 Well, like most people, I didn't grow up wanting to be an economist. I went away to school when I went to college. My father asked me what I planned to do and I didn't have a good answer. He told me I would be a doctor. And so I started off taking courses in math and science, pre-med curriculum, took chemistry, thought I would be a chemistry major. I liked chemistry. I found it interesting. I was pretty good at it. But then I took an economics class kind of for fun and I also liked that. I find economics as a discipline that studies individual and collective behavior of people in a very broad context of life and I'm interested in studying behavior. I was in my undergrad. I was doing a business degree management, actually. And then U.S. university was recruiting at that university for the economics department and that attracted my attention. And then economics was really a nice blend of math or science and policy issues and things that were a little bit softer. And so it had a nice combination of features that really appealed to me. And I think in some ways economics is harder than chemistry. It's a tougher subject. Molecules are very predictable and people are not very predictable. And we're trying to explain people, not the behavior of molecules and it just struck me as a very interesting discipline so that's how I came into it. But I had always, in addition to that, I had always, especially during undergrad, read a lot on economics. And the first book, which was the first class in undergrad, that really caught my attention to economics was Weber's book on the link between the Protestant religion and the spirit of capitalism. When you join economics, it's like committing to a way of life. It really influences everything that you see around you, whether it's politics, whether it's changing trends in the economy itself or whether it's just simple things that you do in your life as well. So you really learn to see how people take into account economic decisions and it's just fun. I guess that was a little random because in my country you have to decide on what you're going to do a little early. So right after middle school, I was either going to choose some of the formal sciences or social sciences and I had good math skills, but I didn't want to do the formal sciences. So what I did was, some people suggested, some of my teachers suggested that economics is maybe the way to go because they use a lot of math and it's still a social science. So that was the main reason. So it was really kind of luck, random a little bit. When I graduated from high school, my plan was to either go to medical school or to do something that I felt was useful at the time, again, thinking from a high school type of framework. And so I knew that I couldn't memorize anything. So medical school is out of the question. So I pursued economics because I felt that it was required to intuition and no memorizing and yeah, yeah. Economics helps me understand things from both a macro and micro perspective, which is I think the best part about this major. It has broadened my perspectives and helped me think a lot more into financial models, business analysis and things of that sort that we actually work on in the business school. Well, to me, that was probably the logical thing to do based on my undergraduate education in finance, where you're thrown a bunch of equations that you don't know where they come from. Then I got a master's degree in agricultural economics, which is an applied degree, a lot of empirical stuff, no much theory behind. So I figured that PhD in economics was going to be the one degree that will give me the theoretical foundations needed in order to understand these two fields that I already have done. Well, I always wanted to know why people do whatever they do. I mean, I have this fascination with the motivation of people's actions. That's why my first major was actually political science. I thought I would understand society better with political science. It's a great major. Problem is in the political science, there is no basis to determine whether something is good or bad. It changes from person to person, time to time, place to place. There is really no criterion. Then I thought this is too vague and making decisions or judgments is very difficult. Then I moved to economics. In economics, everything falls in the right place because in economics, we have a criterion. We compare marginal cost to marginal revenue, continue doing a certain action, undertaking a position for as long as its marginal revenue is no less than its marginal cost. I said, okay, now that is what I was looking for. Now I can understand why people do things, the motivations, etc., even if they may seem odd to somebody else. Then I think I found my polling and I decided to continue in economics. I think that I had a few doubts. There was no fear or doubt. I was excited to study economics. Oh, very many, especially after I actually started grad school in economics. We always have these kind of fears and doubts. What am I doing? Is it relevant to life? Is it going to be used in real life? One of the things I guess everybody had whenever they have questions about what they are doing. Of course I did, but whenever I have these kinds of doubts, I try to see if I can connect my experience and teaching and my research with real life. Not at all. I was pretty much convinced that I wanted to do something related to finance and economics. That's why I started with finance. I actually got too much of a degree in finance and economics. So I knew from very early on that that was my field and I never had any hesitation about it. No, not at all. I think perhaps it was one of the best decisions I've made in my life. Well, there are always fears for somebody when they go at that young age into a major because they know that's going to determine their future. My advantage, however, was that I was already in the university. I spent one year in the political science department as my major. I was much more informed as a person, as a student than my peers who jumped into the economics directly. That's why I don't think I would say I had fears, but you're always nervous. Did you make the right choice or did you perhaps not look at pluses and minuses before you made that choice? As far as I'm concerned, I think I did not have those things as much as a young person coming to the major first time would have. So I can understand others might have it, but not really me. It seemed very intimidating in the beginning, but then slowly, slowly as you work through it. And I think it's still, that's still there. There's still a big question between do economists get it right, especially in terms of the classical economies versus the behavioral economies that are getting some ground now, but in the end it's all working