My interest in Economics can be traced back to my childhood days when I was often intrigued

by questions related to the behavior of economic agents. I would often wonder why similar retail
stores are clustered around one place, why at times farmers throw away their produce as a
means to protest, rather than selling them, and how does the government decide the tax amount
on various goods. I had always a yearning to understand these issues prevalent around me.
However, my formal introduction with Economics was during a substitution period in school,
with the Economics teacher. While Economics as a subject was still very new to us, she
discussed with us the concepts of economic growth and development. The subtle difference
between the two, the relative importance of both in context to different economies and the way
these concepts revolve around us, all these issues and ideas had a strong impact on me. As I
delved into the subject in higher secondary, I was fascinated by how concepts like indifference
curve, marginal utility can be applied in our daily lives. Furthermore, the urge to understand
government policies and their impact on individuals and society at large, propelled me to pursue
Economics as my field of study during under graduation from Indraprastha College for Women,
University of Delhi.

During my course of study I have got the training in the basic mathematical and statistical
concepts like linear algebra, multivariable optimization, set theory, probability distributions, to
complement and strengthen the theoretical analysis. Apart from the core papers, wherein I
studied various economic theories and models along with quantitative tools and techniques, I
have also studied various skills enhancement courses and discipline specific elective papers
focusing on diverse areas such as Research Methodology, International Economics etc. The
comprehensive nature of this course has enabled me get a broader perspective of Economics as a
field and help me to link the theories with the contemporary world economy.

Analyzing government policies, particularly in the context of developing economies, have

always been of utmost interest to me. It led me to undertake a research focusing on one of the
policies extended by the government in agriculture sector - the agricultural loan waivers. With
the help of the econometric and statistical tools learnt, I wrote a paper titled "Overall Analysis of
the Effects of the Agricultural Debt Waiver on the Indian Economy". This exposure helped me
understand and evaluate the practical aspects of the classroom learning.

As a part of my internship at Into Legal World, I had a chance to contribute to the formulation
of pricing strategies for the legal books that were to be published by the company. Applications
that would help in deciding what prices to keep for publishing a given no. of pages, in order to
incentivize the authors to order a large number of books, strengthened my interest in the subject.

Furthermore, while working on my academic project titled “Why is sub-Saharan Africa lagging
behind?”, I realized the significance of the government policies in the well-being of the people.
Despite huge assistance in the form of foreign aid, most of the countries of sub-Saharan Africa
have failed to provide even basic amenities of life to its citizens, mainly due to inefficient
government policies. This project has provided me with an insight to the root-cause of the
economics challenges faced by the countries and has encouraged me to study and work further
in this area.
I have also attended various discussions about the working of government policies and
institutions. I had the privilege to attend an interactive session with Dr. Peter Postl, Head,
Department of Economics, University of Bath, wherein he discussed the Public Distribution
System in India, a system very fundamental to the developing economies like India. Such
lectures and discussions have equipped me with the required know how of applying economic
theories and analytical tools to analyze the government policies.

Each of the subject of Economics has real life implications, which makes it interesting to study.
However, there are a few concepts and theories that have attracted me the most and I want to
study them further. While studying Advanced Econometrics during my 5th semester, I realized
how indispensable the Econometric Models are for fulfilling the research objectives. The
flexibility in usage of Dynamic Econometric Models and Instrumental Variables really appealed
to me. Also, the way Game Theory formalizes human behavior as a player in a competitive
environment and the wide range of its applicability is unmatchable. In addition, the features and
issues of imperfect competition have also been my area of interest. In Macroeconomics, the
discussions of GDP, unemployment, inflation, poverty, growth theories etc. are the concepts that
I find the most apprehensible with respect to the contemporary economics.

I aspire to understand and work on the development issues and analyze the prevalence of
poverty, inequality and other socio-economic factors hindering the development process in
different countries. The rigorous nature of the course and the extensive use of quantitative tools
will equip me with the necessary knowledge to accomplish my research objectives, in order to
find effective policy measures to address the development challenges of such economically
backward regions. The focus of this program is on the core elements of advance economic
theories and models, along with mathematical and econometric tools, which is fundamental to
further the work in any area of Economics. I want to enhance my knowledge of core economic
theories backed by good grasp over the econometric and statistical tools, through a formal
training in Economics at the postgraduate level. In future, I intend to pursue research and data
analysis, focusing on the field of Development Economics.

With a burning passion to gain in depth knowledge in the field of Economics, I strongly believe
that my masters’ degree in courses such as ____________ will prove to be very helpful for me
in determining a career of my choice. Also by getting a chance to study in _______University
under the guidance of professors such as Prof _________________ would be a great privilege. I
have always been a very good performer in my areas of interest and I am very confident that by
getting admission in your esteemed university I will be able to reach great heights in my career.