Economics & Management Personal Statement

Being born and brought up in a country where an uneven distribution of income is a norm, the
poor live on a minimum wage of Rupees 115 a day, whilst the billionaires form the sixth
largest group in the world. This vast contrast between the rich and the poor has always
intrigued me and I have often questioned how this economy India, functions with such
instability and chaos.

These conflicts have lead me to develop a keen interest in Economics. I often examine the
fluctuating exchange rates of India in comparison to other nations and most recently, I have
come to an understanding of how these economies work aided by knowledge of the subject through
my studies of Economics, Business and Management and Mathematics at the Higher Level in the
International Baccalaureate.

My interest in Mathematics and Management has risen from my childhood and continues to add to
my current experiences and knowledge in both subjects. Having been brought up in a family
where my uncle, also my role model owning a company called ___ have been constantly giving me
an insight about how he managed his business and fixated me on Economic Times, Property world
newspapers and Time magazines to keep myself updated on current affairs. I enjoy reading about
the prevalence of economic theories in all fields of today's world. Theories such as the Game
theory and Nash Equilibrium have aroused interests in me as they have contributed to enhancing
my strategizing and decision-making abilities.

In order to enhance my interest I undertook an unpaid internship at a German retail venture,
___ Home studio, which dealt with wardrobes, kitchens, bedrooms, etc. I learnt the art of
various financial book-keeping methods, strategic marketing opportunities, communication
skills, exchange rates, import tariffs, etc. Hence, learning how to apply and correlate
Economics and Management theories in real life. I also volunteered to raise money for
underprivileged schools with their funds in order to operate on a daily basis my
determination, perseverance and, leadership have helped me acquire these means through a
process of producing compost by accumulating superfluous food and churning them in compost
machines in order to be sold after a period of 30 days. This was set about in order to promote
a healthy environment in addition to providing for and promoting the need of education for the
underprivileged children of my society.

I enjoy reading books and one book that stood out to me was "Development as Freedom", by the
great Indian Economist and Nobel Laureate, in which he challenges and questions most concepts,
this kindled and motivated my interest in economics because he used common economic theories
involving the connection between money and welfare and he added an ethical insight to the
world of Economics involving a balance of philosophy and economical perspicacity. Apart from
this I enjoy swimming, dancing and nature and fashion photography.

I believe at the university level I will be able to strengthen my understanding towards
Economics and management and in today's world with all the instability; the need for Economic
knowledge is reinforced. Since the United Kingdom is a reputed business centre of the world, I
aspire to study and work in that environment to persevere in the ever-changing world of
Economics. I believe that my passion for Economics and Management is going to be amplified
whilst being around students who share the same passion, who can encourage me to be
competitive and someday, put forward theories of my own.

Economics (+statistics) personal statement

Living in a time of immense economic uncertainty has sparked my curiosity to explain the
rationale of consumers, firms and governments. The severity of vast global problems, from
financial crisis to poverty, has also attracted me to Economics: a subject relevant now more
than ever to the prosperity of all societies. I want to complement this with a fluency in
Mathematics, to lay sound foundations for analysing economies and financial markets.

Due to my growing interest, I am teaching myself Economics A-level in my gap year, alongside
Further Mathematics, to explore the quantitative methods which make economic theory more
rigorous. The logic and ingenuity of Mathematics in solving problems strongly appeals to me,
and I thoroughly enjoy learning new and applicable concepts. I am particularly keen to study
Statistics, as it can clarify economic phenomena by deriving and testing models with data.
During my internship at Brevan Howard Asset Management, I saw its practical importance in
asset and risk evaluation, which has become so prominent with the recent financial crisis. I
even related it to my Mathematics A-level, as Gaussian distributions are assumed in stochastic
models for asset pricing. Curious to learn more, I read Taleb's 'The Black Swan'. Seeing how
models may fail to predict rare and devastating events has compelled me to learn how
Statistics evolves to provide more accurate analysis in volatile markets. Moreover, the
synergy of economic and financial principles in trading decisions has made me excited to study
them with quantitative techniques.

An approach to Economics that intrigues me is game theory and I relish its mathematical
elegance and usefulness. I am fascinated by the incentives and strategies of firms, and
curious as to whether these produce optimal payoffs in reality due to bounded and biased
rationality. Researching these ubiquitous concepts has made me passionate to analyse strategic
choice in markets, to better grasp the logic of the economic decisions around us.

I have pursued my interest in current economic affairs by reading Paul Krugman's online blog.
My curiosity has driven me to question the Keynesian policies he advocates and the contrasting
fiscal austerity widely implemented today. Attending the LSE public lecture on UNCTAD fuelled
my fascination with inequality, absorbing for its role in the Eurozone crisis and in poverty -
evidence of the diversity of economic problems. From Sen's 'Development as Freedom', I
realised that the issues underlying poverty, like income inequality and capability
deprivation, are multidimensional and must be tackled with political, social and economic
principles. I practised this at school through Model UN, where I researched, analysed and
constructed logical arguments for growth and development, winning prizes at international
summits. This strengthened my enthusiasm and skills for learning how economic policies can
solve global problems.

My gap year internships will complement my study with a strong awareness of Economics in
society. At Griffins' Insolvency Practitioners I will see the practical sides of business,
finance and accounting and the effect of the lack of credit and economic growth on firms. At
the think tank 'Reform' I will assess government policies and their impact on the public
sector and the wider economy. Contributing my research to papers for publication will require
the analytical and essay-writing skills I gained from my A-levels, as well as communication
and organisation skills I honed in positions of responsibility at school. I hope to transfer
these skills to my degree and to clubs and societies at university. Playing county tennis and
teaching myself classical guitar also gives me a work-life balance.

Through my exciting internships and motivated self-study, I have been committed to engaging
with Economics and Mathematics both in theory and in practice, to deepen my passion and skills
for these subjects in preparation for my degree.

Дата добавления: 2015-10-31