This page is primarily intended for secondary school students who are interested in potentially studying economics at university or in their spare time. This page should cover the most common questions students may have and will recommend some videos/articles to read - however, keen students may also benefit from visiting the Resources page on this website.

Contents

What is the difference between a BSc and BA?

When it comes to the study of Economics, there should be little difference in terms of what you learn under either degree programme (Disclaimer: We do, however, encourage you to double-check the economics curriculums under both degree-types for the specific university you are looking at). Where they do differ, however, is if you are doing a joint degree programme (e.g., Economics with Math or Economics with Environmental Studies). Under a BSc, the second field studied will - generally - be regarded more as a "scientific" subject; under a BA, this will be more of an "arts" subject.

Are there study abroad opportunities?

Depending on the university, yes. Partner institutions, opportunities for travel-abroad scholarships, and length of time abroad will vary between universities. Study abroad normally takes place in Year 3 for either a semester or a full year. For the list approved partner institutions for economics here at Edinburgh, please consult the Economics at Edinburgh.pdf listed below in the "Economics at Edinburgh University" section.

Things to look for:

• Does the university offer financial support for study abroad (e.g., in the form of scholarships)?

• Which partner institutions will my home Economics Department allow me to study at? (Foreign curriculums may not match your home institution's and you may not be allowed to study at them.)

• How long will I be able to study abroad (e.g., semester vs. full year)?

• Will my course grades from abroad transfer to my home institution/can I put my time abroad towards my final degree classification?

Women in economics

"Women in Economics (Rain Newton-Smith)" [Video, 03:11 minutes]: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZKuOY7KkSEQ

Elinor Ostrom

Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences (2009)

“It was long unanimously held among economists that natural resources that were collectively used by their users would be over-exploited and destroyed in the long-term. Elinor Ostrom disproved this idea by conducting field studies on how people in small, local communities manage shared natural resources, such as pastures, fishing waters, and forests. She showed that when natural resources are jointly used by their users, in time, rules are established for how these are to be cared for and used in a way that is both economically and ecologically sustainable.” (Source: https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/economic-sciences/2009/ostrom/facts/)

"Elinor Ostrom | Women in Economics" [Video, 05:25 minutes]: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BDEAgmklNyE

Esther Duflo

Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences (2019)

"for their experimental approach to alleviating global poverty."

"There are not enough women in the economics profession. Period. […] Not enough women go into economics as graduate students. Not enough women continue to become assistant professor and then get promoted and then subsequently get recognised for their work. […] We also need to make progress in showing to the younger people that economics is relevant for problems that they care about. Because I think women… but it’s also true for minorities. We are talking about women but [for] other minorities [it] is even worse. We see very, very few people who are non-white in the profession at all, and it’s partly because they don’t go into the profession, partly because the perception is that economics is not about real problems for the real world I think.” – Excerpt from Nobel Prize interview. (Source: https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/economic-sciences/2019/duflo/interview/)

Joan Robinson

Joan Robinson in her The Economics of Imperfect Competition (1933) "showed how monopsony (the case of a market with a single buyer) implied that workers were paid less than the value of their marginal product. Another of the original contributions of her book was the analysis of price discrimination, where her discussion followed the analysis founded by Pigou (1920). Robinson showed that if a monopolist could sell the same commodity in two separate markets, [...] the price would be higher in that of the two market segments where demand was most inelastic [i.e. most unresponsive to an increase in the price of the good being sold]." (Source: "Economics Evolving: A History of Economic Thought" by Agnar Sandmo)

Pigou, A. (1920). The Economics of Welfare.

Emi Nakamura

John Bates Clark Medalist (2019)

“Emi Nakamura is an empirical macroeconomist who has greatly increased our understanding of price-setting by firms and the effects of monetary and fiscal policies. Nakamura’s distinctive approach is notable for its creativity in suggesting new sources of data to address long-standing questions in macroeconomics. […] Her work has required painstaking analysis of data sources not previously exploited, and at the same time displays a sophisticated understanding of the alternative theoretical models that the data can be used to distinguish.” (Source: https://www.aeaweb.org/about-aea/honors-awards/bates-clark/emi-nakamura)

Advice

Entry requirements

Entry requirements vary by university when it comes to undergraduate economics, but the subject generally values analytical and writing skills. For some universities, a relatively strong performance A-level or Higher Mathematics may be required, but this is not the case for other universities. For this reason, please consult universities' official degree programme admission pages!

For example, from LSE's "BSc Economics" page: "In addition to Mathematics, we are looking for subject combinations which indicate that you possess both analytical and writing abilities. Subjects which appear as common post-16 choices are Economics; Physics; History; Chemistry; English and Government and Politics, of which Economics, History, English and Government and Politics are good indicators of writing ability." (Source: http://www.lse.ac.uk/study-at-lse/Undergraduate/Degree-programmes-2021/BSc-Economics)

Reading about the subject

If you're interested in a brief introduction to the subject to get a feel for it, then two books previously recommended by Cambridge University for this purpose are "Economics: The User's Guide" by Ha-Joon Chang and "Economics: A Very Short Introduction" by Partha Dasgupta. Both are relatively short but provide a very nice overview of the subject's development, history, and applications. They also complement one another. The former lends an insight into the history of the subject and economic pluralism, while the latter is a bit more technical (but not as technical as a textbook).

In addition to these two books, LSE recommends the following: "It is also a very good idea to have a look at one or more economics textbooks, to have a clear idea of what the serious university study of the subject involves, which will differ from [...] popular presentations." (Source: http://www.lse.ac.uk/study-at-lse/Undergraduate/Degree-programmes-2021/BSc-Economics). Textbooks required for economics at Edinburgh University can be found via the EconPALS reading list located in the Resources page of this website, or alternatively on the Economics at Edinburgh.pdf listed below in the "Economics at Edinburgh University" section.

Economics at Edinburgh University

Prospective undergraduates: https://www.ed.ac.uk/economics/undergraduate

"Economics at Edinburgh" [PDF, 8 pages]: https://www.ed.ac.uk/files/atoms/files/economics_at_edinburgh_1.pdf

Additional Resources

• Discover if economics is a subject for you... http://www.discovereconomics.ac.uk/

• For more information on Economics and the study of it: https://www.aeaweb.org/ and https://www.res.org.uk/

• For research-based policy commentary: https://voxeu.org/

• For economic commentary and independent research by the Fraser of Allander Institute at the University of Strathclyde: https://www.strath.ac.uk/business/economics/fraserofallanderinstitute/

• The Institute for New Economic Thinking (INET) is a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization devoted to improving economics and the public's understanding of the subject: https://www.ineteconomics.org/

• A free online economics textbook produced by CORE: https://core-econ.org/the-economy/index.html