Bachelor of Science in Business Administration with a Specialization in Economics Online
Become an asset to any company when you learn to conduct economic research and use statistical analysis to solve problems that affect profit and organizational growth.
Enrollment for our accelerated online business programs is open. Get started today!
Program Overview
Excel in the business world with the economics BSBA
$479
Per Credit Hour
Up to 90
Program Transfer Credits
120
Credit Hours
Learn the economic principles required for effective business forecasting, planning and budgeting with the BS in Business Administration with a Specialization in Economics online program from Southern Illinois University Edwardsville. You will understand how to collect and analyze data on consumer behavior to make organizational decisions and policy plans based on quantitative reasoning. Coursework is focused on economic concepts but will also expand your foundational skills in the areas of public speaking, marketing, group management and technical proficiency.
Courses are offered on an 7-week schedule and delivered 100% online so that you can study at the pace and place most convenient for you. Our expert faculty are dedicated to helping you prepare for top sales and finance roles.
In this online economics program, you will learn to:
- Use economics knowledge and research skills to conduct data analysis
- Gain foundational knowledge in microeconomics and macroeconomics concepts including supply and demand and pricing
- Utilize tools to predict the effects of government interventions and regulations on the markets
- Examine economic growth and unemployment as well as factors that affect inflation such as trade, exchange rates and monetary and fiscal policies
- Use economics knowledge and research skills to conduct data analysis
- Gain foundational knowledge in microeconomics and macroeconomics concepts including supply and demand and pricing
- Utilize tools to predict the effects of government interventions and regulations on the markets
- Examine economic growth and unemployment as well as factors that affect inflation such as trade, exchange rates and monetary and fiscal policies
Economics career opportunities:
- Investment Analyst
- Market Research Analyst
- Client Associate
- Securities Broker
- Junior Portfolio Manager
- Investment Analyst
- Market Research Analyst
- Client Associate
- Securities Broker
- Junior Portfolio Manager
The School of Business at SIUE is accredited by The Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB International) and is one of only two percent of business colleges and universities in the world to hold this accreditation for business and accounting. The School has been accredited since 1975. The next AACSB re-accreditation visit is scheduled for 2027.
Tuition
Take advantage of the affordable economics bachelor’s degree tuition
Tuition for the BSBA with a Specialization in Economics online degree program is the same for in-state and out-of-state students. All fees are included.
$479*
Per Credit Hour
If you are applying for financial aid, please use Federal School Code 001759. For more information, please contact our financial aid office by calling 618-650-3880 or emailing [email protected].
*Tuition includes all fees and is subject to change without notice. The University reserves the right to increase tuition and fees at any time.
Calendar
Use these dates to create your academic plan
The economics online degree is delivered in an online format ideal for working professionals, conveniently featuring six start dates each year. Choose the start date that best fits your goals.
Upcoming Start Dates
12/31/25
Next Application Deadline
1/17/26
Start Classes
| Term | Start Date | Application Deadline | Document & Financial Aid Deadline | Registration Deadline | Tuition Deadline | Last Class Day |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Spring I | 1/17/26 | 12/31/25 | 1/7/26 | 1/13/26 | 1/15/26 | 3/6/26 |
| Spring II | 3/21/26 | 3/4/26 | 3/11/26 | 3/17/26 | 3/19/26 | 5/8/26 |
| Summer I | 5/11/26 | 4/22/26 | 4/29/26 | 5/5/26 | 5/7/26 | 6/22/26 |
| Summer II | 6/27/26 | 6/10/26 | 6/17/26 | 6/23/26 | 6/25/26 | 8/8/26 |
| Fall I | 8/29/26 | 8/12/26 | 8/19/26 | 8/25/26 | 8/27/26 | 10/16/26 |
| Fall II | 10/24/26 | 10/7/26 | 10/14/26 | 10/20/26 | 10/22/26 | 12/18/26 |
Admissions
Get started with our streamlined admission process
- Complete the online bachelor's degree program application
- $40 application fee
- Official transcripts from all previously attended and current colleges
Admission to the economics bachelor’s degree online is based on a variety of factors including previous work in other undergraduate programs.
