The mission of the Department of Economics is to produce high-quality research, provide high-quality training for graduate students and undergraduate majors, and offer high-quality courses accessible to non-major undergraduates that introduce them to the principles and methods of economics. This mission is an integral part of the broader missions of the College of Liberal Arts and the Graduate School. Faculty research is expected to make a significant contribution to the body of economic science and/or offer important insights into significant policy issues. It is expected that members of the department will be leading researchers and may be directly influential in the formulation of economic policy at all levels of government. The department's graduate program emphasizes learning at the current frontier of economic knowledge and state-of-the-art dissertation research. Courses, examinations, and thesis research are designed to achieve these ends. The department's undergraduate major places an emphasis on critical thinking and the understanding of basic economic principles at a level of rigor and generality appropriate to an undergraduate experience. The department sustains a number of courses with limited prerequisites that are open to non-majors as it believes that students' understanding of the world and their ability to be effective citizens will be enhanced through the understanding of basic economic principles. The department has a national and international reputation for leadership in research and teaching, as evidenced, for example, by repeated high rankings in surveys of faculty quality and effectiveness of graduate programs.