Jana Schuetz
Jana is a PhD student and research / teaching assistant at the Universität Jena in Germany. Her research interests include pension economics and gender economics.
Why did you choose to study economics?
I had a school subject on economics and law which was my favorite subject. Within the subject I found the economics parts way more interesting than those related to law and therefore the decision to study economics was an easy one.
How would you describe economics?
Economics is a very broad subject and therefore hard to describe. But in general I would describe Economics as a subject that deals with a broad variety of topics, usually aiming to understand decisions and mechanism. Economics deals with all kind of problems - e.g. climate change, gender inequality or labour.
If you had a time machine and could meet your 16-year-old self, what advice would you give them?
I would tell her that it's alright to fail sometimes and that if one door closes it is very likely that another one opens.
What is your favourite part of economics?
The broad variety of topics and therefore also the possibility to deal with all kinds of questions.
Is there anything you would do differently if you had the chance?
I would invest more time in learning R or something similar at the very beginning because it will always be useful along the way.