Transfer students who have attempted at least 30 semester hours in courses at accredited institutions will be automatically admitted to SIUE and eligible for entry to major provided they have earned a minimum cumulative 2.0 GPA (on a 4.0 scale) in coursework at the accredited school(s) previously attended.
The successful completion of College Algebra with at least a C or higher is strongly recommended.
Currently, SIUE does not provide online AOP courses for most General Education requirements. The AOP program is intended for students who have completed most or all general education courses prior to being admitted to the AOP program.
Pathways for students with less than 30 credit hours
Transfer students who have attempted fewer than 30 semester hours must meet different transfer admission criteria. Please see additional policy requirements and contact the School of Business at [email protected].
Progression
Once students have completed ENG 101, ENG 102, MATH 120, ACS 101, ECON 111, ECON 112 and CMIS 108 with at least a grade of C or higher in each course and have an SIUE GPA 2.25 or higher, they will be classified as a Business Administration (BSBA) major with a specialization.
Retention
Students who fail to maintain at least a 2.25 cumulative SIUE GPA will be placed on School of Business probation. Students will be notified when they are not meeting the cumulative GPA retention standard and will be informed of the timeframe allowed to improve their GPA. Students who do not meet retention requirements for two consecutive terms will be removed from the School of Business.
All required documents (e.g., official transcripts) should be sent to the following address:
Office of Admissions
Campus Box 1047
Edwardsville, IL 62026-1047
Electronic official transcripts should be submitted to [email protected].
Have a question? Call us at 877-244-4661.
Courses
More about the economics online courses
The BSBA – Economics online curriculum is comprised of 120 credit hours, including nine credit hours of economics core courses and 45 credit hours of major courses. Additionally, students may also have to complete other general education and/or elective course requirements to achieve graduation requirements. See link for full degree requirements.
What is information systems for business?
Information systems for business combine technology, processes, and people to manage organizational data, support decision-making, and enable effective communication across business functions. These systems help companies process information, automate workflows, and gain competitive advantages through technology.
Upon successful completion of the course, the student will be able to:
- Recognize information technology as it applies to today's complex business environment
- Identify IT systems required to support business processes, complex information flow, and organizational communication needs including managerial decision support approaches and tools
- Apply skills in managing group projects delivering business presentations and reports
What is financial management?
Financial management involves planning, organizing, and controlling financial resources to achieve business objectives. It encompasses analyzing financial statements, evaluating investment opportunities, managing corporate capital structure, and making strategic decisions about how to allocate resources to maximize shareholder value.
Upon successful completion of the course, the student will be able to:
- Describe the major forms of businesses and markets, the process of value creation and corporate governance, and the inherent challenges
- Analyze the components of the financial statements to make business decisions
- Demonstrate the relationship between time, money, and interest rates, and the factors affecting the cost of money through computations
- Evaluate the types of stocks and bonds and their relevant characteristics and factors for intrinsic valuation
- Estimate the relationship between risk and return and assess the firm's cost of capital
- Estimate relevant cash flows, and appraise project value in order to allocate capital
What is professional career development in business?
Professional career development encompasses building essential skills for career success including ethical decision-making, professional branding, networking, and interview preparation. This foundational course helps students transition from academic learning to professional practice by developing their personal brand and career readiness skills.
Upon successful completion of the course, the student will be able to:
- Identify the basics of ethical behavior and decision making
- Prepare for a professional career search, which includes designing a profile for LinkedIn
- Prepare for a professional career search by practicing interview skills
What professional skills do business graduates need?
Successful business professionals need a combination of technical competencies and soft skills including financial literacy, business etiquette, networking abilities, and professional communication. This course develops the interpersonal and professional skills essential for navigating workplace environments and building successful careers.
