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How focused is an economics major on fiance/business?

I'm thinking about majoring in Economics, but I have very little interest in going into a career related to Wall Street, the stock market, etc, or continuing on to business school. I'm most interested in economics research in behavioral economics, and some in policy. To what extent would a major in economics prepare me for that? #economics #college-major

college-major economics
Thank you comment icon Excellent question and a very common one with a lot of students majoring in economics. Similar to you, I find behavioral economics and policy implications facinating and economics would be an excellent avenue to take, but the undergraduate courses are not entirely centered around these ideas. A lot of theory, math, and statistics are used in order to empirically and objectively answer these questions/ideas. These classes prepare you to think like an economist and to analyze problems from a different perspective. A degree in economics will most certainly prepare you for a research career in behaviorial economics and policy due to the analytical, logical, and attention to detail skills you will aquire along the way. I hope this information helps and good luck! Jacob Sherman
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Yiyang "Ellen"’s Answer

If you are mostly interested in research, you may consider getting a double major in college that would prepare your graduate school in economics. math/stats would help a lot with your economics graduate program. Of course you need to excel in your undergraduate economics courses first :)

Yiyang "Ellen" recommends the following next steps:

read some economics books / articles
master maths/stats
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Richard’s Answer

My son studied economics and has received job offers in consulting/investment banking so I will answer from the perspective of his advice.

Economics opens up an extremely broad array of careers. Naturally economists, also corporate strategy, marketing, data science (from a rigorous and quantitative program anyway), finance and consulting of course.

Once you narrow down your interests, you can tune them with niche skills! For grad school/data science, programming! For finance/consulting, news/strategy books!

He was also not interested in the business/IBD route, but tried it.

He ended up finding Economic Consulting as a great middle ground -- intellectually challenging, but not as risky as a PhD. You should check it out!

Also, it's worth taking real analysis in college just so you don't rule yourself out of a PhD.
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Sen’s Answer

Hello Kira,

I like your question as I used to motivate my daughter to do her graduation in Economics and want her to pursue it for further studies in London School of Economics or such places.


Do you think all the Eco grads land up in finance jobs like dealing with stocks or counting money in banks? If it is Yes, then you are wrong! Do you know why Dr. Amartya Sen ( we share same family name) got his Nobel in Economics? If No, then here it is : " Amartya Sen is an expert in developmental economics, social choice (for which he received the 1998 Nobel Prize in Economics), and philosophy before developing the Capability Approach during the 1980s. His contributions to welfare economics and social choice theory and for his interest in the problems of society's poorest members."


Did he ever worked for any financial institute or stock exchange, to my knowledge : NO!


"Have you heard the name of Dr. Jean Dre`ze, who's vision has changed millions of lives (poorest of poor of India) through a program called NREGA? I am sure, you haven't heard about him, so please read on :


" Jean Drèze (born 1959) is a Belgian-born Indian development economist and activist. His work on India has been studying several developmental issues like hunger, famine, gender inequality, child health and education. He conceptualized and drafted the first version of the NREGA, which has given jobs to millions of poors".


It is not necessary to be a professional in any corporate just because you are an Major in Economics. If you wish to do something big...bigger for the humanity then it is through Economics! You must be knowing that the population of the world today is approx 6 Bn plus which will become about 8 Bn by around 2035-40. Imagine, due to this population explosion (already happened), there will be huge increase in demand of food, water, shelter, medicine, schools and jobs etc? Where will it come from? Can this Earth (over exploited by then completely) sustain that kind of population? The answer for these questions comes from NONE like us but these economists who can see through the future by virtue of their knowledge, experience, vision and various economic models. There are many other subjects these economists deal with and all of them are related to the well being of people of this planet only. They work in universities, government organisations, United Nations and NGOs silently to bring in succor to the people. They are our unsung Heroes, we rarely hear of them or know!


So you decide what you would like to do? Look at the bigger picture 20 years from now. You can be one of those pioneers who can show the light to the governments, UN and others to tackle these kind of problems.

All the very best!

Sen recommends the following next steps:

Also look at the works of other Nobel laureates.
Do Google for Amartya Sen and Jean Dreze and Read their contributions to the humanity.
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