That’s the question we’ve asked CORE teachers around the world to present to their students on their first day of class. It’s an exercise we’ve been running since 2016, and it provides a fascinating insight into the concerns of CORE’s future economists. Presenting our findings in a word cloud neatly visualises the issues that are of most concern to our students.
At CORE, a key part of our mission is to make economics more relevant to our students by connecting it to what’s happening today. By running this exercise, we ensure that our project continues to achieve this. We are very grateful to the many instructors and students who have given their time and support to our project. Let’s dive in and take a look at what today’s economists are most concerned about.
2024 Global word cloud
Collating all the data reported to us from 2024’s worldwide CORE cohort, we see a broad continuation of trends that emerged in 2023 and 2022. Back in 2022, inflation and inequality were equally tied for first place. In 2023, we saw a slight rebalancing in favour of inequality. That trend has clearly reversed in 2024, as we can see our students have tied inequality and inflation once again.
Inequality
The study of inequality has always been a key component of CORE. Students can learn about measuring inequality in Unit 1.4 and Unit 5.12 of The Economy 2.0: Microeconomics. Unit 1.4 introduces tools used to measure global inequality, while Unit 5.12 develops students’ analytical tools by introducing the Gini coefficient.
Students interested in solutions to inequality could be directed to Unit 2 of The Economy 2.0: Macroeconomics, where we look at the different ways policies and institutions can be used to affect levels of inequality.
For further reading, CORE has an Insight authored by Suresh Naidu (Columbia University), Rajiv Sethi (Barnard College, Columbia University, and Santa Fe Institute), and Sarah Thomas (Barnard College, Columbia University), which serves as a fantastic introduction to inequality, including its definition, measurement, and implications. Read A world of differences: an introduction to inequality on the CORE website.
Inflation
With inflation back on the agenda, there are plenty of CORE resources that will be of interest to economics students. Unit 4 of The Economy 2.0: Macroeconomics provides a deep dive into inflation, with reference to the cost-of-living crisis, which was also a topic that also emerged with some frequency in our word cloud.
Those keen to learn about solutions to inflation may also like to study Unit 5, which develops the theme further by looking at what governments can do to tackle inflation. Some of the ideas explored will no doubt be familiar to many of our students from recent global events.
Climate change
Climate change also remains a key concern for the next generation of economists. For further reading, Unit 1.3 of The Economy 2.0: Microeconomics introduces climate change as an essential consideration when measuring economic output. Unit 4 goes further into the societal interactions that influence climate outcomes.
Doing Economics includes two projects focused on climate change. Project 1 helps learners understand how to measure climate change. Project 11 looks at how we can assess the willingness to pay for climate change mitigation. These projects can be used independently or alongside units from The Economy 2.0 and Economy, Society, and Public Policy. Each project begins with a box that highlights the relevant units from the two ebooks. These projects have also been combined into a free online Coursera course titled Doing Economics: Measuring Climate Change. This course offers a practical way to develop data-handling skills in Excel by analysing real-world climate data.
Global word cloud 2016-2024
What trends do we see when we combine the data from 2024 with all historic data for the past eight years? Inequality reigns as the key concern for our students. Inflation, whilst still a big issue, is more closely tied for second place alongside climate change. Four other issues remain
Sustainability
Sustainability is a key issue for students, and one that they can learn more about in Economy, Society, and Public Policy. Unit 1.12 introduces the relationship between capitalism, growth, and environmental sustainability with several practical examples relating to the use of fossil fuels. Sustainability is a major theme that is explored throughout the rest of the book, making ESPP a great place to start for interested students.
Poverty
Many students also cited poverty as the biggest issue economists should tackle. Much of the CORE curriculum deals with poverty, especially as it relates to inequality. Students with a particular interest in poverty might like to reference Unit 9.12 of The Economy 2.0: Microeconomics, which uses asset ownership as an example of how wealth differences can be self-perpetuating and create a poverty trap.
Unemployment
Unemployment also has a notable presence in the 2016-2024 global word cloud. The Economy 2.0: Macroeconomics should be of particular interest to those students eager to learn about the economics of unemployment. Unit 1, Unit 2, Unit 4 and Unit 5 all have a particular focus on unemployment.
How to contribute to the exercise in future
We are always happy to see the themes explored in CORE’s textbooks align with the issues our students are most concerned with. This year it seems that inflation, inequality and climate change continue to be at the forefront of our cohort’s concerns, while a longer-term view highlights a prevailing concern about inequality. If you would like to contribute to this project in future, please get in touch, we would love to include as many of you as possible in our research.