Upon successful completion of the course, the student will be able to:
- Analyze professional business environment expectations and demonstrate understanding through case studies or discussions
- Develop personal financial management behaviors by creating and following a detailed financial plan
- Demonstrate growth in using interpersonal skills through role-playing and written assessments
- Perform successful interviewing techniques in mock interview sessions with feedback
- Exhibit proper dining etiquette in simulated job interviews and other business and social events
- Execute effective networking skills by attending networking events and reflecting on the experience
What does the business environment consist of?
The business environment encompasses all external and internal factors that affect how organizations operate, including economic conditions, competitive forces, ethical considerations, and stakeholder relationships. Understanding this environment enables managers to make informed decisions, identify opportunities and threats, and develop effective business strategies.
Upon successful completion of the course, the student will be able to:
- Analyze key management principles and apply them to business situations
- Demonstrate business writing skills with clear, organized, concise, and purposeful messages
- Assess differences in audience, situation, and purpose in a professional manner
- Prepare formal business presentations and written assignments
- Recognize issues in the business environment related to professionalism, personal ethics, and honesty
- Explain the information needed to address a business problem and make a decision
How to manage group projects?
Managing group projects involves applying fundamental techniques for successful collaboration, including task coordination, meeting facilitation, conflict management, and effective communication strategies. This course teaches students how to navigate individual differences, practice decision-making in team settings, and employ organizational behavior concepts to solve management problems collaboratively.
Upon successful completion of the course, the student will be able to:
- Employ fundamental techniques for successful group projects that will be integrated throughout the School of Business undergraduate curriculum
- Demonstrate effective practices in completing one's task assignments and cooperating with others
- Demonstrate best practices for effective meetings, in the role of meeting leader or meeting participant
- Model effective organizational behavior concepts (i.e. conflict management, effective communication strategies, accepting and managing individual differences, and decision making) in a group setting
- Evaluate management problems and apply organizational behavior concepts to solving them
What is strategic management?
Strategic management is the process of analyzing competitive environments, formulating long-term organizational strategies, and implementing plans to achieve sustainable competitive advantage. It integrates insights from all business functions to create coherent strategies that position organizations for success in dynamic markets.
Upon successful completion of the course, the student will be able to:
- Assess the business landscape facing the firm and the origin of competitive advantage
- Develop the capability to apply and evaluate analytical tools, concepts, and theories in strategic management so that students can formulate scientific and theoretically based strategies and recommendations
- Develop the ability to integrate knowledge across various business disciplines and apply it to real-world business problems
- Develop the capability to clearly and persuasively communicate ideas on business issues and problems through oral and written media
What is marketing?
Marketing is the process of creating, communicating, and delivering value to customers through strategic planning and execution of the marketing mix (product, price, place, and promotion). Effective marketing identifies customer needs, segments target markets, and develops integrated strategies to build lasting customer relationships and drive business growth.
Upon successful completion of the course, the student will be able to:
- Analyze of the concepts of marketing and how marketing works in today's business; also to identify the environmental forces affecting a marketer's business
- Identify the marketing concept and marketing mix utilized to build desire
- Identify/segment the target market(s) for a product, service or idea
- Define the key components of a distribution strategy for a product, service or idea
- Enumerate and apply a basic promotion mix for a product, service or idea
- Define the fundamental elements of a pricing strategy for a product, service or idea
What is operations management?
Operations management involves designing, overseeing, and improving the processes that create and deliver goods and services. It focuses on maximizing efficiency, maintaining quality standards, optimizing resource utilization, and ensuring customer satisfaction through systematic management of production and service delivery systems.
Upon successful completion of the course, the student will be able to:
- Explain key concepts of operations management and their application in creating goods and services
- Analyze operational processes to identify areas for improvement in efficiency, quality, and resource use
- Apply operations management techniques to optimize performance in real-world business scenarios
- Evaluate the effectiveness of operational strategies to enhance cost, quality, and customer satisfaction
What is macroeconomics?
