New vistas in economics education

Daniel Kahneman (1934-2024) was awarded the Economics Nobel Prize in 2002 for his work in behavioural economics. He remained a psychology teacher and wrote books like Thinking Fast and Slow. He laid the foundation for behavioural economics, which has now emerged as a popular branch of economics.

Many of us have been looking at economics from a limited perspective for a long time. We identified it with numbers, graphs and charts. The most familiar branches of economics are rural economics, international economics, monetary economics, labour economics, and econometrics. We also know the two divisions of economics-micro and macro.

In a broader sense, economics is a social science subject related to people, their needs, and their responses to various situations. It is also about people’s health, well-being and quality of life. Many social issues have economic dimensions, and economic issues have social fallouts.

In the past few years, this people and societal aspect of economics has drawn more students and researchers to the subject. Various new specialisations in economics are now in demand.

Development economics: The world is divided into developed, developing and under-developed. The latter two need multiple economic interventions to grow faster and improve life for a larger population. Development economics talks about these interventions and covers issues like resource mobilisation, poverty eradication, malnutrition, and unemployment. Strategies for leveraging growth from agriculture, industries, services and infrastructure are discussed here. The subject also focuses on reducing income inequality, promoting trade, investing in education, and other human resource development tools.

Behavioural economics: This is the study of human responses to economic issues. It combines ideas from economics and psychology to understand how and why people behave the way they do in the real world. It examines the psychology behind economic decision-making and economic activity and considers the limits of assuming that people are perfectly rational when deciding about matters affecting them. This branch of economics tries to discover the difference between what people ‘should do’ and what they ‘do’ and the consequences of those actions.

Environmental economics: The world has suffered enough damage due to the irresponsible use of natural resources. The countries least responsible are going to suffer the most. Environmental economics tries to find solutions for stopping further ecological damage. Its primary concern is developing strategies for sustainable economic development wherein growth is not at the cost of the environment. Inefficiency in pollution control, waste management and other such matters entail a heavy price. Environmental economics suggests ways and means to avoid this cost.

Population economics: This is an exciting branch of economics that talks about how the demography of a nation shapes its future. Population growth rate influences all economies, the population’s absolute size, gender and age composition, and the spread of education. Population economics, or population studies cover labour, migration, fertility, mortality, government spending, savings rate, etc. Discovering the causality between population and economy is at the core. With a qualification in population studies, you may take up the role of social scientist.

Where to study?

Almost every general university in the country offers postgraduate programmes in economics. However, not all such universities offer one or more of the above specialisations, so you may have to explore a bit.

Many IITs offer master’s and research degrees in economics. Institutes exclusively devoted to economics education also exist, including Indira Gandhi Institute of Development Research, Pune, Gokhale Institute of Politics and Economics, Pune, Dr B R Ambedkar School of Economics University, Bengaluru, Delhi School of Economics, and Madras School of Economics.

The International Institute for Population Sciences, a Mumbai-based deemed university, is the best bet for population studies. Azim Premji University at Bengaluru offers an MA in Development. Madras School of Economics has an MA in Environmental Economics. Gokhle Institute conducts an MSc in Public Policy, Population Studies and Health Economics.

Delhi has the Institute of Economic Growth, National Council of Applied Economic Research and National Institute of Public Finance and Policy, where economics research can be pursued. Madras School of Development also has this opportunity.

One could also look at integrated programmes like a five-year integrated MSc in Economics at Dr B R Ambedkar School of Economics and a few other institutes. Many foreign universities encourage research in the economics disciplines cited above. These doctoral and post-doctoral programmes are often university-funded.