ORONO – The University of Maine has combined two departments to create a new School of Economics, it announced Thursday.

The new structure, formed by merging the departments of economics and resource economics and policy, is intended to enhance UM’s ability to serve contemporary student interests and to address statewide needs.

About 150 students currently are majoring in the two departments, but numerous others take classes within each program.

The new structure will include scholarship and teaching in a wide range of fields including international economics and development; public policy economics; business and financial economics; health, labor, and demographic economics; urban and regional economics and development; economic growth and macroeconomics; marine, forestry, agricultural, and related resource economics; and environmental economics and policy.

Students in the School of Economics will earn bachelor’s and master’s degrees in economics, financial economics, resource economics and environmental economics.

The school will be part of UM’s College of Business, Public Policy and Health and its College of Natural Sciences, Forestry and Agriculture, with the deans of each college sharing oversight of the school.

Additional benefits are expected through collaboration with the recently formed School of Policy and International Affairs in the areas of international economics and development.