Economics and Finance Education as Public Welfare Investments

This paper examines the rationale and importance of investments in economics and finance education as a strategic approach to public welfare. The author espouses the idea that part of government’s responsibility and function in meeting public or social welfare needs is to foster opportunities for economic and financial education on the fundamentals of the problem of scarcity, resources allocation, conservation and economization, as well personal finance education that prepare citizens to function more wisely in preventing and guarding against economic and financial crises, as well as surviving economic downturns. As part of the rationale for economics and finance education for the public or individual citizens, households, and even businesses or private enterprises, the author cites two economic crises of significant magnitude in the last two decades: the Asian Crisis and the Global Recession. The author describes the basis and causes of these two economic and financial phenomena and presents views by several authors including McFarlane’s Five Theses on the Global Crisis Economy, and McKinnon and Pill’s, Calvo, Leiderman, and Reinhart’s, Lim’s and Schmukler’s views on the causes and creation of financial crises. The author briefly examines the interrelationships between economics and finance, presents an in-depth argument on the value of economics and finance education, identifies several investment choices and opportunities for pursuing these, and looks at the challenges and private interest as obstacles toward these investment choices and opportunities. Finally, the author explores the social welfare advantages of economics and finance education and presents several recommendations for attaining these.