progress. My inspirations are economists like John List. I like very much Esther Duflo and Bonnergy. I had a very good professor when I was an undergraduate. William Hindley was his name. And I like them because they're doing the randomized trials in different poor areas to try to come up with policies using the randomized trials rather than theoretical models. He was a really interesting guy and so I like the way he thought and the way he spoke and he seemed to live a good life and so he was an inspiration. I can't think of anyone who I would consider my inspiration. I do have a lot of respect for John Nash for example. There are lots of people of course who inspired me, but in economics in particular Ibn Khaldun is the first person who had some influence on me. I have some people that I like, but I don't know if I can say my inspiration, but whenever someone uses economics in real life I actually find them more inspiring. For example, some of my students when they start using some economic terms such as sound cost and opportunity cost and game theory when they start using this in real life I actually find it more inspiring than just regular people, just economists doing their job. None. In terms of my career I like to see myself in a position where I'm able to analyze the effects of different policies on an economy. I come from Nigeria actually, I come from a place where the government policies are actually a very important way of reforming the economy and I see myself as one of those people that can actually make a big effect on the economy through my effective policy decisions. I think my future in economics is bright. I'm hoping to be a policymaker and improve UAE's economic policies. So I'm completing my Bachelor's of Economics from AUS right now. I'll be going for my Master's in the US and then hopefully a PhD. Ultimately I want to lecture on economics and become a professor. In the context of career I look at being an analyst on the long run which does involve a lot of research and involves a lot of analysis of course and I think economics empowers me with both the tools towards successful career as an analyst. It's been really good. I started working since October 2015, 2014. I graduated in June 2014. It's been challenging to start my new job and learn everything from the start but I think that what I learned at AUS over the four years has really helped me to hit the road running in that kind of way. Life is good after graduating from AUS. You're actually recognized as an alumni of AUS. When you go for interviews, when you talk with people around UAE even if you travel outside of UAE, AUS is establishing its name and a lot of employers are actually currently looking for people graduating from AUS. Life has actually been pretty interesting. I think AUS, the program economics provided me a solid foundation in the theoretical aspects and gave me the end goals which came in very handy in the professional life. I think the main challenge is finding a job after university. I was lucky because the summer before I graduated I did an internship at PWC where I'm working now. So that helped me to get a feel for the market. I was lucky enough to get a job with the same company that did my internship but that is the main point of the university degree is to get a job afterwards. A lot of my friends are finding it difficult to find jobs afterwards but if you are able to, I think, the better you do in your university degree if you get an internship that's really useful then hopefully you get a job after that and that's the main aim of finishing your degree. The challenges in the market actually are that the job market actually demands graduates to be proficient in skills. The degree can actually give a theoretical foundation to the students but the skills that actually matter which is important for students to gain that by doing extracurricular activities. The main challenge currently in the market is that I believe there are a lot of people applying for jobs. It's actually becoming very competitive and you don't only have graduates from universities in the UAE but you actually have graduates from universities in the Middle East as well as abroad so a lot of people are coming into UAE and looking for job opportunities and this is making it more competitive and being an AS graduate again gives you an edge over other graduates so you somehow stand out of the crowd and at the same time in general AS graduates need to always keep in mind to keep on working on improving themselves whether through certifications whether through working with your students, internships it's very important to differentiate yourself from the rest. An economist graduate from the US have been very distinguished in terms of the course content that they are introduced to as well as another very important feature which is that our experience suggests that most of them, especially the most accomplished one they had an opportunity to undertake research with their professors and so when they come to us as young professionals they are almost ready to go with very little supervision they can actually collect data, analyze data and do some literature review and their technical capabilities especially in terms of quantitative analysis is quite distinguished Our criteria basically is that the employee, the young professional has to have some basics in economics, micro, macro, quantitative and also has the kind of analytical capacity to learn and to develop his or her expertise on research and that's why so far we have hired six graduates since 2008, six graduates from the US and also I think because compared to other universities the US has an explicit program on economics in other universities they are mostly business oriented with some minor economics and that's a big difference It has had a big impact in my life it has helped me understand priorities for example the fact that we don't have all the resources that we wish to have to buy everything that we want to buy that makes you prioritize it has helped me to be disciplined with my savings, my spending it has helped me be more conscious about my health not because of health costs involved but because quality of life is pretty much a function of how healthy you are and all of that is things that we come across as economists so it has a big impact in more than one front for sure Learning economics does I think change the way you think about things maybe I thought about these things before in this sort of way and then becoming an economist made it feel more natural but economists are very logical people and we think logically in situations where other people would really suggest that you shouldn't think so logically but I'll give an example I think economically all the time I get into arguments with my wife about how to pack a dishwasher