Studying Economics and Business Abroad: Comparative Advantages and Opportunity Costs

By Chris Zwicke and Linda York

"I realized that I can travel abroad anytime but there are limited opportunities in life where you can actually experience your studies in an academic setting abroad."

Trang Nguyen, a UC San Diego economics major, explained to an audience of UC economics and business faculty and staff advisors why she chose to spend her junior year studying economics at Hong Kong University.

Trang was one of six student panelists at a recent workshop held by EAP to discuss trends in economics and business education around the world, and the benefits and challenges for students studying abroad in these disciplines.

Most of the students enthusiastically described their experiences abroad as the most valuable of their undergraduate careers. Many also benefited from taking courses abroad not available to them at UC.

"Maastricht University offers international business courses and that's pretty much why I went . . . the courses I wanted to take abroad were not offered at UC Santa Barbara," said business economics major Jessica Berg of the academic offerings at her EAP host university in the Netherlands.

Jessica described the problem-based learning methodology used in her classes at Maastricht in which small groups of students analyzed case studies and sought solutions to current issues in business and economics.

Students can also write research papers or do internships while abroad to supplement or substitute for regular course work.

Jason Padoan, a UC Santa Cruz global economics major, spent five months in Mexico on EAP's Field Research Program (FRP). He interviewed managers in auto parts companies in Querétaro and produced a research paper on the extent to which domestic Mexican suppliers are integrated into the export processes of transnational firms.

"I want to teach and do research and the FRP gave me the opportunity to develop my own questions, to understand the ramifications of those questions, and to try and answer them—something I need to have experience with, given my career goals," he said.

"What I got out of that was an intellectual independence that isn't provided by a classroom setting, and so I have to say this was one of the best social experiences in my life and best academic experiences of my university career so far."

University of Commerce Luigi Bocconi in Milan, Italy

Meanwhile, seven time zones away in Italy, UC Berkeley business administration major Gianni De Luca was fulfilling his desire to internationalize his education while exploring his automotive passions through a summer internship at Ferrari. His internship followed a semester of study at the prestigious University of Commerce Luigi Bocconi in Milan.

Although the fundamentals of economics are standard worldwide, the emphases in courses will differ across countries and institutions. The benefit to UC students comes from these differences in approaches and perspectives, argued Amihai Glazer, UC Irvine professor of economics. The questions addressed in a macroeconomics course in Europe will be very different than those addressed in the U.S. because growth and unemployment rates differ significantly in these two areas, he said.

Students and faculty alike note challenges faced by UC majors who intend to take technical economics classes abroad.

Outside the U.S., especially in Europe, students specialize in their disciplines earlier and have greater mathematical preparation. As a consequence, many advanced economics courses offered abroad are more rigorous and can be quite challenging for EAP students. On the other hand, these courses can represent excellent preparation for advanced students planning for graduate study.

UC graduates who acquire global competency help enhance California's competitive edge in the international marketplace, according to Michael Hutchison, UC Santa Cruz professor of economics and Dean of Social Sciences. Professor Hutchinson discussed globalization of the world economy, trends in international student exchanges, and the increasing global standardization of economics and business curricula in the keynote address he delivered at the workshop.

Professor Kathleen Montgomery of the UC Riverside Anderson School of Management added that cultural immersion gives students "a sophistication that will enable them to be better leaders, whether they are going to be leaders in this country or with multinational organizations."

Student panelist Jessie Li found that international experience and the skills she developed abroad were perceived as assets by potential employers during job and internship interviews. "Companies see that as a way to differentiate you from Student B who also has a fantastic academic background," she said. Jessie, a UC Berkeley economics major, spent a year on EAP at the University of Edinburgh in Scotland.

Business economics major Kenneth Young incorporated a year at the University of Copenhagen, Denmark into his studies at UC Santa Barbara. He encouraged academic departments and EAP to work closely together to direct EAP students to appropriate and useful classes they are prepared for and will count towards their major requirements, so they can make normal progress towards their degrees while abroad. This was one of several topics discussed later in break-out discussion groups comprised of students, departmental faculty and staff advisors, and EAP personnel from each campus.

The economics and business workshop is part of EAP's "academic integration" efforts which engage UC faculty and staff in more comprehensively embedding EAP programs and courses into the curricula of the UC campuses. EAP has conducted similar workshops in biology and political science.