Thinking Like An Economist

As a Computer Science student, I found many other areas of study fascinating. During the many holidays throughout my education thus far, I had taken various introductory-level courses in disciplines such as Psychology, Philosophy, and Economics. There are just subjects that make an interesting read (or, if you are watching online lecture series like I often do, a delightful binge) and are closer to our lives. This year I decided to take a general education module called “Thinking Like An Economist”, and here are my thoughts after my first week.

The concept of “humans respond to incentives” cannot be said enough. We behave in many ways following incentives planted by the government or resulted from the natural course of things. Therefore, anyone who wishes to manipulate or nudge the public into doing something, whether good or bad, should heel a piece of economists’ advice on how to do it properly.

Change is hard to induce, even with incentives. The problem with incentives is that it may backfire. You have examples of cheating among teachers when they were told that their bonuses were tied to their students’ performance. Or, you have a higher child accident rate when the government made car seats required in aircraft, thereby incurring extra payment to purchase a ticket on a flight for children (long story short, people might be compelled to travel by car, which is more…