Economists Too Have Apples Fall on Their Heads

It is fairly accurate to state that the formation of ideas about the profession to pursue is a very subjective process. And yet one of the most interesting things to read s how an individual navigated the various choices available and settled to being a lawyer, accountant or yes, a professional economist. I remember that every time I encounter a narrative by an economist about how they came to pursue the subject, it is often very well written and altogether authentic.

Among the descriptions that I have read about how a youthful and very intelligent person came to decide what area of academia to pursue are memorable accounts by Paul Krugman, Dani Rodrik, Gregory Mankiw, Avinash Dixit and Amartya K. Sen. A definitive feature of the very different individuals is that most of them came to study economics through various routes and motivating factors. I am unable to create links to all their musings save for the one by Avinash and Mankiw respectively which are readily available to me now.

In this short feature in the Harvard Gazette, Gita Gopinath describes how she settled for economics generally and to the subject of international macroeconomics and currencies. In her case, the subject was chosen because of the coincidence that she was considering her career choice at the time when a financial crisis occurred. This appears to have motivated her to seek explanations for an observed phenomenon. So in this case, the metaphorical apple that fell on her head was that of an international crisis. I suspect that Isaac Newton would add, "Isn't that familiar?"