Economics
The program of Economics train comprenhensive proffesionals with relevant knowledge to optimize scarce resources and promote sustanaible development, contributing to the generation of value and reduce uncertainty in the decisión making process in the public or private field.
* Undergraduate tuition/fees:
The Constitution of the Republic of Ecuador in its Article 356, among other principles, establishes that third-level public higher education will be tuition/fees free. Zero cost education is linked to the academic responsibility of the students.
Number of admitted students per academic year
Number of graduates per year
Number of enrolled students per academic year
Graphs show the figures in real time, at the time of the query
Our eligibility application has been accepted by ACBSP, and we are currently in the candidate process for our proposed program.
For more information about the ACBSP accreditation standards, visit: https://acbsp.org/
Contact Cristina Yoong Párraga, cryoong@espol.edu.ec, for more information.
Must be observant, thoughtful, analytic, with critical thinking, persistant, with a great abstraction capacity and must have basic knowledge of social sciences and mathematics. Furthermore, candidates must be passionate about research and with a curious spirit to know how people behave an the behavior of markets.
- Evaluate the process of Price determination from a perspective of general and partial equilibrium under diferente market structures for the efficient assignation of resources in the macroeconomic field, with social responsability.
- Evaluate the effects of public policies in the economic activity of the country in the local, regional and international context through the use of economic models that allow an efficient decision making process in the macroeconomic field.
- Value the efficient use of resources through the application of theories, models and methods for an optimal decision making process in the business field with social responsability, public sector and financial market.
First Year
Description:
It is a core course for Engineering, Natural Sciences, Exact Sciences, and Social Sciences and Humanities, students. Topics, such as, topological notions, limits and continuity of real variable functions, derivatives and their applications, antiderivatives and integration techniques, and the definite integral with its applications, are examined. This course is aimed to the development of student’s skills and know-how in the derivation and integration processes, as a fundamental basis for the following upper level courses in its academic training process
Description:
In this course, students apply the Design Thinking methodology to identify, analyze real-life problems or needs, to design innovative solutions. Students work in multidisciplinary teams to present solution proposals that add value to customers/users from private companies, public organizations and non-profit organizations.
Description:
This course develops knowledge related to accounting, measuring their effects on the financial statements in order to make business decisions. nitially, the antecedents and fundamentals that support accounting are studied under the regulatory framework. Subsequently, the accounting process is carried out including transaction taxes, legal labor obligations, so that the information obtained is the basis for the preparation of the financial statements of a company. Finally, the impact of: inventory and property, plant and equipment, on business results is evaluated.
Description:
This entry-level vocational training course helps students to understand and distinguish the differences between the occupational profiles of an administrator, an auditor, and an economist. For this purpose, professional guests speakers are invited to share their academic and work experiences, as well as, to interact with the students to clear up their doubts and clarify their concerns. These talks are complemented with assignments, class workshops and research that contribute to a better understanding of the professional field of careers.
Description:
This basic and general education subject presents grammatical structures to produce a simple paragraph based on a writing program. Additionally, it allows the identification of a specific argument in oral and written communication. It also considers learners’ personal opinions about different topics related to social, academic, and professional aspects. It includes the necessary vocabulary to make comparisons between present and past, books or movies description, creation of simple students’ profile, opinions about inventions, formal apologies and tell past events.
Description:
This initial level course studies the decision-making process of economic agents in conditions of scarcity. It also studies the market processes and fluctuations in economic activity. Topics on microeconomics related to goods, market and prices are addressed. Macroeconomic topics such as the analysis of macroeconomic indicators and national income are also analyzed. Finally, the course concludes with a synthesis of the main problems of the economy.
Description:
The course presents students with strategies to solve common problems in various professional fields through the design and implementation of solutions based on the use of a programming language. It covers the basic principles so that the student can read and write programs; emphasizing the design and analysis of algorithms. In addition, it introduces students to the use of development and debugging tools.
Description:
This course is introductory and is aimed at third-level students in initial training within their undergraduate career.The units of the course emphasize the importance of administration at all management levels of an organization, provide for a general analysis of the administrative process with a cyclical approach and specific analysis of planning, organization, direction and control functions within this process. Ethical aspects, corporate social responsibility and the environment in which organizations operate are also considered to support managerial decision-making.
Description:
Calculus of several variables is a transversal course aimed at the basic training of professionals in the areas of Humanistic and Social Sciences that require developing problem-solving and problem-solving skills in the n-dimensional context. For this purpose, the course consists of 4 general topics: three-dimensional analytical geometry and functions of several variables, differential calculus of scalar fields, optimization of scalar functions of several variables, and multiple integration; being the main applications of this course: the optimization of functions of several variables applied to practical problems, the calculation of areas, volumes and work, using objects of the plane and space.
