Category: Skillsharing

How to study economics and actually enjoy it.

Millions of students pursue degrees and careers in economics every year, and most start from a sense of deep curiosity. But nearly all face doubts at one point or another. Often it comes in the form of slow creeping fatigue and a gradual narrowing of interests. Other times it’s a crisis, pulling the whole field into question. Even INET’s President Rob Johnson nearly dropped out of Princeton. What’s going on?

By Gonçalo Fonseca & Heske van Doornen | It’s not the students’ fault. It is the field that is in a pickle. Economics has undergone a lot of transformation in recent decades, becoming increasingly narrow in scope, and divorcing itself from much of the ‘real world’. So if you are an econ student in a slump, questioning whether you picked the right field, this is for you.

These 8 principles show you how to approach economics without compromising your curiosity. They can help you do good work, allow you to enjoy what you are doing, and set you up to make a meaningful difference.

1. Know what to expect

Most economics programs are constructed linearly.  The intro courses present a small set of basic models and the intermediate course adds more detail. Most people expect that their senior year—or at least grad school—will introduce something new. So they are disappointed when they see the same models again, just with more calculus. What to do? Do not wait for them to serve you something else. Take matters into your own hands.

2. Keep your questions front and center

Think about the questions that brought you to the field. Did you want to understand why the markets go up and down? How did inequality get so high? How businesses innovate? What AI will do to our jobs? Let those questions be your driving force. If you find that the analytical tools you are taught cannot address them, don’t blame your questions. Go looking for more tools.

3. Think for yourself, always.

Textbooks often present themselves as objective. But economics is not settled. It may be a science, but it is a human science, with inevitable faults. So it must be approached with a wider lens, and recognized as open-ended, with room for debate. 

4. Stay connected to the real world

The models you learn are presented as universal. Relevant in any context and at any time. But stock market crashes and labor laws are not made in a void. They are made in a social and historical context. Economics is a topic, not a technique. So start with the questions, and let the answers come from anywhere. Sometimes, you will need your textbook model. Other times, you will need something else.

5. Don’t feel guilty about going broad 

It is often said that scholars are willing to sacrifice five miles of breadth for one inch of depth, as an entire academic career can be built on that inch. But that trade-off is flawed. Real issues are intertwined, big and complicated. Exploring new areas improves your work. Five miles of breadth can lead you to excavators that will let you dig with MORE depth!

6. Take responsibility for your own learning

Chances are your textbook is dull and unconvincing. So you will have to get your nourishment somewhere else. Some teachers do a great job at this, but if yours is not one of them, it is on you. Explore courses and lectures by teachers other than your own. Go down a History of Economic Thought rabbit hole. Go beyond the model minutia and get the overview.

7. Know that economics needs you

We have a climate crisis to solve, financial markets to regulate, increasing inequality to deal with, and a host of complex issues around global markets and trade. The future of work is uncertain and gender disparities continue to loom. There is no shortage of pressing questions that need answering. So if economics feels cold, dull, and limiting, and you are tempted to turn your back on it, DON’T.  Don’t leave economics to economists.  The world needs people like you—the critical, the observant, the restless, to make economics BETTER.  

8. Remember that you’re not alone

Students all over the world are faced with this conundrum. That sounds sad but it is not. Because all these people are linking up, supporting each other, and letting their questions lead the way. They are shaping the future of the field. The Young Scholars Initiative has 21 different working groups, each focusing on different topics. You are invited to join us and to be the change you’d like to see. 

We are in this together.

About the Authors:
Gonçalo L. Fonseca is a research fellow at the Institute for New Economic Thinking and author of the History of Economic Thought Website. Heske van Doornen is Manager of the Young Scholars Initiative and co-founder of this blog. Twitter: @HeskevanDoornen

How to Present your Work

Many of us have to do a lot of speaking over the course of our career. Being able to give an effective talk is a huge asset for any person, but for academics in particular. Opportunities hang on our ability to not just carry out great research but to talk about it. Here are three key points you can use to improve your presentations, whether you are explaining your Ph.D. to a group of peers, or you are addressing an auditorium full of people.

Tell a story 

Many of us are tempted to structure our presentation the same way as we structure our paper. So, we present the literature, frame our approach as distinct, copy our equations into our slides, and write out our findings. But we are often better off with a presentation that frames our work as a story; this way, our audience is much more likely to take in and remember our ideas. 

