students - Economics Students Society of Australia

students

A collection of 12 posts

Learning to Pay – The Hefty Price of Textbooks

Learning to Pay – The Hefty Price of Textbooks

Why on earth are we paying so much for our textbooks? It’s a question that comes across the minds of many students after their first trip to the campus bookstore – and it’s certainly an important one. Each year students are expected to spend hundreds of dollars on their

Reconstructing corruption to spur growth

Reconstructing corruption to spur growth

Nigeria was once a land of promise. The nation was the world’s leading source of cotton, the largest producer of oil and a major exporter of peanuts.1 Naturally, Nigeria was tipped to become a leading African power. But that potential was never realised. Since 2014, Nigeria’s growth

A tough balancing act

A tough balancing act

What’s a poor man like Joe Hockey to do, when the forces of demography are arrayed against him? Australia has an ageing population – welfare spending is bound to rise. The only ways forward are to cut or to tax. Joe wipes away the sweat on his brow with his

Your economics education: how to travel the path to enlightenment, rather than the road to hell

benefit of education

Your economics education: how to travel the path to enlightenment, rather than the road to hell

Economics students around the globe have clamoured in recent years that Something Be Done about the way economics is taught (see, for example, http://www.rethinkeconomics.org/). The basic message is that economics, as usually taught to undergraduates, does not accurately depict the real world – an assertion that is self-evidently

Rock and roll, I gave you the best years of my life

Rock and roll, I gave you the best years of my life

There is a classic Australian hit song from 1973 called ‘Rock & Roll, I gave you the best years of my life’. Kevin Johnson was the artist. You can see it on Youtube. I some times like to invert it and call it ‘Economics, I gave you the best years of

The value of tertiary education

The value of tertiary education

The recent Australian budget proposal to deregulate university fees, and possibly raise them, has ignited debate about whether tertiary education is still valuable. With unemployment increasing, is it still feasible to incur large debts just to get a university education? This article will argue that there is still great value

Resuscitating economics in the high schools

Resuscitating economics in the high schools

Universities are in a state of flux and they are strategically reweighting their priorities in the current funding environment. This has adversely impacted on the availability economics courses and subjects – the latest cuts at La Trobe are a case in point. We must also acknowledge that in competitive student markets

Economic pluralism part 1: why students benefit

Economic pluralism part 1: why students benefit

Two weeks ago I had the privilege of attending a conference held to mark the retirement of Professor John King of La Trobe University. One of the themes of the conference was pluralism in economics. Many economists from Australian and overseas universities spoke about the benefits of incorporating alternative political

The rationality of procrastination

It is clear that students are the masters of not getting things done. When the semester settles in, students often find themselves buried in work. Instead of starting an essay we might decide to watch an extra episode of our favourite show. This eventually turns into a whole season in

Editors' Picks - October 27, 2013

Editors' Picks - October 27, 2013

This week in Editor’s Picks we take a look at the real relationship between GDP and happiness, a student movement to challenge contemporary economic theory, student migration, cash payments to alleviate poverty and the impact of uncertainty on markets. Growth, what is it good for if it brings little

Why study economics?

Why study economics?

Republished from The Australian, by John Lodewijks, University of Western Sydney WHY does a case for economics need to be made in the first place? Surely economics is the foundation discipline for studies in business, finance, accounting and related fields. Acknowledged as the queen of the social sciences, the scientific