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Behavioral Economics Vs Applied Economics in UCD

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  • 14-01-2018 1:51pm
    #1
    Cliffordthedog
    Registered Users Posts: 4 ✭


    Hello all, I've been looking at signing up for a masters and want to see how both courses compare.

    Behavioral Econ seems to have a more interesting theoretical subject matter but you are obligated to do a thesis at the end which doesn't interest me too much. I'm also not sure how employers would perceive a theory based degree, does it look worse than applied economics?

    Applied Econ seems more mechanics focused, generally being more maths based, which I am very able at, but the opportunity to do a internship in the third semester is a major bonus.

    Both degrees are in UCD, this is a new account so I am unable to post the links to the course structure.

    Anyone do either degree or know of a better economics degree?


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    #2
    andrew
    Moderators, Science, Health & Environment Moderators, Society & Culture Moderators Posts: 3,372 Mod ✭✭✭✭andrew


    Some thoughts:
    If you don't like the idea of a thesis, then that would seem to imply that you don't like doing economic research - which is what many people who get an Msc. do, at least in some form. I'm not saying Msc. grads are writing papers all day, but if you don't like the idea of a thesis, then you might not like the jobs that an Msc. would make available to you.

    In my view, the behavioural economics course is no less theory based than the behavioural one; behavioural economics mostly just involves doing consumer micro with novel/different utility functions. Behavioural implies practical but that's not actually the case.

    IMO employers of Economists would generally prefer someone with a broad understanding of economics (i.e. not just behavioural) and in particular a good foundation in Econometrics, so unless you want to do a job which specifically involves behavioural economics then you definitely wouldn't be at an advantage and may be at a disadvantage.

    The applied econ one seems to give you much more choice in the second term, which is probably a good thing. In fact the behavioural one seems to be almost identical the applied one, but with macro taken out and a psychology course thrown in in your first term.

    I'm biased but if you want to be a good economist then I think you need a very solid base-line knowledge of advanced Econ, for which I'd recommend the TCD Msc. You have pretty much no choice in terms of modules, but in my view with a good base-line knowledge you could easily pick up any of the ancillary modules which UCD offers in its second term.


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