It was obvious to my understanding that to have an omnipotent impact on society, I must pursue
a career in economics. Even though I overlooked business subjects during my O levels I still had
an opportunity to grasp the fundamentals of economics during my A levels, more importantly, I
took the responsibility of such passion within my hands and decided to dive into this captivating
field of study on my own.
Initially, I was a bit sceptical of my actions, however, my scepticism turned into amazement
when I discovered the world of free university-level courses designed by leading institutes and
their academics. Coursera was my new obsession where I was able to equip myself with the
necessary knowledge and skillsets that would help me succeed in my desired major. I started off
with the course on the economics of money and banking offered by Columbia University. My
instructor for this free online course was Professor Perry G merling, who introduced me to the
processes that go into the hierarchy of financial institutes, the instruments of control, the
dynamics that take place in making these financial institutions, and how to sustain these
hierarchies through national and federal banking systems. Later in the course, I also learned
about how the management of money takes place in the grand scheme of things which provided
me with the essential knowledge that would prove to be the foundation upon which I shall further
develop my skills.
By establishing the groundbreaking framework of how the money and banking system works, I
sensed that there is still a final piece of the puzzle missing that would give me a clear picture of
something magnificent. That final piece of the puzzle was the amalgamation of human behaviour
that would lead to the decision-making mechanism and effects on the economic landscape as a
whole. Therefore by following my intuition I looked up to the world of the internet and found
other incredible courses about behavioural economics. One of which was behavioural finance
offered by Duke University under the instructor Emma Rasiel and the second was
microeconomics offered by the University of Pennsylvania under the instructor Rebecca Stein.
The idea was to fully immerse me in the world of economics and to make the most of the
resources I provide myself with. After 8 weeks I was finally able to see the big picture including
how our daily decisions get influenced by the factors of the supply and demand mechanism to
the innate mental makeup of the brain that allows us to rationalize finances and to have a
cognitive bias which would cloud our decision-making ability and harm the predictability to
optimize the financial market.
Like the camel who takes the responsibility of the desert wanderer on his back and speeds
through the sandy mountains, I too take the responsibility for the financial crises that happened
over a decade, businesses shut down due to poor management strategies, and awful analytic
optimizing methods. My ambition is to find the cure for such a curse through the act of doing
righteous economics for which I must seek the best university in my ability. Therefore LUMS is
my only priority for such a subject. I’m certain that LUMS will not only provide me with the
right guidance to fulfil my responsibility but also provide me with the best environment and
facilities as well.
I’m also looking forward to studying under Dr Syed Ali Hasanain, a leading economist of
Pakistan, and an extremely respected researcher in this field, who has written many collaborative
research papers among which is of Stanford University on data and policy decisions where they
conclude that technology can mobilize data to a useful outcome even at a low capacity setting.
Moreover, Dr Hasanain has published papers on my favourite interrelated topics such as trust and
power as determinants of tax compliance and political identity. By securing a position at LUMS
economics stream I will be a sponge to absorb the wisdom of professors like Syed Ali Hasnain
and produce quality research myself in the field of behavioural economics during my undergrad
years and beyond in my pursuit of masters and PhD degrees.