Famous People who Studied Economics
Compiled By Surjit Singha
Economics is the study of how societies, governments, businesses, households, and individuals allocate their scarce resources. Economists are well known for recommending the policymakers on various economic issues, for formulating policies, analysis of the economic conditions of the country and business, banks, real estate companies, private sector businesses. They contribute to the development of various public policies which includes health care, welfare, reformation in education, efforts to reduce inequality, pollution, and crime. It is a subject that teaches us about the concepts related to markets, finance, principles of business, banking, money and the working of our economy.
B.A. Economics
It is a course focused on the core fundamentals of Economics, its theories, and applications. It covers both qualitative and quantitative courses in Economics like Microeconomics, Macroeconomics, Econometrics, Economic Statistics, History of Economics, Indian Economy, etc.
Career Options after B.A Economics
The scope of economics honours is vast, the possible career options available are:
1. Actuarial Science
Actuarial science is an emerging career option amongst Economics graduates. In simple terms, it is the study of risks. Businesses rely on risk management for the process of decision-making and safeguarding their future against uncertainties. An actuary uses mathematical skills and statistical methods to determine risk in finance, insurance, and other areas. The practical and analytical knowledge embedded in Economics will help you perform in this field with utmost proficiency.
2. Finance
The curriculum of Economics harnesses skills of financial intellect and understanding. If you love Finance and Banking, then you can pursue MBA in Finance and Banking or an M.A in finance or a Chartered Financial Analyst certification after graduating.
3. Indian Economic Services (IES)
Aspirants of civil services who have a fair knowledge of Economics can aim for IES. Economists in this sector play a part in the creation and implementation of development policy and programmes, besides dealing with other areas such as economic reforms, regulation, price fixation, and monitoring.
4. Law
The combined knowledge of both Economics and Law makes you suitable for careers in corporate law, market research, and public policy. After completing your graduation in Economics, you can go forward with an additional degree in Law.
5. Economics and Its Related Disciplines
During your studies, you will be studying various topics and you may specialize in any of these interdisciplinary fields:
Agricultural Economics
Financial Economics
Labour Economics
Industrial Economics
International Economics
Business Economics
Banking Economics
Environmental Economics
Developmental Economics
Econometrics
6. Rural Development and Public Policy
The aim of this field is to improve the economic conditions of farmers and marginal groups by implementing changes in public policy. The study of the Indian economy and its operations makes an Economics graduate well equipped to deal with such situations and makes it a perfect career option.
7. Management
A degree in economics coupled with an MBA opens up doors in various domains of management, including sales, marketing, public relations, human resource management, operations, etc.
8. Consulting
A lot of consultancy firms hire Economics graduates as economic advisors to their firms. An economic advisor conducts research, prepares reports, and formulates plans to address economic problems. Problems are mostly related to the production and distribution of goods and services, monetary and fiscal policy.
Famous People who studied Economics
ARNOLD SCHWARZENEGGER
Majored in Economics at the University of Wisconsin, Arnold Alois Schwarzenegger (born July 30, 1947) is an Austrian-American actor, filmmaker, businessman, author, philanthropist, activist, politician, and former professional bodybuilder and powerlifter. He served as the 38th Governor of California, from 2003 to 2011.
Schwarzenegger began lifting weights at the age of 15. He won the Mr. Universe title at age 20 and went on to win the Mr. Olympia contest seven times, remaining a prominent presence in bodybuilding and writing many books and articles on the sport. The Arnold Sports Festival considered the second most important professional bodybuilding event in recent years, is named after him. He is widely considered to be one of the greatest bodybuilders of all-time, as well as the sport’s most charismatic ambassador.
Schwarzenegger gained worldwide fame as a Hollywood action film icon. His breakthrough film was the sword-and-sorcery epic Conan the Barbarian in 1982, a box-office hit that resulted in a sequel. In 1984, he appeared in the title role of James Cameron’s critically and commercially successful science-fiction thriller film The Terminator. He subsequently played a similar Terminator character in most of the franchise’s later installments, Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991), Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines (2003), and Terminator Genisys (2015). He has appeared in a number of other successful films, such as Commando (1985), The Running Man (1987), Predator (1987), Twins (1988), Total Recall (1990), Kindergarten Cop (1990), and True Lies (1994).
PAUL NEWMAN
Studied Economics at Kenyon College, Paul Leonard Newman (January 26, 1925 – September 26, 2008) was an American actor, film director, producer, race car driver, IndyCar owner, entrepreneur, and philanthropist. He won and was nominated for numerous awards, winning an Oscar for his performance in the 1986 film The Color of Money, a BAFTA Award, a Screen Actors Guild Award, a Cannes Film Festival Award, an Emmy Award, and many others. Newman’s other roles include the title characters in The Hustler (1961), Hud (1963), Harper (1966) and Cool Hand Luke (1967), as well as Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969), The Life and Times of Judge Roy Bean (1972), The Sting (1973), Slap Shot (1977), and The Verdict (1982). He voiced Doc Hudson in the first instalment of Disney-Pixar’s Cars as his final acting performance, with voice recordings being used in Cars 3 (2017).
