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March 29, 2024, 05:33:17 pm

Author Topic: Economics Honours Breadths  (Read 10991 times)  Share 

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TJL

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Economics Honours Breadths
« on: January 27, 2016, 06:21:30 pm »
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Hi,

Just wondering if anyone has any good breadths to recommend for someone hoping to eventually complete an economics honours. I heard that Real Analysis was a useful breadth to have but if I were to do it, then I'll only have one more L2/3 breadth slot left since I'd have to do Calc 1, Calc 2, Linear and then RA.

I've read on the subject reviews forum that RA is really well-taught but really tough as well.

My question here is if RA is the best breadth you could do to prep for an honors in econs or if there are better subjects to consider which might be more helpful.

PS. If i don't spend my breadths on math subjects, I reckon that i would go for arts-related, multidisciplinary or uni-wide breadths (eg. Philo, Politics and Eco/ Generating the Wealth of Nations/Logic and Language etc)

Thanks for taking the time to read folks and any type of help would be most appreciated :)

clueless123

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Re: Economics Honours Breadths
« Reply #1 on: January 27, 2016, 07:08:36 pm »
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It is an 'official department recommendation' for students intending to take honours to do Real Analysis.
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Gentoo

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Re: Economics Honours Breadths
« Reply #2 on: January 27, 2016, 08:12:07 pm »
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(also potentially looking at Eco honours here)

How strongly recommended is RA? When I was talking to a BCom course planner, they didn't mention anything about doing Calc 2 --> Linear Algebra --> RA as breadth in undergrad in preparation for honours. =/ Is it pretty much essential?

EDIT: I also can't seem to find information on this online. urgh :(
« Last Edit: January 27, 2016, 08:16:04 pm by Gentoo »

clueless123

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Re: Economics Honours Breadths
« Reply #3 on: January 27, 2016, 09:24:21 pm »
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The information is not online. (weird I know)

"It is an official department recommendation to study RA" was on the first slide of my 3rd year micro lectures, due to the proofs required at an honours level. (I don't have my lecture slides with me so I can't upload)
 
Here is a  snippet of the document we received pre-honours regarding the level of calculus you need. (I tried to attach a picture but it doesn't work for some reason..)

"Advanced Micro will extensively use calculus and will be much more rigorous than the subjects in the first three years. Even though we still care about economics in Advanced Micro and do not care about math in itself, math is the main language of economics (that statement goes beyond Advanced Micro) and one of our goals in Advanced Micro is to make you comfortable using this language.
In calculus, almost everyone knows how to take a derivative, calculate first order conditions or integrate. However, these skills may be somewhat rusty. Unfortunately, in the lectures we will not have time to go through the calculations step-by-step.
Most students aren't very comfortable with derivatives that may take 1-2 pages of algebra to solve. So some calculus practice is recommended before starting the semester. Students should feel comfortable using the product/chain/quotient rule for functions that are large and unwieldy. My best advice here is practice, practice, and practice. Grab a methods textbook or Google calculus problems and get cracking. Exactly the same thing applies to integrals: we will use the fundamental theorem of calculus, chain rules, substitutions, integration by parts, etc. and this may occasionally involve functions with more than one variable.
Later in the semester, we will use the implicit function theorem. Again, although it will be mentioned what it is and how to use it, we will not spend time practicing using it. "
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Gentoo

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Re: Economics Honours Breadths
« Reply #4 on: January 27, 2016, 09:28:55 pm »
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Thanks so much for that! :)

TJL

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Re: Economics Honours Breadths
« Reply #5 on: January 28, 2016, 04:11:25 am »
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Yeah thanks for the info clueless123! I reckon you're doing your honours right now?

