Curriculum and courses

Students taking ECON at Ontario Tech will benefit from small classes and close faculty mentorship as well as from a curriculum that is interdisciplinary in scope and socially engaged. The program covers a broad range of contemporary economic theories and topics, with emphasis on three critical areas of inquiry.

Technology, Energy, and Economic Growth

1. The curriculum incorporates a cross-cutting focus on the long-term relationship between technological innovation, energy production and consumption, and economic development. In line with the university’s “tech with a conscience” ethos, students will be encouraged to critically interrogate the implications of technological change for human and economic well-being.
   
   
2. Environmental Economics and Sustainability
   Across different courses students will explore the complex relationship between economic systems and ecological limits, critically assessing the extent to which market-based mechanisms can address the ongoing environmental crisis. The curriculum will foreground sustainability as a central challenge for contemporary economic thought and policy.
   
   
3. Credit, Money, and Banking
   The specialization will offer courses on how money, credit, and the banking system underpin the functioning of modern economies. Available topics will include the hierarchy of credit, the historical evolution of monetary and banking institutions, the political economy of credit creation, and the relationship between financial intermediation, investment, and growth. Students will also examine horizontalist approaches to money and critically evaluate the theoretical premises and policy implications of Modern Monetary Theory.

Students will take introductory courses in microeconomics and macroeconomics, as well as upper-year and intermediate courses in economic theory, labour and globalization, housing economics, economic history, innovation and entrepreneurship, economic planning, international economics, ecological economics, and the financial system.

Sample Courses Offered

Labour in the Global Economy

This course examines the nature and evolution of work from the 1700’s, with emphasis on the interaction between labour, business, and the state. Students will analyze how employment practices have changed over time alongside the expansion of the global economy, considering the combined role of government policies and shifting corporate institutions in reshaping labour markets. Particular attention is given to the rise of digital technologies, automation, and platform economies, including the growth of gig work mediated by firms such as ride-hailing and delivery platforms. These developments are examined in relation to new forms of labour control, algorithmic management, and the reconfiguration of employment relationships.

Introduction to Political Economy

This course examines the evolving relationship between the state and the economy, focusing on how political authority and economic activity are mutually constituted and transformed over time. Rather than treating the state and market as separate spheres, it explores how their boundaries are continuously negotiated. Students will analyze a range of historical and contemporary arrangements, from state-led development strategies and welfare state regimes to neoliberal and market-oriented forms of governance. Across these contexts, the course considers how different configurations of state–economy relations structure patterns of production, distribution, and accumulation, as well as their consequences for inequality, labour markets, and social welfare. Attention is also given to the role of political struggle, ideology, and institutional change in reshaping economic policy and governance.