Newman won several national championships as a driver in Sports Car Club of America road racing, and his race teams won several championships in open wheel IndyCar racing. He was a co-founder of Newman’s Own, a food company from which he donated all post-tax profits and royalties to charity. As of November 2018, these donations have totaled over US$535 million. He was a co-founder of Safe Water Network, a nonprofit that develops sustainable drinking water solutions for those in need.
In 1988, Newman founded the SeriousFun Children’s Network, a global family of summer camps and programs for children with a serious illness which has served 290,076 children since its inception.
DONALD TRUMP
Donald John Trump (born June 14, 1946) is the 45th and current president of the United States. Before entering politics, he was a businessman and television personality.
Trump was born and raised in the New York City borough of Queens and received an economics degree from the Wharton School. He was appointed the president of his family’s real estate business in 1971, renamed it The Trump Organization, and expanded it from Queens and Brooklyn into Manhattan. The company built or renovated skyscrapers, hotels, casinos, and golf courses. Trump later started various side ventures, including licensing his name for real estate and consumer products. He managed the company until his 2017 inauguration. He co-authored several books, including The Art of the Deal. He owned the Miss Universe and Miss USA beauty pageants from 1996 to 2015, and he produced and hosted The Apprentice, a reality television show, from 2003 to 2015. Forbes estimates his net worth to be $3.1 billion.
RONALD REAGAN
Ronald Wilson Reagan (February 6, 1911 – June 5, 2004) was an American politician who served as the 40th president of the United States from 1981 to 1989. Prior to his presidency, he was a Hollywood actor and union leader before serving as the 33rd governor of California from 1967 to 1975.
Reagan was raised in a poor family in small towns of northern Illinois. He graduated in economics from Eureka College in 1932 and worked as a sports announcer on several regional radio stations. After moving to California in 1937, he found work as an actor and starred in a few major productions. Reagan was twice elected President of the Screen Actors Guild—the labor union for actors—where he worked to root out Communist influence. In the 1950s, he moved into television and was a motivational speaker at General Electric factories. Reagan had been a Democrat until 1962 when he became a conservative and switched to the Republican Party. In 1964, Reagan’s speech, “A Time for Choosing”, supported Barry Goldwater’s foundering presidential campaign and earned him national attention as a new conservative spokesman. Building a network of supporters, he was elected governor of California in 1966. As governor, Reagan raised taxes, turned a state budget deficit to a surplus, challenged the protesters at the University of California, ordered in National Guard troops during a period of protest movements in 1969, and was re-elected in 1970. He twice ran unsuccessfully for the Republican presidential nomination, in 1968 and 1976. Four years later in 1980, he won the nomination and then defeated incumbent president Jimmy Carter.
KOFI ANNAN
Kofi Atta Annan (8 April 1938 – 18 August 2018) was a Ghanaian diplomat who served as the seventh Secretary-General of the United Nations from January 1997 to December 2006. Annan and the UN were the co-recipients of the 2001 Nobel Peace Prize. He was the founder and chairman of the Kofi Annan Foundation, as well as chairman of The Elders, an international organization founded by Nelson Mandela.
Annan studied economics at Macalester College, international relations at the Graduate Institute Geneva, and management at MIT. Annan joined the UN in 1962, working for the World Health Organization’s Geneva office. He went on to work in several capacities at the UN Headquarters including serving as the Under-Secretary-General for peacekeeping between March 1992 and December 1996. He was appointed the Secretary-General on 13 December 1996 by the Security Council and later confirmed by the General Assembly, making him the first officeholder to be elected from the UN staff itself. He was re-elected for a second term in 2001 and was succeeded as Secretary-General by Ban Ki-moon on 1 January 2007.
WARREN BUFFETT
Warren Edward Buffett (born August 30, 1930) is an American business magnate, investor, speaker and philanthropist who serves as the chairman and CEO of Berkshire Hathaway. He is considered one of the most successful investors in the world and has a net worth of US$82.5 billion as of March 9, 2019, making him the third-wealthiest person in the world.
Buffett was born in Omaha, Nebraska. He developed an interest in business and investing in his youth, eventually entering the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania in 1947 before transferring and graduating from the University of Nebraska at the age of 19. He went on to graduate from Columbia Business School, where he molded his investment philosophy around the concept of value investing that was pioneered by Benjamin Graham. He attended New York Institute of Finance to focus his economics background and soon after began various business partnerships, including one with Graham. He created Buffett Partnership, Ltd in 1956 and his firm eventually acquired a textile manufacturing firm called Berkshire Hathaway and assumed its name to create a diversified holding company. In 1978, Charlie Munger joined Buffett and became vice president of the company.
