1. Economics

Economics is the study of how societies allocate scarce resources, make decisions under uncertainty, and coordinate activity across individuals, firms, and nations. It sits at the intersection of mathematics, behavioural science, history, and policy — a discipline that is both rigorously quantitative and inescapably human.

1.1 Overview

The field spans a wide range of scales and perspectives. At the broadest level, macroeconomics examines the aggregate behaviour of economies: how output grows, why unemployment persists, what drives inflation, and how monetary and fiscal authorities can respond to shocks. At the other end of the spectrum, microeconomics focuses on the choices of individual agents — how consumers optimise utility, how firms set prices, and how markets produce outcomes that are efficient or, frequently, not.

Connecting both levels are questions that are more naturally international in character. Exchange rates, capital flows, trade balances, and cross-border investment decisions cannot be understood by looking at any single country in isolation. The rise of global financial markets has made these interconnections deeper and faster-moving than at any prior point in history, elevating topics like international monetary economics and global macrofinance from academic curiosities to practical essentials for investors, policymakers, and risk managers alike.

This section approaches economics from the perspective of finance and quantitative analysis. We are interested in the theories that have shaped how markets price assets, how institutions manage exposures, and how policy decisions propagate through the real economy.

1.2 Topics Covered

• Macroeconomics — Aggregate economic dynamics, monetary policy transmission, exchange rate theory, and the international frameworks that connect national economies