The Whys of Economics

M.S. in Economics Student Ambassador Tanner Hardy ’24 sat down with Clinical Assistant Professor Sebastian Wai to discuss the positives of pursuing a graduate degree in Economics.

Why Study Economics?

Clinical Assistant Professor Sebastian Wai was primarily drawn to economics because of its unique quality of being a social science while using applied mathematical models. Although the mathematical rigor of economics can be daunting to many students, Wai emphasized that he too had to struggle with picking up the math skills:

“One thing I’ve freely admitted to my students is that I was a mediocre calculus student. I basically got by with B’s. But once I began applying that in economics, everything kind of clicked. Using a derivative to think about optimal decision making or using an integral to calculate cumulative probability. It made all those calculus concepts make sense to me.”

The other main reason why he chose to study economics is because of the diversity of its applications. He was always interested in understanding how humans make decisions at a fundamental level. Economics gives you the toolset to solve problems of human decision making, and once you learn those skills, you can apply them almost anywhere.

“The average person, when they hear you do economics, they think you just study interest rates and inflation. Economists do study those things, but there’s so much more to economics than that. All the different kinds of questions you answer with the tools of economics is what really attracts me to it.”

Like Wai, I’ve also had the chance to apply the economics toolbox to a variety of interesting problems. My undergraduate paper was focused on the role that guilds played in the history of Renaissance art, looking at the different incentives that the guilds created and how that may have fostered a more competitive environment. Although many don’t think of using economics to study art history, it just shows the flexibility of economics as a field.

Why Do Students Have So Many Misconceptions About Economics?

Wai emphasizes that economics is highly quantitative and analytical, requiring a solid grasp of algebra to understand the models. He spends considerable time ensuring students understand both the intuition and the mathematical formation of these models.

He also points out that economics has a broad range of applications beyond just the Federal Reserve, which many students don’t realize. The career path for economics graduates is diverse, allowing them to work in various fields such as finance, consulting, data analysis, and public policy. This wide range of options can be intimidating for students.

“Economics has a marketing problem in that our career path is not as obvious as, say, in accounting. An accounting major has a very clear path of what their career is going to be, which is being an accountant. Whereas a person studying economics can do almost any job! We’re giving you a set of tools that allows you to do most jobs more effectively than other people, but because those options are so wide open, most students are scared of that career path.”

Why Do Some Economics Majors Thrive While Others Struggle in Their Careers?

Wai’s biggest piece of advice for economics students that want to succeed after school is to learn programming.

“Learn how to program. Take a programming class. Out in the real world, somebody will ask you to use a piece of software you have never seen before. But if you understand the fundamentals of programming, you will be able to learn whatever they throw at you much more easily.”

Besides developing programming skills, he also heavily recommends people work on their communication skills.

“If you’re going to be using economics in the real world, it’s likely as a data analyst, and it will be analysis done in a way that your boss doesn’t understand. You will not really have done anything if you fail to explain it to them, so taking classes that force students to practice those communication skills is extremely important. Take a philosophy class, take an ethics class, take a history class. Something that makes you formulate an argument and put together an argument with evidence. Don’t let those skills drop off, keep practicing those things.”

I can personally attest that Wai’s insights are spot on. The two skills I’ve seen most frequently referenced in job listings are programming (generally in Python) and communication. Many people develop the hard skills but don’t realize the soft skills are just as important. With almost any job, you are going to work with people who don’t have the same background knowledge as you. If you can break complex ideas down in a simple way that anyone can understand, then you’ll be irreplaceable for nearly any team.

You can find out more about Clinical Assistant Professor Wai by visiting belkcollege.charlotte.edu/people/sebastian-wai/ or his YouTube channel.