Description:
This is a basic training course for engineering and science students, in which the study of matrices, systems of linear equations, vector spaces, linear transformations, spaces with inner product, eigenvalues and eigenvectors. The main purpose of the course is to contribute to the integral formation of the future professional allowing later, to take care of conceptual, social and technological necessities in the solution of problems and development of the abstract thought.
Description:
This course studies the variation of the money value over time, applying the capitalization financial laws and discount at simple and compound interestrates, which allows to find the equivalences between equity and analysis of cash flows, to evaluate saving alternatives, investments and credit to help in the decisionmaking process of personal financial decisions. Financial evaluation techniques such as present value, future value, annual value, and return rates will be applied, as well as the Cost/Benefit ratio for social projects. Being one of the introductory finance courses taught at ESPOL, it is aimed for students in the initial levels.
Description:
This subject of basic formation and general education presents the grammatical structures for the production of an academic paragraph, through the development of the writing program in a transversal way. In addition, it allows the identification of specific arguments in oral and written communication, considering the production of one's own criteria on different topics of a social, academic or professional nature. The necessary vocabulary is also applied to refer to the different forms of communication, share work experiences and the use of digitl technology, tell short stories about interpersoanl relationship and personalities, and comment on the future of the environment.
Second Year
Description:
In this subject, we study the development of the academic prosumer profile of the students, which should be consolidated throughout each individual's life, based on the processing of complex, holistic, and critical thinking. We aim to foster understanding and the production of academic knowledge through rigorous analysis of realities and readings from various academic/scientific sources.
Description:
This is an initial level course for the professional formation of students with a major in economics and analyzes the basic mathematical techniques for intertemporal optimization solving quantitatively and qualitatively differential equations and first order differential equations and higher order differential equations. Additionally, the course covers the application of these techniques on economics models expanding the technique to systems of differential and difference equations to determine their stability and equilibrium dynamics.
Description:
The Statistics I course allows students to improve their ability to analyze, synthesize and solve problems, by studying the statistical foundations for obtaining information from a set of data, starting from their information gathering, procedure, analysis and interpretation of the data obtained. Also, the concept of probability will be studied as a measure of uncertainty, mathematical models of discrete and continuous random variables will be analyzed univariate and multivariate, to finally consolidate the bases of inferential statistics
Description:
This initial level course studies the main macroeconomic variables, such as the Gross Domestic Product, employment, inflation, interest rates and exchange rates. It provides the basic tools to examine different data sources of these variables and their interaction between the short and long run. Special attention is paid to the IS-LM Model and Mundell-Fleming Model, in order to apply the theory to the analysis of contemporary macroeconomic problems. In addition, the labor market, unemployment and inflation are analyzed. Finally, exchange rates, the macroeconomics of an open economy and some of its pathologies are studied.
Description:
This is a beginner-level course for economics students. Here, consumer theory, producer theory, and market equilibria will be studied under the competitive markets and partial equilibrium analysis. Finally, public policy applications will be studied.
Description:
This subject of basic instruction and general education presents grammatical topics for the elaboration of an outline and a structured composition, through the development of the writing program in a transversal way. In addition, it allows the identification of arguments in oral and written communication on contemporary and academic topics. Additionally, appropriate vocabulary is applied to discuss issues related to different cultures, places where we live, everyday news, entertainment media, and past and future opportunities.
Description:
Statistics II is a transversal subject of basic training for engineering and bachelor's degree students, it addresses the knowledge necessary to make inferences of a population through a sample by point estimations, intervals or hypothesis tests, so that the student will be able to solve complex situations through comparisons or establishing relationships between variables in a sample, thus facilitating the decision-making process from a statistical point of view.
Description:
This intermediate level vocational training course that is aimed at Economics students begins with the choice of consumption - savings of the agents that make up the Household sector in the economy. Subsequently, this consumption-saving decision is complemented with the behavior of companies that use accumulated capital and labor to produce, in this way the macroeconomic balance is shown to students. This same analysis will be repeated later, assuming that there is a government that has to finance its spending with taxes and debts. Finally, the aforementioned analyzes are extended to the case of a small open economy.
Description:
This subject of basic formation and general education, presents the grammar structures to produce a persuasive essay, through the transversal development of the writing programme. In addition, it allows students to identify specific arguments in the oral and written communication, as well as, to express their own opinions about different topics of social, academic, or professional fields. It also includes the necessary vocabulary to stablish a conversation, narrate situations of their environment, activities to reach their goals, analyze cause and effect and personal and professional opportunities.
Description:
This course introduces students to the impacts of the individuals-society interrelationship through the perspective of social theory. The course explores the economic, social, and political transformations from which emerge the theorization of sociology. It includes the classical theories of Durkheim, Marx, and Weber, pillars of modern sociology. The course also reviews the sociological contributions of Foucault, and Giddens, among other modern sociologists, to analyze structures such as society, the state, and globalization. The emphasis of this course is on developing students’ ability to theorize the world around them: culture, identities, and inequalities. Through the application of the sociological research methodology, students will integrate a social research project into practice.