Macroeconomics is the study of economy-wide phenomena including inflation, unemployment, economic growth, and the impact of government policies on national economies. It examines how monetary and fiscal policies influence business cycles, international trade, and overall economic performance that affects all businesses and consumers.
Upon successful completion of the course, the student will be able to:
- Interpret unemployment and inflation data and how that data is collected and computed
- Derive and synthesize the components of the National Income Accounts, especially GDP
- Identify the frequency of business cycle phases
- Examine the roles of monetary policy and fiscal policies, their tools, and the advantages and drawback of each policy
- Understand the role of trade and international currency exchange in the world economy
What is microeconomics?
Microeconomics analyzes how individuals, households, and firms make decisions about allocating scarce resources. It examines supply and demand dynamics, pricing mechanisms, market structures, and how economic incentives influence behavior in specific markets, providing essential tools for business decision-making.
Upon successful completion of the course, the student will be able to:
- Describe how consumers and firms behave in a market economy
- Identify how prices, wages, and market structure impact decisions in everyday life
- Describe the relationship between incentives, prices, and economic costs
- Predict outcomes given a change in the market environment
What is college algebra used for in business?
College algebra provides the mathematical foundation for business analysis including solving equations, graphing functions, and understanding relationships between variables. These skills are essential for financial modeling, cost analysis, break-even calculations, and quantitative decision-making in accounting and business contexts.
Upon successful completion of the course, the student will be able to:
- Solve and apply linear, quadratic, polynomial, radical, and rational equations and inequalities
- Graph and interpret graphs of linear, power, root, absolute value, polynomial, and rational equations
- Graph functions using basic transformations
- Identify the sum, difference, product, quotient, composition, and inverse of functions
- Solve systems of linear equations using algebraic and matrix methods
- Use mathematical vocabulary and symbols in order to understand, interpret, and represent mathematical information
What are mathematical methods for business analytics?
Mathematical methods for business analytics apply quantitative techniques including linear functions, optimization, and exponential models to solve real-world business problems. These methods enable data-driven decision-making in areas such as demand forecasting, revenue optimization, investment analysis, and financial planning.
Upon successful completion of the course, the student will be able to:
- Analyze linear functions, especially as they relate to forming supply and demand functions
- Solve systems of linear equations, especially as they are related to a business problems involving unknown investment amounts
- Locate the vertex of a quadratic function and interpret it in terms of a business context
- Form and solve total revenue and profit functions. Emphasis will be placed on starting with a demand function
- Solve equations involving common and natural logarithms. Apply this knowledge to solve compound interest problems, sales decay problems and demand function problems
What is statistical analysis in business?
Statistical analysis in business involves collecting, organizing, analyzing, and interpreting data to support evidence-based decision-making. Using tools like Excel, business professionals apply statistical methods including hypothesis testing, probability distributions, and regression analysis to identify patterns, test assumptions, and forecast outcomes.
Upon successful completion of the course, the student will be able to:
- Use Excel to describe a business data set using appropriate numeric and graphical methods.
- Identify and use appropriate probability distributions to answer questions as part of a business application and present the answers in clear business language.
- Identify and perform appropriate parametric hypothesis tests using business data to answer questions as part of a business application and to present the results and implications of the results in clear business language.
- Identify and perform appropriate hypothesis tests for relationships between variables as part of a business application and to present the results and implications of the results in clear business language
What is business ethics and corporate social responsibility?
Business ethics and corporate social responsibility examine how organizations interact with stakeholders including employees, customers, communities, and society at large. This field addresses moral decision-making in business, the psychological and cultural factors influencing ethical behavior, and how companies balance profit objectives with social and environmental responsibilities.