and she likes to pack it very carefully like she's an engineer and I throw the dishes in this way and that way any which way and then if it's half full sometimes I'll run it I don't wait to fill it all up and the reason I do this is because I'm aware of the use of a dishwasher which is to economize on my labor which is valuable and so I treat it that way and this is one thing, you know, a small thing in daily life that is the way that I think about something I had this argument with my wife about this issue and I never win it I win it in class only when I tell it to students but yeah, it does affect the way that I think The thing is with economics you don't really know the notions name of the things that you already do for example, opportunity cost you don't really call it opportunity cost when you're thinking about, for example, you have an exam tomorrow you're thinking about going out tonight for a movie theater so are you going to go on a night where you have an exam the next day or you're going to do it on a weeknight or weekday weekend where you're going to have not really much going on the next day so for example, we usually, we almost always think about these kind of things but unless you know economics, you start taking economics you don't know what to name it so opportunity cost, sunk cost when you're waiting in line at a grocery store for example you wait there and when the line is not moving as an economist I actually learn that well my time until that point is a sunk cost so if there's a new cashier opening I just go and change my line because whatever I did until that point it's just gone, there's nothing I can do to get it back so some of the things like being rational, sunk cost opportunity cost, game theory these are actually the things we start using in real life I think you pay more attention to the fine details that most people tend to ignore and you tend to always question things sometimes you observe things that perhaps sometimes are not even noticeable you travel and you start noticing that prices don't seem to fit what we learn by the cons of scale and then you realize that there are certain elements that are specific to the environment we're observing such things that perhaps prevent businesses from passing on cost savings to people and so that's the thing is the ability to start seeing things from a much more detailed perspective than a normal citizen you know economics teaches you to I mean it trains you in analytical thinking so I guess in my thinking or judgment I became more analytical and whenever any situation comes I always ask what is the purpose behind it if anyone is doing something I always ask why he's doing it so I guess I always look for the incentive behind any actions sometimes during grad school I realize maybe first it was unconsciously other things that whenever people tell me about their plans or their actions I'm always looking for what is the motivating factor behind so I've really started seeing the world in the way we preach about it in terms of incentives and trade-offs and even when I'm doing anything, though I'm very spontaneous I'm trying to see why am I really doing it and in the end it really comes down to some sort of incentive or a trade-off I'm going after or something I'm going after but then I can recognize the trade-off so to me I think this is the biggest change because you see the world differently you think of people's behaviors differently you think of policies differently so it's trying to identify incentives and trade-offs economics allows you and wants you, as it did with me to have a special window of scrutiny even when I go to shopping you know, I look at the way I shop look at the way my wife shops and you know and I don't spend much time in shopping there's a reason for that because I believe that the margin costs of not being in my office or at my work is so high that I don't want to spend that much time in shopping even just a little mundane small issue of shopping comes back to me as an economic issue I compare the additional margin costs to the margin of benefit of that action I would encourage students to think hard I've heard someone tell me that 96% of the effort of our brain is used doing things like walking and digesting and breathing and that only leaves 4% for really thinking about things and it's natural for people to economize on scarce resources we all economize on our thinking we're lazy about thinking it's a natural tendency I think I would encourage them to read outside of the classroom because economics, especially in the beginning can be a little bit dry so without having some extra effort from their side it would be quite difficult to see the beauty of it the benefit of economics is that you learn skills and you learn tools and techniques and these techniques and skills are very useful particularly when you're trying to cross over to other disciplines so it's common to see an economist do research with psychologists, with sociologists, with finance experts with accountants in the medical field as well and so the fact that it has so much overlap with other areas is very attractive at the same time you're not learning a very limited set of skills you learn a set of skills that give you access to various opportunities and this is why I chose economics and this is why I think economics is one of the best choices for students graduating students you have to just keep at it it doesn't get easy nothing is easy so you just have to keep on trying to understand the concepts of it new students join economics, they're generally told it's a really hard field that you're going to drop out soon that you're not going to do well my advice would just be to stick with it you're going to have fun and you're going to learn a lot and just fight it out, it'll be worth it in the end a couple of advice is maybe one to be passionate to really enjoy what they do the second one which I think is really important is to be proactive the last thing employer wants is to tell people what to do all the time people have to be able to contribute with new ideas, new methods so just don't wait to be told all the time what to do perhaps early on that always happened but you have to be proactive I think that's the most critical part for a new professional I think I would tell them to do exactly what I did be interested and concerned in and about of society you are the cream of the crop you're the best of the society as college students where society spent so much on you and educates you and making sure that you have the highest human capital it is incumbent upon you to think about issues, problems and the solutions thereof in the society and come up with new products come up with new ideas most importantly and as I always say have an entrepreneurial mentality to put your ideas into practice