I knew little about economics before starting my A-Levels in 2022.

Taking it as a subject, I understood the classical dogma that agents within a system make rational
decisions strictly based on economic motives. Since I found the concept straightforward and
enjoyable, I felt compelled to make it the precedent of my computer science programming project. I
decided to develop an algorithm that allows users to have personified information on changes in
price levels, carrying a more accurate reflection of inflation than the average figures provided by the
government. Precision was a key instrument during this process, and it will be an essential tool
towards realising my aspiration to become an investment banker.

Mathematics aided my understanding of economic ideas, especially when it involved the topic of
econometrics. Numbers are a recurring implement employed in economics; I consistently excel in
Mathematics, which consequently led to the use of models as part of an empirical approach towards
understanding economic phenomena becoming something that I relished. Empirical Economics – a
concept I discovered listening to the Planet Money podcast – involves quantitative analysis bridging
the gap between economic theories and actual results. The understanding and acceptance of this
branch of economics was based on calculations that assume “ceteris paribus,” the Latin phrase for
‘all other things being equal’ and I thought the very thing limiting the potency of economic policies
and theories was the manifestation of external factors that were not considered during the initial
econometric process.

I came across a different branch of study in Behavioral Economics which combines economics and
psychology when I read George A. Akerlof and Robert J. Shiller’s Animal Spirits. I reached the
conclusion that economic theories are limited to constraints of reasoning based on the supposition
that humans are persistently judicious. This explained why there was widespread failure to predict
economic phenomena like the 2008 financial crisis. The book criticizes conventional economic
theories like Adam Smith’s Invisible Hand and incorporates determinants called Animal Spirits, which
cannot be quantified but are still as important to the efficacy of economic policies.

This was consolidated by a recent summer work experience I took on at Wem&Co Chartered
Accountants during which we had many discussions on our future aspirations, one of which included
a conversation with the Director of the company. He explained that there was potential fallibility in
the conception of macroeconomics due to how volatile the economy can be and how that makes it
unpredictable especially when theories and models of the past are the main weapons in the arsenal
of economists today. The prospect of discovering new ideologies on how the economy really works
is something I look forward to in my future studies.

My wider experiences include my role as a house captain in high school as part of a student
leadership team where I oversaw the management and conduction of extra-curricular activities
across all year groups, and I received an award for it from the DVS Foundation Programme for the
Most Outstanding Contribution to Life at the school. Additionally, I attended Insight and Work
Experience days at Goldman Sachs, Allen and Overy, and Jane Street Capital with the intent of
building networks and gaining first-hand experience of how economic concepts are applied in the
corporate world.

Alfred Marshall described economics as the study of man in the ordinary business of life but perhaps
it is the study of life from the not so ordinary eyes of man. For me, it is ubiquitous yet abstract within
human lives, governing every decision made every single day. It is more than a collection of theories
and models; it is multifaceted and an amalgamation of different fields of study which all combine to
make it one intriguing subject.