Upon successful completion of the course, the student will be able to:
- Exhibit an understanding of business’s interaction with dynamic political, international, economic, legal, and social forces
- Demonstrate an understanding of the psychological and sociological factors affecting ethical organizational behavior
- Analyze morally relevant decisions
- Demonstrate an ability to reason through complex business cases
- Demonstrate an understanding of principle normative approaches to ethics
- Understand sub-cultural influences in the U.S. and international cultural influences on corporate social responsibility and ethical behavior
What is consumer and firm decision-making?
Consumer and firm decision-making analyzes how rational economic agents make optimal choices in competitive and strategic environments. This intermediate microeconomics course examines consumer utility maximization, firm profit maximization, market interdependence, and behavioral economics concepts that explain why individuals and firms sometimes deviate from purely rational decision-making.
Upon successful completion of the course, the student will be able to:
- Analyze the optimal choice of a rational consumer in non-strategic settings to predict their response to changes in their environment
- Analyze the production decisions of a profit-maximizing competitive firm in non-strategic settings to predict its response to changes in their environment
- Examine the interdependence of participants in a market to predict their behavior in response to other individuals or firms
- Discuss the limits to human decision-making to understand why individuals or firms do not always maximize payoffs
What is economic growth and stability?
Economic growth and stability examines macroeconomic theories and analytical frameworks for understanding national economic performance over time. This intermediate macroeconomics course explores relationships between key economic variables including output, employment, inflation, and interest rates, enabling students to predict economic outcomes and evaluate policy interventions.
Upon successful completion of the course, the student will be able to:
- Demonstrate how to think about the national economy in an analytical fashion
- Describe the key macroeconomic relationships predicted in economic theories and make predictions given changes in key variables
What are empirical business applications?
Empirical business applications uses RStudio for data manipulation, analysis, and visualization to solve real-world business problems. This course applies descriptive statistics, predictive modeling techniques, and inferential methods while developing skills to interpret analytical outputs in ways that are understandable and relevant to various business contexts.
Upon successful completion of the course, the student will be able to:
- Demonstrate knowledge of empirical concepts and RStudio for data manipulation and analyses
- Apply descriptive techniques to real-world data to effectively summarize and visualize data
- Apply various techniques to real-world data to model relationships and make inferences and predictions
- Develop skills for describing, interpreting, and evaluating output in a way that is understandable and relevant to various business contexts
Choose 3 of the following:
What is economic consulting?
Economic consulting applies economic theory, quantitative methods, and analytical frameworks to solve real-world business problems for clients. Students develop professional consulting skills including problem diagnosis, economic analysis, client communication, and recommendation formulation while working on case studies or projects that simulate the consulting industry experience.
What is the business of healthcare?
The business of healthcare examines economic principles and business strategies specific to healthcare markets, including insurance systems, pricing mechanisms, provider competition, and regulatory frameworks. This course analyzes unique characteristics of healthcare markets such as information asymmetry, third-party payment systems, and government intervention that distinguish healthcare from other industries.
What is the economics of careers?
Economics of careers applies labor economics principles to understand career development, wage determination, human capital investment, and labor market dynamics. This course examines how individuals make education and career decisions, how employers structure compensation and hiring practices, and how labor markets allocate workers to jobs efficiently.
What is the economics of sports?
Economics of sports applies microeconomic principles to analyze sports industry phenomena including league structures, competitive balance mechanisms, labor markets for athletes, facility financing, and sports gambling. This course examines how economic forces shape professional and collegiate sports while evaluating the broader social and economic impacts of sports organizations.
Upon successful completion of the course, the student will be able to:
- Describe the most common league structures and give examples of each
- Contrast how leagues vary in their sources of revenue and efforts to maintain competitive balance
- Analyze the social impact of sports facilities, teams, and events
- Apply supply and demand analysis to the sports industry's labor markets
- Analyze how entry drafts, reserve clauses, and salary caps affect the labor markets for professional athletes
- Describe the history of gambling on sporting events
- Describe how gambling books use odds and use these odds to calculate payouts and implied probabilities
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