They are heard every day in the media. And yet: who knows what economists actually do? Frequently interviewed on the news, they are rarely questioned about their profession, so the reality of their profession remains unknown. How do they work? What is the purpose of their work? In short: what is an economist?

In this video, Nadia Jacoby talks to us about her experience working as a lecturer and researcher with the Université Paris I Panthéon-Sorbonne. In  this position, she is required to teach and pass on her knowledge as well as  carry out research projects, which in her case focus on the industrial and innovation economies. It is a job that  enables her to meet a wide variety of people, from students and researchers to business leaders and  innovation stakeholders.

This interview, held following a conference organised as part of the Économie aux Rendez-vous de l’histoire event in Blois, France, gives us the chance to really discover what working as an economist in a university implies. Citéco also met two other economists to ask them the same questions: Olivier Passet and Éric Monnet.

Source: Banque de France – Citéco/la Cité de l’économie et de la monnaie

Audience: 14+

Language: french, subtitled in english

Lenght: 3’40

You can also find information on our conference on the profession of economist at the Rendez-vous de l’histoire 2016, the interviews (in french) of secondary school students from the Orléans-Tours education authority on how they perceive the profession of economist, as well as our interactive timeline on the history of economic thought and our 4 cross-interviews videos "Words of economists" (in french).


Explore also...

Published on 23 February 2017. Updated on 12 September 2019