2020 - Commodity Risk Management minor was added. Agricultural and Resource Economics major was converted to Economics major – Agricultural Economics specialization.
2019 - Ness School of Management and Economics was approved in April by the South Dakota Board of Regents.
2018 - The Department of Economics moves into newly renovated Harding Hall. Land Valuation/Rural Real Estate minor was added. Ranch Management minor jointly offered with Animal Science and Natural Resource Management Departments.
2017 - The Economics Business Specialization was converted to a Business Economics major. The Business Economics professional degree option was added to the Master's program.
2016 - The Human Resource and Management minor was added.
2014 - A 42-credit Economics and Management core was approved for the three business-oriented programs.
2012 – The Agricultural Business, Economics (Business Specialization) and Entrepreneurial Studies majors adopted the intra-university Management core. The Management minor replaced the Business minor.
2009 – The Entrepreneurial Studies program joined the Department of Economics and expands to a major.
2007 – The Marketing minor was jointly offered by the Department of Economics and the Department of Journalism and Mass Communication.
2006 – The certificate program in Entrepreneurial Studies was created.
2004 – The university added an Entrepreneurial Studies minor, as an independent program outside the Department of Economics.
2000 – The Master's program in Economics was adjusted to include the Accelerated Master's program. The Business minor was added.
1998 – The Agricultural Economics major was renamed Agricultural and Resource Economics.
1992 – The Commercial Economics option for the Economics major was changed to a Business Economics option. The department created the Agricultural Marketing minor.
1990 – The department added minors in Economics, Agricultural Business and Accounting.
1980 – The Arts and Sciences major was changed to Economics with a Commercial Economics option. The Agricultural Economics minor was added.
1976 – The Department of Economics moved to Scobey Hall. A Commercial Economics major was added through the College of Arts and Sciences. The department also began offering an Economics minor.
1972 – The department offered majors in Agricultural Economics and Agricultural Business through the College of Agriculture and Biological Sciences and an Economics major through the College of Arts and Sciences.
1964 – The South Dakota legislature changed the university's name to South Dakota State University. The Colleges of Agriculture and Biological Sciences and Arts and Science were created.
1954 – The department was again renamed, this time to the Department of Economics. It began offering the Bachelor of Science in Economics. The Bachelor of Arts in Economics would follow 1966.
1947 – The department received approval to offer a Bachelor of Science in Agricultural Business.
1930 – The department changed its name to the Department of Agricultural Economics, with majors in Agricultural Economics, Agricultural Marketing and Farm Management. The Bachelor of Science in Agricultural Economics, later to be rechristened Agricultural and Resource Economics, would go on to be the longest-running program offered by the department.
1924 – The Farm Economics Department was formed, with fifteen courses offered in the department alongside a selection of classes taught by the Commercial Sciences Department. Department faculty had already formed working relationships with the Cooperative Extension Service.
Pre-1924 – In the early years, courses dealing with economic issues were taught through the Department of History and Political Science, including Economic Problems, US Economic History, Political Economy, Money and Banking, Agricultural Economics, Rural Economics, Industrial History of the United States and Marketing and Cooperation.