Samuel Elerdini
Originally from a multicultural background, and born
in Switzerland, Samuel currently studies Economics, Politics and
International Relations at Lancaster University.
He is a passionate individual, and iscurrently involved with
RES to share his knowledge among young people and
allow them to discover Economics from a different
perspective.
Why did you choose to study economics?
Have you ever been in a situation where you found yourself stuck between deciding
whether to buy one product over another? Have you perhaps asked yourself why we
simply cannot print money and make everyone better off? Why do we store our money
with a bank and why do they always “win”? Would you be willing to forego consuming
your favourite meal today and benefit from the utility of buying a house tomorrow?
From individual decisions to very large corporate deals, this is economics, this is why
I chose to study economics.
How would you describe economics?
Economics is a dynamic subject. Whether drawing analyses from the UK or a
developing country, it looks at viewpoints such as how to optimise and transfer to a
green economy over to effectively reducing inequality and poverty. Economics is
Finance and History combined. Economics deals with statistics, and useful to interpret
them. Economics is looking at how to optimise the provision of healthcare, whether
this involves equipment or staff. Economics considers a broad viewpoint and is
important to decision-makers in order to weigh what the best possible outcome could
be, for individuals, firms or even the government.
If you had a time machine and could meet your 16-year-old self, what advice would you give them?
Be curious! My initial approach towards Economics was in a foreign language
(French in my case) and this somehow created a sense of being afraid to use
economic terms. Hence, I would make sure to not feel thrown off by technical or
different terms that are commonly used in a daily life of someone studying
Economics.
What is your favourite part of economics?
From an experience point-of-view, I just think it is amazing how a simple experience
such as deciding whether to buy product A or B make an individual, in broad terms
speaking, an economist. With particular interest in the macroeconomics, however, I
enjoy thoroughly examining economic drivers that lead to policy proposals.
Is there anything you would do differently if you had the chance?
Frankly, I began to enjoy economics even more at university owing to lecturers that delivered
particular topics. Nevertheless, I believe I could have benefitted from building a stronger
economic foundation. Knowing that it does not only involve maths, but also the process of
gathering data online, create graphs and make forecasts, would have been useful to help me
understand how economics is really applied in a daily life routine.