MANMOHAN SINGH
Manmohan Singh (born 26 September 1932) is an Indian economist and politician who served as the Prime Minister of India from 2004 to 2014. The first Sikh in office, Singh was also the first prime minister since Jawaharlal Nehru to be re-elected after completing a full five-year term.
Born in Gah (now in Punjab, Pakistan), Singh’s family migrated to India during its partition in 1947. After obtaining his doctorate in economics from Oxford, Singh worked for the United Nations during 1966–69. He subsequently began his bureaucratic career when Lalit Narayan Mishra hired him as an advisor in the Ministry of Commerce and Industry. Over the 70s and 80s, Singh held several key posts in the Government of India, such as Chief Economic Advisor (1972–76), Reserve Bank governor (1982–85) and Planning Commission head (1985–87).
In 1991, as India faced a severe economic crisis, newly elected Prime Minister P. V. Narasimha Rao surprisingly inducted the apolitical Singh into his cabinet as Finance Minister. Over the next few years, despite strong opposition, he as a Finance Minister carried out several structural reforms that liberalized India’s economy. Although these measures proved successful in averting the crisis and enhanced Singh’s reputation globally as a leading reform-minded economist.
Popular University and Institute who provides courses in Economics
Massachusetts Institute of Technology, United States
Ranked 1st in the world for economics in 2017 by the QS rankings, MIT has a renowned undergraduate and graduate program for economics. Senior professors teach introductory courses to incoming undergraduates and are encouraged to develop their research skills with programs like the Undergraduate Research Opportunities Program which connects them to a network of graduate students and faculty members. MIT’s student body is 34% international and their graduates are often employed by international and national organizations making it a highly desirable university for students across the globe.
Harvard University, United States
Ranked 2nd in the world for Economics, Harvard has produced a number of Economics Nobel Laureates. The department sponsors more than 15 seminars a week on a range of topics in Economics from top international and American scholars. The university hosted 9,851 international students in 2016-2017 and truly attracts talent from around the world with their international students heralding from 153 countries.
Eager to attract global students and academics, their international office offers a wide range of services such as employment, visa, and tax help. Their host program, which matches up international graduate students and Boston residents, has been helping students get to know their new home since 1962.
Harvard University offers a range of internships and research assistant positions to undergraduate economics students as well as funding opportunities for research.
London School of Economics and Political Science, United Kingdom
Hosting one of the largest Economics departments in the world, the London School of Economics and Political Science is ranked first in the United Kingdom and 5th in the world for Economics.
A truly international experience, LSE’s student body is 71% international and the campus is located in the heart of the metropolitan city of this highly diverse capital ensuring a uniquely international experience.
LSE supports its international students with a student visa advice team to help some of the world’s most talented students sift through the paperwork and begin their studies. The Economics’ department’s research is often focused on global issues such as climate change and economic development making it a wonderful fit for economists looking for a global perspective.
University of Oxford, United Kingdom
Ranked 7th in the world for their Economics program, Oxford welcomed their first international student in 1190 and today has an international student population of 38%.
Looking to promote an even playing field for emerging talent, the international student application route is exactly the same as it is for UK students. International students do receive immigration services support as well as help arranging interviews, course admission tests, and English evaluation.
Members of their Economics Department serve as officials and advisers to numerous international and national organizations and committees. In the most recent UK Research Assessment, REF 2014, Oxford was ranked top in terms of overall research strength, with more research output graded as world-leading in terms of its originality, rigor and significance than did any other economics department in the United Kingdom
Kristu Jayanti College (Autonomous), Bangalore, India
The Department of Economics offers BA (Economics, History and Political Science) and MA Economics courses. Kristu Jayanti College, founded in 1999, is managed by “BODHI NIKETAN TRUST”, formed by the members of St. Joseph Province of the Carmelites of Mary Immaculate (CMI). The college is affiliated to Bangalore University and is reaccredited with highest grade ‘A’ by NAAC in Second Cycle of Accreditation. The college is recognized by UGC under the category 2(f) & 12(B). The college was accorded autonomous status from 2013 by the University Grants Commission, Government of Karnataka & the Bangalore University. For its contribution in the field of education, Kristu Jayanti College was recently given the Heroes of Bengaluru award. In the India Today – MDRA survey 2018 the college is ranked 5th Best BCA, 13th Best MSW, 15th Best BBA, 16th Best Commerce, 18th Best Arts and 26th Best Science College in India. The College also ranked 2nd Best in BCA & MSW, 3rd best in Commerce, 4th Best in Arts & BBA and 5th best in Science among the colleges in Bengaluru.
The institution strives to fulfil its mission to provide educational opportunities to all aspiring youth to excel in life by developing academic excellence, fostering values, creating civic responsibility and building global competencies in a dynamic environment.
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