Picking up a new language

I am trying to pick up a new language, and its not your usual French/German/Bahasa Indonesia/Malay/Jap.

It is Math... or to be more specific, Mathematical Econs.

I think a year ago, or even just at the start of this yr (when I was looking at the module list), I would have not considered to learn much more math at all. Afterall Maths has always been sort of an necessary evil for me ever since secondary school days, right into JC - Never mind that I have been a part time A Maths tutor for these few years (Which I am quite grateful for in keeping my Math level to at least the O level standard).

So when I first decided to brush up my math, it was more of a necessary evil reason as well. A quick look at the current economics publications will indicate that any serious study of economics will definitely require a much higher level of math than my current level. In fact, it is the working language of economics.

Now I am halfway into Chiang's Fundamental Methods of Mathematical Economics (I got a really old book printed 1984, its older than me!), and guess what, it is quite enjoyable. It's just a preliminary read though, so I think I only actually understood 10-20% of what I read. A lot of the seemingly circular mathematical logics and proofs, as well as the mathematical grammar does go over my head very often.

Just bought a copy of Varian's Microeconomic Analysis for interest (haha and hopefully its going to be EC4101 text so that I don't need to buy another text), but its math is currently way above my level, so I think its only more accessible only after I master the Mathematical econs. It is interesting how this Microeconomic Analysis contrasts with his 'baby' text, "Intermediate Microeconomics" in the way it is written. The latter's arguments are almost all in words, with minimal math except simple algebra, and its elder brother's arguments are almost all in math. Consequently, the 'baby' text is much thicker than the 'adult' text. His sense of humour pervades throughout the both texts though.

A further few thoughts on this, the relative lack of mathematical foundation in NUS econs' compulsory curriculum does seem a bit worrying to me. I find that most other universities usually have at least one or two compulsory mathematical modules in their econs programme to cover all these basic tools needed for economic analysis. But in NUS's case, there is none, which means most likely a B.A (non honours) econs grad is not likely to be economic literature literate... which doesn't seem to be good... Furthermore, the optional Mathematical Econs I, II (There is none for the coming Acad yr), III are offered irregularly, with small classes(and enrollment as well, haha after all most people come to FASS to avoid sci and math).

Wish me luck on this... haha...

Quote on economics

Here's a quote concerning economics which I agree very much with(must be Banard's influence).

I have never been able to grasp how one can understand any ideas without knowing where it came from, how it evolved out of previous ideas. ... Great theories, in economics as in other subjects, are path dependent ... that is, it is not possible to explain their occurence without considering the corpus of received ideas which led to the development of that particular new theory; had the body of received ideas been different we would have arrived at a different theory at the culmination of that development. In other words, without the history of economics, economics theories just drop from the sky; you have to take them on faith. The moment you wish to judge a theory, you have to ask how they came to be produced in the first place and that is a question that can only be answered by the history of ideas. (Blaug, 1994c)

I especially agree with the part on "without the history of economics, economics theories just drop from the sky", which is in my opinion, sadly, the state of affairs of economics teaching and learning(and a lot of other subjects for that matter) in the Singaporean education system. Unlike perhaps the physical sciences, economics (and any other social science/humanities as well) cannot be treated as gospel(if only the world was that simple). The historical perspective definitely makes economics much more understandable than just pure theory. It would also aid in the understanding of the limitations of the various models and assumptions in economics(it appals me to see people advocating and applying economic concepts like free trade, taxes, subsidy blindly using textbook analysis smugly, thinking that they can't go wrong.)

What an incoherent rant.

Happy Chinese New Year! on NAPI and RAPI

Happy Chinese New Year, 新年快乐!

And here's something new yearish I thought of while counting my ang pow money(which says a lot about my marital status) which is econs related. Firstly, the concept of INFLATION... how much can your ang pow money buy you this compared to your previous years? My guess is that for most people(esp lower income groups), your ang pow is most likely lesser relative to the amount of things you can buy with the money.

Which brings me to the next stroke of brilliance(well, as if), maybe the dept of economics statistics of Singapore can use ang pow $$$ a supplementary indicator to WAGE RISES and WAGE RISES with respect to INFLATION. I mean well the govt papers have been publishing good news about how the Singapore economy is growing, that wage increases have outpaced the CPI(Consumer price index, basically Singapore's inflation indicator for consumbers), leading to the conclusion that Singaporeans of all levels are doing well... which my empirical observations with angpow money this year seems to disagree.

My ang pow money this year per ang pow has generally either shrinked in nominal terms(like instead of mostly $6 dollars, now there's an increase in the $4 ones) or stayed stagnant. As for increases...... ermm... what increases? So for my family there's a fall in the "Nominal Ang Pow Index"... haha lets name it "NAPI"

Factoring in price inflation of what the money can buy, the situation looks even worse... as everybody knows the price of everything has been increasing, so the same amount of money can buy lesser than the year before, so my "Real Ang Pow Index"(RAPI) has a even greater fall than NAPI. Oh my.... this doesn't sound good for my family and relatives...... and me of course!

So my friends... how has your RAPI and NAPI moved?
Enjoy your new year!