Third Year
Description:
This transversal course addresses the conditions required to innovate and the process associated with developing an innovation from an entrepreneurial point of view. Subsequently, topics such as the identification of opportunities, value creation, and prototyping and validation of products/services proposals are reviewed, as well as the elements of the business toghether with tools for the evaluation of a budget/financial management plan and the interpretation of financial data. Considerations that are essential for the feasibility and adoption of an innovation. Finally, entrepreneurial competences and process associated with the development and adoption of an innovation are studied.
Description:
This course of intermediate level for professional training, introduce to the financial scope. Approach topics of the analysis of financial statements and financial ratios. In addition, there are sections dedicated to study financial planning, leverage analysis, capital structure and some ways to manage liquidity of the company. Finally, analyses the methods of company valuation by cash flow discount.
Description:
This intermediate-level subject is aimed at economics student and analyzes the estimation, interpretation, and inference of the linear regression model applied to cross-sectional data. We study the assumptions of the ordinary least squares method and some applications in social sciences, as well as the properties of the estimators. The estimation and simulation methods covered in this course include generalized least squares, maximum likelihood, and their applications (probit and logit models), among others.
Description:
This is an intermediate level course for the professional formation of students with a major in economics. The course focus on thebehavior of an open monetary economy. The course covers the main theories about the money demand, money supply, monetary policy, and money multiplication by the financial system. Additionally, the course covers equilibria conditions for the money market, foreign currency markets and price level under the assumption of no arbitrage of interest rates, perfect capital mobility and purchasing power parity. The course also analyzes the subjects of inflation, hyperinflation and monetary stabilization, financial crisis and exchange rate regimes.
Description:
This theoretical, intermediate-level course of professional training is targeted to students majoring in Economics. It covers topics such as choice under uncertainty, asymmetric information, and modeling of markets related to externalities and public goods in order to explain the process of price formation. Finally, the course introduces the topic of behavioral economics in order to explain the behavioral inconsistencies observed with the classical models, followed by the role of experimental economics in explaining the decision-making process of agents in the market.
Description:
This is an intermediate level professional training course for students of Economics that studies the statistical analysis of cross-sectional and longitudinal microeconomic data. This is achieved through the theoretical and empirical treatment of the main econometric methods applied to this type of data. Initially, the potential outcomes model, linear least squares and instrumental variables methods are analyzed. Then panel data models are analyzed Finally, the regression discontinuity design is studied.
Description:
This professional training course, of intermediate level, is targeted at students with previous knowledge of quantitative financial analysis. It covers financial securities valuation and investment portfolio management in local and international contexts, applying risk and return models with a conceptual and practical approach.
Description:
This subject contributes to the professional training of the student by presenting an analysis tool that allows obtaining reliable information from the market for the design of solutions within an organization. Market research is exposed as a systematic and objective process that begins with the definition of the research problem, continues with the formulation of the research design, the data collection, the preparation and analysis of data, to end with the elaboration and presentation of a management report.
Description:
This intermediate level course, aimed at students of Economics, studies the origin and evolution of the main economic ideas, their schools, proponents and discussions. The importance of their evolution, their milestones and the way in which they have shaped contemporary economic thought. It also analyzes the first economic schools and the dispute over methods. It then reviews the classical period from Smith to Marx, microeconomics and the economic and political evolution between the 19th and 20th centuries. Finally, it covers the timelines and the diversification of Economics.
Description:
This transversal training course for all students of the institution has five chapters. It introduces the key principles of sustainability and the path to sustainable development. Addresses ecological principles by deepen into biodiversity, ecosystems, human population and ecosystem services. Study the fundamentals of renewable and non-renewable resources as well as the alternatives for sustainable use. Analyzes environmental quality specifically in the air, water and soil components, delving into issues such as climate change, eutrophication and deforestation. Finally, it emphasizes on the economic axis with topics such as circular economy and on the social axis on topics such as governance and urban planning.
Fourth Year
Description:
This is an advanced level course for the professional formation of students interested in the process of life conditions improvement that humanity has achieved. First the course covers the process of capital accumulation and technological progress, that allows a more productive use of available resources (Ramsey model and extensions). The approach to technological progress covers learning by doing (one sector models), human capital accumulation models (two sector models) and models of research and development (expansion in goods varieties). This process happens since the industrial revolution in many parts of the world.
Description:
This advanced level professional training subject is intended for students of economics with advanced statistical and econometric training. Time series econometrics is studied, estimating forecast models and studying causal relationships in the dynamic sense. The content encourages the development of analytical skills for the implementation of specific time series econometric techniques. Initially, the univariate time series models are analyzed through the review of stochastic processes, integrated estimation, unit roots and structural break; then, multivariate processes such as Vector Auto regression-VAR, error correction models and cointegration are reviewed. Finally, structural models with specific applications are covered.
