Why Studying Economics Can Help Prepare You For an Ever-Changing World

Many people think that economics is a boring and dry subject and should be left to people who love to read books. But the truth is, economics provides you with an understanding about people, businesses, markets, jobs and governments. Knowing these helps you to better respond to emerging threats or opportunities in an ever-changing world, especially if you are a business student. For example, when the world plunged into lockdowns due to COVID-19, many governments scrambled for ways to prevent economic meltdown. But business people who understand economics can turn this threat into opportunities and improvise new ways of doing businesses to stay afloat.

Economics is the study of what drives human behaviour, which lead to decisions made in times of affliction or success. Using scientific methods, economics helps in the allocation of scarce resources to ensure efficiency in today’s world. It encompasses a variety of other fields, such as mathematics, politics, sociology, psychology, finance, public policy, business, law and history. It is of special importance to business students because businesses rely on economics for product research and development, marketing, purchase and resource allocation, and many other strategic decision-making strategies. Understanding all these is vital for any business to operate efficiently, drive out competitors and succeed. In short, studying economics develops in you various competencies and transferable skills, such as critical and analytical thinking, problem solving, research, numeracy and communication. Students who major in economics have the opportunity to delve into many other industries besides business, such as banking, finance, risk management, accountancy, or consultancy.

Economists Help Stamp out Inequality and Promote Social Progress

For those of you who are into the issue of human development, the breadth and flexibility of economics can help you understand issues of welfare impacts, inequality, health and social progress. It equips you with the knowledge of the primary framework of public policy, the communication skills and statistical analysis skills to enable you to engage in public policy debates for health, education and wealth distribution, which ultimately stamps out inequality and promotes social progress.

To sum up, economics helps you to shape and sway the world with your ideas and perspectives. As the great economist Lord Keynes said, “The ideas of economists and political philosophers, both when they are right and when they are wrong, are more powerful than is commonly understood.” Indeed, the decisions made by economists make a lot of difference to our daily lives and can either bring world-shaking progress to a nation, or their mistakes can be nothing short of catastrophic.

The vital role of an economist is best summed up by Robert L. Heilbroner in his book, “The Worldly Philosophers: The Lives, Times, and Ideas of the Great Economic Thinkers”:

“This is a book about a handful of men with a curious claim to fame. By all the rules of schoolboy history books, they were nonentities: they commanded no armies, sent no men to their deaths, ruled no empires, took little part in history-making decisions. A few of them achieved renown, but none was ever a national hero; a few were roundly abused, but none was ever quite a national villain. Yet what they did was more decisive for history than many acts of statemen who basked in brighter glory, often more profoundly disturbing than the shuttling of armies back and forth across frontiers, more powerful for good and bad than the edicts of kings and legislatures. It was this: they shaped and swayed men’s minds….And because he who enlists a man’s mind wields a power even greater than the sword or the sceptre, these men shaped and swayed the world. Few of them ever lifted a finger in action; they worked, in the main, as scholars-quietly, inconspicuously, and without much regard for what the world had to say about them. But they left in their train shattered empires and exploded continents; they buttressed and undermined political regimes; they set class against class and even nation against nation-not because they plotted mischief, but because of the extraordinary power of their ideas.”

So brace yourself and accept the challenge of studying economics.

Check out the Bachelor in Business Administration degree specialising in Economics & Management at Wittenborg University of Applied Sciences at: https://www.wittenborg.eu/bba-bachelor-economics-management.htm

WUP 22/1/2022
by Hanna Abdelwahab
©WUAS Press