UG ADMISSIONS 2021-2022 - Flipbook - Page 40
B.A. (HONOURS) ECONOMICS
B.A. (Honours) degree in Economics from the University of Delhi is one of the finest
undergraduate courses in the discipline available in India. The coverage and levels of academic
sophistication are at par with undergraduate Economics taught anywhere in the world. It is
important, therefore, for the prospective applicant to have a realistic idea of what the subject
is. It is technically demanding and requires strong mathematical and quantitative skills. It is
not a simple extension of the Economics that a student may have studied in school, and it is
not primarily descriptive in character. In many respects it has more in common with the
physical sciences in its reliance on model-building as a guide to the “real world”. The empirical
testing of models (“theories”) requires sophisticated statistical tools. Students who want to
apply to Economics Honours should have been very comfortable with Class XII mathematics.
There is no compelling need to have done Economics at Class XII level since the Honours
course is entirely self-contained, provided the student has the basic mathematical skills and the
ability to reason logically.
The major constituent units of the first two years (the first four semesters) of the Honours
course are: (1) Mathematical Methods, (2) Statistical Methods and Econometrics, (3)
Microeconomic Theory, and (4) Macroeconomic Theory. Semesters 5 and 6 in the third year
build on the techniques developed over the first two years. Compulsory courses in these
semesters include the Indian Economy and Development Economics. The student has to also
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