Description:
The purpose of this advanced level professional training course is to broaden the knowledge of economics students and contribute to the development of knowledge about the scope of international finance. It seeks to integrate the theories studied on macroeconomics, administration, and financial markets, with the purpose of training students to understand the socio-economic phenomena that occur in the context of globalization. It also deals with exchange rates, the theory of optimal monetary areas, the global capital market and the most important aspects of multinational financial management. In addition, topics on globalization and exchange rates are studied. It also analyzes the financial management of multinational companies and the macroeconomic aspects of international finance. Finally, the different international financial crises are studied.
Description:
This course of advance level for professional training, explain the projects formulation and evaluation process. Initially, study the market behavior and analyses the different methods within projects technical study. Then, approaches topics about the organizational study and the financial study of the project. Finally, analyses the financial evaluation of the project.
Description:
This advanced level vocational training subject allows the development of skills in thestudents of Economics, for the analysis of industries and productive chains, from the point of view of the Industrial Organization, through the understanding and application of knowledge in economics in the analysis of strategic interaction situations, in environments of imperfect competition and market concentration. Initially, students learn and revise the approaches for the study of the industrial organization, theory of the firm, market structure and competition. Consequently, the students analyse the strategic barriers to the entry of new firms, regulation of behaviors, and political structuresthat promote competition. Finally, students revise the analysis of the regulation of natural monopolies.
Description:
This advanced level professional training course is aimed at students of economics and studies the ability to analyze the provisions, rules and procedures in relation to the economic regulations in force, which is evaluated with different instruments that allow knowing the importance of economic law. It promotes ethical conduct and a progressive and permanent knowledge of the laws related to economic activity in Ecuador. Initially the conceptual framework of economic law is covered, then the constitutional principle of Social and Solidarity Economy is approached and later the different legal bodies that affect the country's economy are analyzed: Tax Code, Organic Code of Production, Organic Law of Control of Market Power, Organic and Financial Code and Organic Law of Popular and Solidarity Economy.
Description:
In this end-of-career course the student develops a project where evidences the application of the declared profiles in their career, developing processes of creativity, organization and pertinence that gets involve him/her in a experience of professional design. In the first part of the course, it identifies customer/user/public needs, it defines the problem/opportunity, it collects data and it analyses critical factors. In the second part, it creates solution alternatives framed in the regulations and restrictions of each user. It concludes with the design and/or implementation of the feasible solution or with the elaboration of prototypes and, analysis and validation of results.
Description:
This advanced level professional training subject, studies the development of public investment projects, through the application of economic and financial concepts, as well as techniques for projects´ social evaluation. The main topics to be dealt with are: the fundamentals of projects´ social evaluation, social prices and shadow prices are studied, and project evaluation methodologies are analyzed. This course is intended for Economics students who are in their last year, who already have the prior training and academic maturity to address this type of socio-economic problem.
Additional
ARTS, SPORTS AND LANGUAGES ELECTIVE COURSES
1 credits - 1.9 ECTS
HUMANITIES ELECTIVE COURSES
1 credits - 1.9 ECTS
SELECTED ELECTIVE COURSE
3 credits - 5.8 ECTS
SELECTED ELECTIVE COURSE
3 credits - 5.8 ECTS
At the completion of the degree students are prepared to be an enterpreneur, analyze and understand how prices are formed, evaluate the effects of economic policies and evaluate how to use scarce resources.
Occupational Profile
Our graduates are able to develop the following tasks:
- Analysis and monitoring of economical aspects in local and international environments.
- Formulation and execution of pland and public policies in public and private environment.
Graduates can work as:
- Consultants in local and international bodies such as IDB, World Bank and others.
- Director of Research Centers
- Economic analyst in the private and public sector.
- Teacher.
- Risk analyst
- Complete the curriculum
- Complete the internship program according to the degree.
- Deliver the required documentation to update the student file.
The Capstone Project is a culminating requirement for graduation. These projects provide students with the experience of applying acquired knowledge and skills to the needs of society, with a focus on sustainability.
The IDEAR Fair showcases all Capstone projects, offering students a valuable opportunity to showcase their work and hone soft skills such as communication and teamwork. It is also a space for students to network with potential clients and future employers.
Explore all of the Capstone projects completed by the Bachelor in Economics program.
DID YOU KNOW?
The Bachelor in Economics was the first program developed by the Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities by 1994. Since the beggining the program, the faculty members and alumni have been a model of quality and competitiveness. The students have access to the Experimental and Behavioral Economics Laboratory, the first to be created in Ecuador what makes Espol one of th few universities to have this one of a kind space to study the behavior of the economic agents in the decision making process.