If so, (and hopefully it's not too out of topic) do you have any econ L2/3 mods to recommend? Some that I'm currently considering are:

ECON20005 Competition and Strategy,
ECON30022 Experimental Economics
ECON30019 Behavioural Economics
ECOM30004 Time Series Analysis and Forecasting

Thanks once again for the info on RA!

clueless123

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Re: Economics Honours Breadths
« Reply #6 on: January 28, 2016, 07:59:09 am »
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ECON20005 Competition and Strategy -> amazing, must take if you like game theory
ECOM30004 Time Series Analysis and Forecasting -> haven't taken, heard its hard but rewarding

Haven't had much interaction with the other two subjects.
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Gentoo

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Re: Economics Honours Breadths
« Reply #7 on: January 28, 2016, 11:42:30 am »
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If it helps, I know a guy doing his Masters who did both Behavioural and Experimental Economics, and he said they were really good.

Also, while I haven't done it, I'm really looking forward to Sports Economics (2nd sem 2nd year).
« Last Edit: January 28, 2016, 11:47:03 am by Gentoo »

notveryasian

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Re: Economics Honours Breadths
« Reply #8 on: January 28, 2016, 04:08:49 pm »
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ECON20005 Competition and Strategy -> amazing, must take if you like game theory
ECOM30004 Time Series Analysis and Forecasting -> haven't taken, heard its hard but rewarding

Haven't had much interaction with the other two subjects.

Having just taken ECON20005 last year, the subject syllabus has changed slightly, with more of a focus towards the qualitative aspects of game theory and much less quantitative work. There is a subject review up that mirrors my thoughts on the subject, there are some areas of the course which are incredibly dry and nothing more than common sense. As least in the year that I did it in, I regret taking the subject.

They've replaced the lecturer for 2016, but be careful when choosing this subject as it has had a great reputation in the past and may not live up to the hype.
2014-2017: Bcom (Economics/Finance), Dip Maths (Discrete Maths and Operations Research) at Unimelb

clueless123

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Re: Economics Honours Breadths
« Reply #9 on: January 28, 2016, 06:38:30 pm »
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Having just taken ECON20005 last year, the subject syllabus has changed slightly, with more of a focus towards the qualitative aspects of game theory and much less quantitative work. There is a subject review up that mirrors my thoughts on the subject, there are some areas of the course which are incredibly dry and nothing more than common sense. As least in the year that I did it in, I regret taking the subject.

They've replaced the lecturer for 2016, but be careful when choosing this subject as it has had a great reputation in the past and may not live up to the hype.

The 2016 syllabus is the same as 2014 (my year). 2015 was poorly received and scrapped.
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notveryasian

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Re: Economics Honours Breadths
« Reply #10 on: January 28, 2016, 06:49:41 pm »
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The 2016 syllabus is the same as 2014 (my year). 2015 was poorly received and scrapped.

That's really good to hear, such a shame my year couldn't experience the old syllabus.  :(
2014-2017: Bcom (Economics/Finance), Dip Maths (Discrete Maths and Operations Research) at Unimelb

TJL

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Re: Economics Honours Breadths
« Reply #11 on: February 02, 2016, 10:33:23 am »
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That's really good to hear! The econs electives all sound pretty well-taught!

On the verge of going slightly off-topic, do you guys reckon that the breadth and elective subjects affected your chances at getting into honours?

I mean in addition to looking at your WAM and grades for your compulsory L3s, would the department on seeing that you've done RA for instance give you preference over someone who did philo?

And also, did anyone have a hard choice deciding between a finance or econs honours?

Gentoo

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Re: Economics Honours Breadths
« Reply #12 on: February 02, 2016, 11:09:24 am »
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I'm pretty sure the selection process is just a mechanical "who has the higher average of the 3 level-3 major subjects" without any qualitative component to it. WAM is irrelevant.
« Last Edit: February 02, 2016, 11:11:10 am by Gentoo »

TJL

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Re: Economics Honours Breadths
« Reply #13 on: February 02, 2016, 05:53:16 pm »
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Oh that's great to hear! This is really going off topic but it's not a very wise choice to do Intro Macro, Inter Micro and Intro Eco in the same semester?

Gentoo

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Re: Economics Honours Breadths
« Reply #14 on: February 03, 2016, 09:09:20 pm »
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It's not something that anybody really does, but since it's possible, there wouldn't be any specific reason against it. It's just that you'd ideally be doing Macro sem 2 first year and inter micro/intro econometrics 1st sem 2nd year.