You may think your work doesn’t have a story, but Lynn Parramore, Senior Research Analyst, can help you find it. Writing and working with economists whose ideas are often buried under jargon, she knows how to pull out the narrative. In this video, Lynn explains to you how to do this yourself.

Manage your delivery

We can all think of a professor whose voice put us to sleep, no matter how interesting the underlying subject matter might have been. So, pitch, pace, and attitude is critical if you want to keep your audience engaged. Jackie Pocklington, Professor of Business and Technical English at Beuth University of Applied Sciences (and father of Jay Pocklington!) is full of great tips on this, including:

Make sure that YOU are the source of the information; not your slides. 

This means only putting keywords on the slides, and using them as a teaser. Announce a page before clicking it, not after. Otherwise you end up telling people something they just read. 

Watch the end of your sentences

Nerves or habits may cause the tone of our voice to rise at the end of our sentences. But this is not how we naturally speak. Therefore, correcting this to make sentences to go down at the end can make a dramatic difference to your delivery.

Drop the perfectionism.

Many of us feel that we need to deliver a perfect presentation; no mistakes, and nothing forgotten. But focusing all our attention on avoiding mistakes leaves little room to think about our delivery. Remember that when you’re an audience member, you don’t demand perfection either. If a speaker makes a mistake and corrects themselves to serve us well, we might even like them more. 

Don’t underestimate the need for preparation

Some people seem like they can pull brilliant speeches out of thin air, but chances are that they have spent more time preparing than you think. The Official TED Guide to Public Speaking discusses various strategies for preparation, ranging from the memorization of every word, to talking from bullet points. All require careful preparation. Therefore, figure out what type of preparation strategy works for you, and make the time to carry it out; you owe it to your audience.

As with everything, the more you do it, the better you get. If you’re looking for a way to practice, the Young Scholars Initiative offers friendly audiences in a multitude of workshops and convenings every year. Moreover, keep an eye out on the calendar for an opportunity to present your work, and become the killer speaker you have the potential to be.

Speed Dating for Academics

Most academic conferences involve 20-minute paper presentations, followed by a 10-minute Q&A. For a small workshop of 10 presenters, that’s 5 hours of presentation time. Of which every person there spends 90% listening. And checking their email. And their Twitter.

We’re all used to it. And attached to it, because it’s easy. We can use the PowerPoint from last time! Just a couple edits from the airplane, and voila.

But we forget the reason we got on that airplane in the first place: to meet other people in our field. Because we really need to find a collaborator for our next paper, or a mentor to offer some guidance for the last phase of our PhD, or a friend to help edit our language before our work goes to peer review.

And now we’re stuck trying to meet those people during a 10 minute break, while juggling a coffee in one hand and a granola bar in the other. Those are crucial after 4.5 hours of listening…

There is a way to improve on this without increasing everyone’s preparation time. Next time you’re in charge, consider the following. Instead of having every person present to the group, have every person present to every person. It’s called academic speed dating. 


Here’s how academic speed dating works:

The group seats themselves around a table, with each person facing another, like so:


O O O O O Side A
_____________________
O O O O O Side B

To begin, everyone on Side A tells the person they sit across from about their research and interests. For four minutes, just like they may tell an acquaintance. No formulas, no PowerPoints.

Once the four minutes are up, everyone on Side B talks about their work and interests, in much the same way. 

Then, each pair spends four minutes brainstorming where their areas of interest may overlap and if their work and expertise may offer insight to the other, taking notes as needed to hold on to good ideas.

Next, everyone moves one seat to the right, putting them in front of a new person to repeat the exercise. With a group of ten, it only takes 2 hours to complete the full cycle. After that, everyone has a rapport with everyone, and any obvious “matches” in interests should have become clear.

The exercise is best followed by a sizable break, allowing anyone to continue conversation with potential matches in a more organic, casual way.

There are many variations, or add-ons, of course. The exercise could be combined with a short training on how to present one’s research succinctly and effectively in just a few minutes; the elevator pitch! Facilitators may prove tips on this first, and allow participants to write down key items their pitch should include. This way, academic speed dating may double as an opportunity to try out freshly written pitches and tweak them as needed.


At the Young Scholars Initiative, Peter Bent first introduced this exercise, and continues to lead the Advisory Team for Innovative Academic Formats. We can’t thank him enough for making our community more engaging.