Lecture Notes: Economics and the Role of an Economist

Introduction

• Speaker: Sherry Luckett, Senior Analyst at Kohl's Credit Service and Operations Group.
• Team: Decision Analytics Team, focusing on Acquisitions.
• Branches in Credit Organization:
  • Acquisitions
  • Account Management
  • Data Management

Overview of Economics

• Economics is the study of scarcity and decision-making with limited resources.
• Branches:
  • Macroeconomics: Focuses on the overall economy.
  • Microeconomics: Focuses on decisions by households, firms, and societies.

Application in Kohl's Credit

• Utilization of economics to project accounts receivable and customer spending.
• Forecast losses and defaults in accounts to maintain a healthy portfolio:
  • Predict default rates and early account failures (within 60-90 days).

Key Attributes of a Successful Economist

1. Inquisitive Nature: Always dig deeper; never take things at face value.
2. Research Skills: Formulate hypotheses and gather data to support or refute them.
3. Communication Skills: Explain complex topics to various organizational levels.

Common Career Paths in Economics

• Roles: Business Analyst, Quantitative Analyst, Intelligence Analyst.
• Tools & Techniques: Use of specialized tools like SAS, SPSS, R instead of just Excel.
• Industries: Economics applies to healthcare, marketing, finance, sports, etc.

Role of Economics

• Quantifying and backing assumptions with data.
• Solving problems using actual market data, not just opinions or assumptions.

Personal Insights from Sherry Luckett

• Enjoys solving problems with data, like piecing together puzzles.
• Economics provides a data-backed understanding beyond assumptions or gut reactions.
• Economist’s role involves promoting the value of data-driven decision-making.

Advice for Aspiring Economists

• Economics is a critical field for all businesses and industries globally.
• Holding economic knowledge makes one a powerful asset within any organization due to data-backed insights.
• As an economist, you are often the expert in the room, knowing the "secret" to problems through data analysis.