Lucia Macchia graduated in 2015 from City's MSc in Behavioural Economics.
What do you do now?
I’m doing the PhD in Psychology at City, University of London. I enjoy investigating my topics of interest and being able to answer my own questions.
What path have you taken to get there? Were there any particular areas of interest that lead to you specialising?
I studied Business Administration for my undergrad degree and I’ve always been interested in how people make decisions. After some years of working for companies, places in which people make decisions constantly, I decided to learn a bit more about my topic of interest and to pursue the MSc at City.
Why did you choose to study at City, University of London and how has it helped you?
I chose City because the MSc in Behavioural Economics was one of the few specific courses on the topic available in Europe at that time. It helped me to develop key skills that I am using now in my PhD. For example, I learnt how to use a statistics software, how to read papers critically, how to design experiments.
What did you enjoy most about your course?
I enjoyed the diversity of the course as there were students (and professors) from very different backgrounds: Economists, psychologists, people specialised in marketing and human resources, etc. This diversity provided my fellow students and me with a rich environment of discussion giving us the possibility to learn the same topics from different perspectives.
What was the hardest part of your course?
The hardest part of the course was putting everything I learnt into practice. For instance, the experimental aspects of some course works and the dissertation.
What was your favourite part of being a City Student?
My favourite part of being a City Student was having the opportunity to meet people from very different countries, spend time with them and learn about their culture and language.
If you could give one piece of advice to a prospective City Behavioural Economics student, what would it be?
Don’t get discouraged about the topics that do not match your background. The MSc in Behavioural Economics is a very diverse course and you will use everything you learn some time in the future. In addition, the statistics courses could be hard at the beginning, mainly because we are not used to using a statistics software in our everyday life. In the end, you will realise that you acquired useful skills to do your own work.
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