Economics Resources

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What is economics?

The definition of economics is extremely straightforward. Simply put, economics is basically the study of how households, governments, individuals, and societies assign their resources.

The study has two distinct but equally important features. First, it develops abstract models of behavior, designed to anticipate any changes in market and policy conditions. Secondly, thorough mathematical and statistical analysis is employed to dissect and analyze these changes.

Why should you study economics?

Essentially, the question here should be why not? This is because economics graduates don’t merely graduate with a degree, but also a tonne of skills that will be useful in life generally.

The study of economics equips you with valuable analytical skills that you can employ while making everyday decisions. This includes decisions on how to approach financial investments and opportunities, costs and benefits of having a side career, and the potential impact of any policy changes, including public policies touching on things such as minimum wage and health care. Basically, as an economics major, there is no life decision or challenge you cannot successfully maneuver.

Additionally, even states recognize the importance of economics. Economists all over the world are from time to time called upon to advise their governments on varying degrees of economic issues. They are even called upon to aid in formulating policies and analyze the economic conditions for private sector businesses. They have been known to make invaluable contributions to the development of public policies.

The study of economics also helps one expand their vocabulary. You not only get to learn numerous economic terms, but you get to understand how they affect the market and society as a whole.

Understanding concepts such as supply and demand curves will also go a long way should you ever decide to set up a business of your own.

Economics will also give you a deeper understanding of your own spending habits, and consequently help you make more wise financial decisions.

This means that if you have always assumed economics is all about boring graphs and complex data, you need to rethink your opinion.

What can you do with an economics degree?

The list of career paths you can pursue with an economics degree is endless. Several jobs linked directly to economics have been listed below:

Policy Analyst

• Economics Researcher
• Financial Analyst
• Financial Planner
• Accountant
• Actuary

You can also pursue other careers such as business journalism and law. Economics is very wide and hence does not restrict you to one career path.

We tend to underestimate how crucial it is to have some knowledge about the economy. This is despite the fact that we really need it. You need economics knowledge to make mundane decisions such as which bank to use. People who have studied economics basically develop a strong sense of financial awareness that is extremely crucial regardless of whichever career they choose to pursue.  If you have been thinking about studying/majoring in economics, then by all means go ahead. It might take long and can get tough, but the skills you will have gained at the end of it all are definitely worth it.

Check our useful sources for Economics subject:

• • Useful gateways
    Birkbeck College: Department of Economics, Mathematics & Statistics

    http://www.econ.bbk.ac.uk/

    Biz/ed

    http://www.bized.co.uk/

    teaching and learning resources in business and economics.

    Bookboon.com

    http://bookboon.com/uk

    free access to over 500 textbooks for Business, Economics and IT.

    Directory of Open Access Journals: Economics

    http://www.doaj.org/doaj?func=subject&cpid=19

    free, full text, online scholarly journals.

    EconPapers

    http://econpapers.repec.org/

    the world’s largest collection of online economics working papers, journal articles and software.

    EDIRC

    http://edirc.repec.org/index.html

    links to Economics Departments, Institutes and Research Centres worldwide.

    ESE: Economic Search Engine

    http://ese.rfe.org/

    uses Google to search the contents of more than 23,000 economics web sites.

    Eurostat

    http://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/

    Statistical Office of the European Communities with free access to long and short term indicators.

    IDEAS

    http://ideas.repec.org/

    bibliographic database of economic literature with over 1,000,000 references including over 900,000 full text items.

    Internet for Economics

    http://www.vts.intute.ac.uk/he/tutorial/economist/

    a ‘teach yourself to use the Internet’ tutorial focusing on economics resources.

    JISCmail

    http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/mailinglists/category/L1.html

    national electronic discussion lists for the UK Higher Education and research community, including Economics.

    National Digital Archive of Datasets

    http://www.ndad.nationalarchives.gov.uk/

    provides access to many datasets from Government departments and agencies including agriculture, demography, education, environment, finance, health and transport.

    NationMaster

    http://www.nationmaster.com/

    a central data source allowing country comparisons with data from the CIA World Factbook, UN and OECD.

    Nomis

    https://www.nomisweb.co.uk/

    UK labour market statistics with both labour market profiles and detailed statistics compiled by the Office for National Statistics.

    OAIster

    http://www.oaister.org/

    search for academically-oriented digital resources from open-archive collections, including Birkbeck ePrints.

    Prospects

    http://www.prospects.ac.uk/cms/ShowPage/Home_page/p!eLaXi

    the UK’s official graduate careers web site.

    RePEc: Research Papers in Economics

    http://repec.org/

    database of freely available working papers, journal articles and software components.

    RFE: Resources for Economists on the Internet

    http://rfe.org/index.php

    links to the best online resources produced by the American Economic Association

    TimeWeb

    http://www.bized.co.uk/timeweb/

    access to web based time series databanks and information about data handling.

    UK Data Archive

    http://www.data-archive.ac.uk/

    the UK’s largest collection of digital data in the social sciences and humanities.

    UK National Statistics

    http://www.statistics.gov.uk/

    gateway to UK national statistics covering Britain’s economy, population and society. Including access to national accounts, balance of payments and trade, plus data about prices, inflation and the labour market.

    United Kingdom Balance of Payments

    http://www.statistics.gov.uk/StatBase/Product.asp?vlnk=1140

    also known as The Pink Book, full text online reports from 2001 onwards via the Office for National Statistics.

    World Bank datasets

    http://data.worldbank.org/

    open access data that can be browsed by country, topic or indicator.

    Zanran

    http://www.zanran.com/

    search engine specifically for finding numerical data, graphs, tables and charts.
• • Useful organizations
    American Economic Association (AEA)

    http://www.aeaweb.org/index.php

    established to encourage economic research and discussion.

    Bank of England

    http://www.bankofengland.co.uk/index.htm

    annual reports, inflation reports, full text working papers, plus an interactive statistical database.

    Centre for Economic Policy Research (CEPR)

    http://www.cepr.org/default_static.htm

    with access to datasets, working papers and reports.

    Council of European Social Science Data Archives

    http://www.cessda.org/

    helps to locate datasets stored at archives throughout Europe.

    Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC)

    http://www.esrc.ac.uk/

    news and reports from the research funding and training agency.

    Higher Education Academy: Economics Network

    http://www.economics.heacademy.ac.uk/

    sharing good practice in teaching and learning.

    International Labour Organization (ILO)

    http://www.ilo.org/global/lang–en/index.htm

    UN agency which seeks the promotion of social justice and internationally recognized human and labour rights.

    International Labour Organisation (ILO) Key Indicators of the Labour Market

    http://www.ilo.org/empelm/what/pubs/lang–en/WCMS_114060/index.htm

    statistics for labour force participation, employment, unemployment, education, hours of work, wages, productivity, poverty and income distribution

    International Monetary Fund (IMF)

    http://www.imf.org/

    publications, reports and educational resources about the IMF, money and macroeconomics.

    Office for National Statistics

    http://www.statistics.gov.uk/default.asp

    access to a UK Government data including more than 40,000 time series with data from the Blue Book, Economic Trends, Financial Statistics, Labour Market Statistics, Pink Book and UK Output, Income and Expenditure.

    Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD)

    http://www.oecd.org/home/

    with statistics, indicators, reports and working papers.

    World Bank

    http://www.worldbank.org/

    country profiles, data, statistics and official publications.

    World Trade Organization (WTO)

    http://www.wto.org/

    global international organization dealing with the rules of trade between nations.