A study was conducted at Scottsdale and Paradise Valley community colleges to assess the importance of math for the study of economic principles and the extent to which a student's math background determines performance in micro- and macro-economic courses. Students (N=156) from six economic principles classes were surveyed regarding their high school math backgrounds, scores on math placement exams, and college math courses completed. Information for 93 of the students was either regressed/correlated or subjected to analysis of variance against student final term averages in the surveyed classes. The following conclusions were reached: (1) the level of college math completed appears to have a small, but still significant effect on a student's final term average in the micro- and macro-economics courses; (2) some relationship was found between a student's score on the numerical math placement exam and the student's final term average in economics, though no relationship was found for the other placement exams; and (3) no relationship was found between high school math background and final averages in economics. Appendixes include the math survey and the regression analyses. (KP)