Economics is fun !!

Don't believe me?? Check this out.

I mean who could have thought that legalizing abortion was the root cause that controlled crime rate in 1990's in USA. Moreover, the fact that this theory is being published in a freaking economics book titled "Freakonomics". This book, for me, is a revolutionary step towards the way we look at economics. Economics to some is a "dismal" science that is used with mathematical tools like graphs and charts to explain the cause and effect of growth, output, inflation etc. Generally, people consider economics to be the study of monetary and fiscal policies. But to some it is much more than that. People like Steven D. Levitt, the author of Freakonomics and the winner of "John Bates Clark Medal", consider economics to be an art which when when used practically can solve many mysteries and reveal the reasons behind many events.

Economics is fun. That's one message books like Freakonomics want to convey. It is fun to practice economics yourself and it is also fun to see others practicing it. Economics can be taught in entertaining ways rather than by boring graphs and mathematical equations. It can be taught in such gripping ways that it also appeals to the most social, literate and the most popular guy in the high school. Economics can shed light on the most exciting, sexy and eye-catching issues rather than reading endlessly on government budgets and deficits. Nothing in social life falls outside the purview of economics. The fun lies in studying things that you can see happening in front of your eyes or if you can relate to them and economics can be taught this way. This helps in imparting "out-of-the-box" thinking to the students which would yield better results when they arrive in the "real world".

Though we are still living in a traditional era as far as economics is concerned, students are still made to cram the monstrous mathematical equations and "learn by heart" graphs on demand and supply, however, the outlook of economists is changing. Now less people appear astonished when they see an article titled "More sex is safer sex " or "Why blondes make more money than brunettes?" or "Paying students to perform better" or "Daughters make you more conservative" published in an economics journal. There is a whole new spectrum of ideas to be explored in this field and loads of mysteries to be solved. What we need is creative thinking and "application oriented" teaching by the tutors. They need to spice up the topics by developing interesting theories which keeps students glued to this subject at their own will. Remember, that's when "true learning" takes place.

Read the previous article here "If not now, then when?"