“I’ve noticed that students who have pre-conceived ideas about topics will change their minds in economics lessons. There aren’t many HSC subjects that allow students to unpack issues like tax rates, voting and trade policies, and allow them to debate topical issues, which is so valuable right now,” she said.
Young said mandating a commerce course, which could include civics and financial literacy, in years 9 and 10 – and investing in economics teacher training – was key to unlocking more economics enrolments.
“There’s just so many life skills that could be included in a commerce and civics course, including teaching the basics of how voting works,” she said.
A Reserve Bank of Australia paper released this year found the size and diversity of economics students has plunged in the past three decades, while the number of public schools offering the course has dwindled.
In 2018, Danielle Wood, now chair of the Productivity Commission, wrote that teams of similar people – in gender, race, age and class – perform poorly due to their narrow range of perspectives, being more likely to lapse into “group think” where bad ideas go unchallenged.
“In economics, gender has been shown to influence perspectives on thorny policy questions,” Wood wrote in a paper on the need for more female economists.
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Enrolments are declining as teachers warn proposed changes to the NSW economics syllabus – which ramps up maths and adds about 35 equations and calculations – could make the gender imbalance worse or push students away.
“We shouldn’t alienate students who love economics and love discussing the issues but don’t excel in maths,” said Young, who is also on the RBA’s teaching advisory panel.
The new syllabus, under review for the first time in 15 years, will be released at the end of the year.
At public schools Macarthur Girls High and Cheltenham Girls High, economics enrolments have steadily increased. This year both schools have two year 12 classes.
Cheltenham student Roxanne Denham, who sat the HSC economics exam on Tuesday, said she always wanted to study the course because “it’s not just a subject, it’s a life skill” which informed her understanding of the global economy and public policy.
Her classmate, Ayla Yasrebi, said: “Students hear a lot about science subjects, but I didn’t really know that economics existed as an HSC subject, and as soon as I found out about it, I knew I wanted to do it.
“Because of all the talk about tariffs this year, everyone was expecting an exam question on protection, so I was relieved when it was there,” she said.
Macarthur Girls High has increased their economics enrolments and has two classes this year.Credit: Sitthixay Ditthavong
Experts warn a growing uniformity among economics students – including fewer girls and fewer students from disadvantaged backgrounds – means more support should be given to economics teachers, especially in regional schools where teachers might be operating outside their area of expertise.
Tanya Livermore, who leads the education team at the RBA, said research showed there was a “confidence gap” for girls in economics.
“We’ve found that when we ask year 11 and 12 students to rate their economics ability, girls rate their ability lower than boys do, and this confidence gap remains even after adjusting for how well they actually did on a set of economics questions.”
Livermore said the drop in economics students was partly due to the “huge displacement effect” which occurred with the rise of the business studies course over the past 30 years.
“The all-girls school factor is important too, because, in co-ed schools, if economics becomes known a subject known as having mostly boys, then that can perpetuate whereas at an all-girls school that factor isn’t there,” she added.
Another RBA study found lower enrolments in university economics courses among female students had persisted even though girls consistently outperformed males in ATAR scores, and so were less likely to have a “performance gap” deterring them from enrolling in an economics degree.
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