationships between law and society, which is key to understanding the social environment. Legal issues are studied using perspectives of the social sciences and humanities.
Students learn to combine the study of social sciences with rigorous training in mathematics, statistics, and formal modeling.
Political science is the study of politics and power from domestic, international, and comparative perspectives. It entails understanding political ideas, ideologies, institutions, policies, processes, behavior and more.
Check out some examples of courses that tackle real-world questions in policy, economics, and business.
As a student, you can delve into the study of policy, economics, and business through interdisciplinary coursework, internships, community projects, and extracurricular activities. You also can collaborate with faculty on cutting-edge research.
Lauren Melanfont '24 shares how Northwestern’s mix of academics, social life, and opportunities made her college experience unforgettable. Its unique quarter system allowed her to take various classes blending economics, political science, and a minor in business institutions, all while diving into her love for public policy. She loved how professors foster a collaborative environment and genuinely connect with students. Her advice? Take full advantage of internships and other experiences to maximize your time at Northwestern.
Hailing from just outside San Francisco, Steph Shields '24 chose Northwestern to follow her interest in government and policy. The flexible quarter system allowed her to take more classes and explore new topics, where she realized her new interest in energy policy. She recommends exploring different classes and fields—it’s a great way to find new interests and see what excites you.
Nina Bush '24 shares how professors encourage students to bring their perspectives to class discussions to create a space where diverse approaches to problem-solving thrive. Nina's journey began with a class on Dante’s Divine Comedy, which transformed her outlook. She later applied lessons from Dante to investment banking, exploring the morality of finance and how to navigate corporate America. Her experience highlights how Northwestern’s interdisciplinary approach empowers students to forge new ideas, concepts, and connections across seemingly unrelated fields.
Get to know some of our dedicated professors who are passionate about teaching and nurturing your success as a student.
The political science professor, who founded and directs the Center for the Study of Diversity and Democracy, says involving undergraduate students in his research is “one of the highlights of [his] career.”
The Breen Family Professor of Economics first became interested in development economics when she was a Northwestern freshman studying chemical engineering. Now she teaches the course that inspired her.
Explore student clubs, internships, and campus resources.
In Weinberg College's monthly podcast, Weinberg alumni share their career experiences. Listen to what they have to say about the fields of public policy, economics, and business.
Factors affecting economic growth and challenges to achieving economic success. Organization of firms and financial markets; corporate governance; innovation; financial crises; income inequality; race and gender.
This course provides an in-depth overview of key issues in intercollegiate athletic administration, including the history, operations, finances, and strategic planning of college sports. Topics include student-athlete employment status, name/image/likeness opportunities, NCAA gender equity, behavioral issues, social justice, NCAA governance, the Alston Supreme Court case, the transfer portal, conference re-alignment, and transgender athletes. Students will engage with experienced professionals in college athletics.
This course examines monopoly as a market failure in the context of antitrust law, public utility regulation, network effects, and intellectual property. We will explore how firms reduce competition through strategies like mergers or collusion and study antitrust law's role in addressing these issues. The course also looks at natural monopolies in utilities like power and water, the challenges regulators face, and the role of government in the digital economy. Lastly, we will analyze the balance between encouraging innovation through temporary monopolies (e.g., patents) and maintaining competitive markets.
This course explores the economics of gender, focusing on how individuals and households make decisions from a gendered perspective. Topics include women's status globally, education, marriage, fertility, labor supply, and discrimination. The course emphasizes applied microeconomic theory and empirical analysis, using econometric techniques and real-world examples. It also examines the link between research and public policy, aiming to provide students with a microeconomic framework to analyze gender-related economic issues.
This course explores how economists translate intuitions about decision making under risk and uncertainty into rigorous, tractable models. It illustrates how these models help us understand important aspects of economic phenomena such as investment in financial assets, insurance, information acquisition, intertemporal allocation of resources, etc. We shall also point out some shortcomings of "standard' models of choice under risk and uncertainty, and briefly examine proposed extensions that overcome them.
This course offers a thorough examination of the U.S. Supreme Court in the American political system. We will focus primarily on the Court as an institution—that is, the set of norms, rules, and policymaking processes that lead to the High Court's decisions. Although the study of legal doctrine (e.g., constitutional law) is central to understanding the Supreme Court's role in American government, this course will emphasize the institutional processes by which the justices create substantive policy (and not the content of legal doctrine itself). In doing so, we will investigate how the Court operates as both a legal and political institution, as well as its place in the larger political system. This course will also emphasize the social scientific study of the Supreme Court, involving topics such as judicial selection, the Court's agenda-setting and control of its docket, and decision making on the merits.
Our modern focus on GDP, stock markets, and trade deficits has spurred scholarship on the ancient Roman economy, revealing how different it was from today. This course examines those differences and their impact on everyday life, past and present. Key questions include: What did economic growth mean for the Romans? How did energy consumption, social class, low life expectancy, long-distance trade, and technological progress influence their economy?
Taking stock of world economic changes such as the collapse of socialism, the advent of globalization as well as the intensification of transnational labor migration, this course aims to reveal the categorical distinctions drawn between formal and informal economies in contemporary capitalism as historically situated and politically charged constructs.
Examines the application of psychology to law, including topics such as the insanity defense, criminal profiling, eyewitness testimony, and interrogation.
This class involves the intersection of religion, cultural preservation, ethnoecology, and law. We will focus on Native American concepts of the sacred, language, and how they create relationships to land, ceremony, history, and tribal/ethnic identity. Central to the class will be a focus on the sacred aspects of tribal identity and the role that landscape plays in the creation and maintenance of these identities.
Law is everywhere, shaping our daily lives. This course explores the relationship between law and society using interdisciplinary perspectives from sociology, history, anthropology, political science, and psychology. We'll focus on the sociology of law, primarily in the American context, while also touching on international law and global human rights. Key topics include law and social control, law’s role in social change, and its ability to intervene in social relations and institutions.