WHY STUDY ECONOMICS?

I was watching a speech by Professor Zafar Iqbal at a university campus(posted on You Tube). Soon after his speech ended, I saw a student approaching the Professor who asked him, "Sir, I am a student of computer science. Why do I have to take economics and social studies classes? Professor Iqbal retorted, "You should take some philosophy classes."  The student then walked away from the building - ostensibly disappointed.

At American colleges and universities introductory level mathematics, economics, philosophy and so on are required of all students as general education curriculum - regardless of their major area of studies. This article underscores why some basic economic literacy has an inescapable influence on an individual's active life regardless of his/her profession.

In liberal arts programme in the US colleges and universities, economics uniquely gained recognition and respectability as an all­embracing applied field, and thus evolved as an unmatched basis for careers in business, government and the law, as well as for other highly sought-after areas such as education, journalism, foreign service, politics, financial consulting and national security analysis. According to the Wall Street Journal, "Economics, once considered one of the more difficult subjects for undergraduates to grasp, is the top major at Harvard, Princeton, Columbia, Stanford and the Universities of Pennsylvania and Chicago; second at Brown, Yale and the University of California at Berkeley; and third at Cornell and Dartmouth."

 In recent years, economics has widened in scope and application in many non-traditional fields such as global warming, energy policy and national defence. It has recently encroached into the frontiers of other disciplines and integrated new areas such as public choice economics, involving political issues, law and economics, forensic' economics, sports economics, household economics as well as marriage, divorce, child rearing and so on. You name it, and you will find your life and economics are virtually intertwined.       

Major law schools in the West view an undergraduate major in economics as one of the most desirable preparations for success in legal studies because the "economics way of thinking" is methodical, content-rich, succinct, and demanding. It's the, "economics way of thinking" that fostered a new discipline, called "law and economics"- which applies economics rationale to almost all legal questions in class rooms and courtrooms.

Using 2007-2008 data for the 2008-2009 class of students entering law school, Michael Nieswiadomy of the University of North Texas Department of Economics found the following:

Economics majors perform at or near the top of all majors taking the LSAT (Law School Aptitude Test); Economics majors (LSAT score of 157.4) are tied for first (with Philosophy) of the 12 largest disciplines (those with more than 1,900 students entering Law School); Economics is tied for second (with Philosophy (157.4)) behind Physics/Math (160.0) in a set of 29 discipline groupings that are created to yield at least 450 students with similar majors.

One might wonder how economics and philosophy are entwined with mutual complementarity. Well, like economics, philosophy students are challenged to analyse concepts with clarity and context and assess evidence and arguments critically and persuasively. More than 60 universities in the US, Canada, the UK and other European countries have been offering an interdisciplinary curriculum - packaging together economics, philosophy, and politics - popularly known as PPE. The programme is intended for those desiring a career in education, journalism, politics, civil service, foreign service, and so on.

The evolution of the PPE programme is infused with the belief that, to comprehend the dynamics of social phenomenon, one must scrutinise them from the perspectives of several complementary academic areas-fostering a multidisciplinary analytical framework. I firmly believe my formal education in physics, nuclear engineering, and belatedly, economics has enlightened me with a much wider perspective about many real-life issues that confront us daily.

From an individual perspective, economics frames many choices we must make about work, leisure, consumption and how much to save. Our lives and living are always influenced by broader economic trends, such as inflation, employment, interest rates, foreign trade, and economic growth. Thus, economics is truly all around us, encompassing almost every aspect of our lives. Studying the subject gives students a generalist understanding of the world and its inner workings. Students learn everything from how supply and demand interact in determining the price of goods and services, scarce resource allocations to why the average standards of living vary so widely within and between countries.

Economic literacy also gives people the tools for understanding their economic world and how to interpret events that will either directly or indirectly affect them. Nations benefit from having an economically literate population because it improves the public's ability to comprehend and evaluate critical issues intricately linked to government monetary and fiscal policies.

In the professional of journalism, a good grasp of basic economics makes one a versatile editorial and opinion column writer having far-reaching positive influence on government policy makers, people and society. 

In the US students in high schools are offered the option to take Advanced Placement (AP) courses as a way of preparing for college/university.  Successful completion AP courses with good grade will enable students to get credit towards their degree programme thereby reducing their length of bachelor's programme. Needless to mention that these are the high-achieving students. Every semester I come across a few of these students in my introductory macroeconomics and microeconomics classes.

As noted above, economics is not considered an easy subject to grasp. So are natural and biological science subjects. Dr. Rubana Huq, President of BGMA (Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association) in a speech (posted on YouTube) proposed that we should start teaching "computer coding" to first graders in our schools. While this may be too optimistic at this stage, what is important though is that the country's business leaders have started thinking what would be realistic one day - if not in first grade - may be at SSC level.  And for that to happen, we must invest in our children's early grooming and education with motivation to study challenging subjects such as economics, computer science and so on.

From a personal standpoint, the study of economics has made me a more enlightened citizen than what I would have been with my studies of physics and nuclear engineering. I have acquired the tools for systematic framework for analysing, researching, and writing on issues encompassing myriad of complex national and global issues - not limited to economics, science and engineering.

Dr Abdullah A Dewan, formerly a physicist and a nuclear engineer at BAEC, is professor of economics at Eastern Michigan University, USA.

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