A Note Companion
Before you embark on your journey of intellectual curiosity, I strongly encourage you to do keep A Note Companion. Everyone calls it something different - a Moleskine, a notepad, a diary. Some prefer an electronic form, some prefer pen-and-paper. It’s more commonly known as… well a Commonplace Book: A commonplace book is a central resource or depository for ideas, quotes, anecdotes, observations and information you come across during your life and intellectual pursuits. The purpose of the book is to record and organise these gems for later use in your life, in your business, in your writing, speaking or whatever it is that you do. From Marcus Aurelius to Bill Gates, commonplace books have a long and successful history, and I cannot recommend one enough.Depending on how much structure you need you can start with just a Moleskine book like this one that you carry around with you all the time, or something more electronic like Sam here uses. Whatever works for you.
How can you learn to think like an economist?
One way is to think about what might be called dinner table economics--puzzles or patterns that arise in everyday life that would be good to understand. Robert Frank of Cornell University and author of The Economic Naturalist talks with EconTalk host Russ Roberts about a number of these puzzles including why grooms typically rent tuxedos but the bride usually buys her gown, why bicycles can be more expensive to rent than cars, the effects of the price of corn on the price of pork, and why scammers who invoke Nigeria keep using the same old story.
History of Economic Thought
A brief long-sweeping introduction to those who are interested in PPE, on the schools of economic thought. Watch this video, and if it piques your interest, follow it up with Ha-Joon' Chang’s Economics: the Users’ Guide.
When deciding to apply for Economics, Economics & Management (E&M), or Philosophy, Politics, Economics (PPE), often applicants need a hand to where to get started.
It is not uncommon to have never studied at least one, if not two, of the disciplines formally e.g. at IB or A-level. That notwithstanding, you will still need to show that you have explored the disciplines, so both your choice is an informed one, but also actually discover whether it is indeed a discipline you wish to dedicate yourself to for the next 3 years. You may think you know what Management is, or what Philosophy is, but until you have explored it in greater depth, you are operating on presumptions, that may or may not hold true.
Here is a useful indicate pathway to adopt:
Economics:
Have you studied Economics formally already? (E.g. A-level/IB).
If No, I recommend doing a short introductory course into Economics.
I would recommend doing some research to be able to answer the following questions. Although not covering everything in a Y12 Economics syllabus, it covers what I consider to be the main topics taught. If you can answer these questions competently, you will have a good basis for exploring Economics further in your own reading. They key advantage that pupils who study Economics in a classroom have is they will have been taught to think like an economist every week for the past academic year. It is not easy to learn that skill on your own and takes time. They will also have a more formal framework (e.g. theories) to lean on when discussing a topic, but this latter skill I believe is less of an advantage than the thinking skill I mention.
To help you think like an economist, I would recommend the following places to start:
Econnaturalist, Tim Harford, Freakonomics, Why does popcorn cost so much at the movies and other puzzles.
Xmas deadweight loss of.
Do no harm Doctors wont to say
Varoufakis, Who Gets What and Why.
What is scarcity?
What is the economic problem?
How do markets work? How does price allocate resources?
Why do markets fail?
How can we resolve market failures?
What is GDP?
Why is GDP not a good measure of standard of living?
What is fiscal policy?
What is monetary policy?
What is unemployment and why is it bad?
What is inflation?
If Yes, you will already be familiar with some aspects of what Economics is. But you will probably also not fully appreciate all the strands that exist beyond the syllabus. The syllabus is ultimately very narrow (especially IB), and you should not be referencing anything you have done in your classroom studies on your Personal Statement as a reason for pursuing your interest at university. Ultimately, the syllabus is basic and boring - this should be your mantra - you want to throw off your shackles, the syllabus chains that are holding you back! You know that the syllabus is the tip of the iceberg only.
Something that very economics syllabuses have any decent coverage of is economic history and the history of economic thought.
I believe to be a strong economist, you need to understand both of these.
As an accessible introduction to these, I would recommend the resources on this page: Economic History
The problem with studying economic history is that in and of itself it is not the best introduction to the discipline for a young mind (16-18) as it will come across as dull.
Niall History thing? A little history.
HJC -
Economic History