Economics Aspects I Am Immensely Interested At
It is often said that humans are inherently pattern-seeking animals, and this statement definitely holds true for me as I often find myself observing trends in things around me. What I find compelling about Economics is its ability to simplify the seemingly random and unpredictable pattern of human behaviour and decision-making into something structured and empirical through the use of models. In my Economics lessons, I learnt about the Prisoner's Dilemma and its use in modeling the decision-making process for firms that operate in an oligopoly. This led me to listen to a series of podcasts by Professor Ben Polak through Yale Open Courses to further my understanding of game theory. I found it fascinating how mathematics is able to model the decision-making process of rational firms, with game theory highlighting the optimal decisions to make to maximise the favourable outcomes. However, this led me to realise that to formulate these models, many assumptions, which may not necessarily hold true in reality, have to be taken. Hence, we cannot rely solely on the model, but also have to consider the assumptions taken. This made me more acutely aware of the complexity involved in the studying of human behaviour.
An Economic concept that I am immensely interested in is inequity, especially with its tangible connection to daily life. I first realised the issue of inequity in Singaporean society when I read the book "This Is What Inequality Looks Like" by Singaporean sociologist Dr Teo Yeo Yenn. In her book, she outlined how the top 10% of households earn 23 times that of the bottom 10%, which were statistics that really shocked me as I had never known the extent of the income disparity in Singapore. She also mentioned how certain government policy, like streaming in schools, may inadvertently result in greater income inequality, subverting the original objective of promoting meritocracy. This spurred me to find out more about inequity and so I read the book, "The Price of Inequality" by Joseph Stiglitz, which provided me insight on income inequality in the United States. What struck me was how income inequality in the US may be perpetuated by government policy, with the political, economic and education systems inherently favouring the rich, allowing them to retain their wealth. It was intriguing seeing how government policy worsened inequity in both countries, going against the fundamental objective of the government. This led me to research on how the governments dealt with the high inequity, allowing me to realise the massive impacts that economic policies had on abating this issue, with taxes and transfers reducing the Gini coefficients substantially. Hence, the ability of Economics to alleviate pertinent social issues furthered my interest in this subject, allowing me to see the subject as one that goes beyond financial institutions and banks.
My interest in Economics also led me to do an independent research project on this subject, on the economic impacts of the introduction of government-run kindergartens on the stakeholders in the kindergarten industry in Singapore. My research project allowed me a glimpse at the process of academic research and developed my tenacity through the laborious data collection process of securing interview and collating survey results. In addition, the research process also fostered my analytical skills as I had to independently form cogent arguments from my collected data.
I am also an avid participant in Model United Nations conferences and I served as a Director for the International Model United Nations Conference 2018 organised by my school. My experiences in MUN allowed me to develop my critical thinking and leadership skills, whilst furthering my understanding of the real economic issues that plague our world.
By studying Economics at university level, I hope to be better able to understand the world around me and eventually play my part in the betterment of society.
