Economics Degree Harder Than Accounting Degree? (Explained)

Economics and Accounting are popular majors to study at college

A frequently asked question is which one is harder to study, Economics, or Accounting?

So, Economics Degree harder than Accounting Degree?

Accounting Degree is harder to learn than Economics Degree because Accounting is not intuitive and uses complex cut-and-dried rule sets for doing transactions and treatment of money.

Economics can also be difficult as it uses advanced math (algebra, calculus, differential equations) to explain more complicated scenarios and processes.

However, the level of difficulty does depend on your interest and skills.

Economics is a way of looking at the world, explaining the behavior of various agents, from households, companies, governments.

On the other hand, by studying accounting you will learn how to record the transactions a business takes, keep ledgers of accounts, and prepare tax returns.

If you choose to study both Economics and Accounting you will have a good understanding of markets from an Economic perspective, and also have some tangible skills that you can apply in business from your accounting background.

So now we answered the main question let’s explore further what makes studying Economics and Accounting majors so hard.

What makes Economic Major so hard? (Explained)

The main reason why an Economics Major is hard is that Economics involves a lot of concepts and mathematics. Students typically find learning statistics, high levels of maths (graph analysis, algebra), and how concepts interact difficult.

Studying Economics also relies on critical thinking and mathematics, especially calculus involved in the programming of models.

If you can get a handle on mathematics, the terminology used in economics, and an understanding of supply and demand works, then you should be able to complete an Economics degree.

Getting an understanding of the basics can be challenging, but once you have them down the degree gets much more comfortable.

The good news is there is plenty of free material out there.

For example, when I type “Macro Economics”, there search results from their many results. And when I type in “economics” into Udemy it returns 342 search results.

Another way to improve learning is the traditional way of going to the library and reading up on Economic books.

Classic influential textbooks include A Monetary History of the United States (1963) by Milton Friedman and Anne Schwartz for macroeconomics, Theory of Games and Economic Behavior (1944) by John von Neumann and Oskar Morgenstern for game theory, and Value and Capital (1936) by John Hicks for microeconomics.
For a more contemporary book you could try Principles of Economics by N. Gregory Mankiw; the 8th edition was published in 2017. Another option is Modern Principles of Economics by Tyler Cowen and Alex Tabarrok; the 3rd edition was published in 2014.

What makes Accounting Major so hard? (Explained)

The main reason why students find Accounting Major hard is because of the difficulty students find learning Accounting concepts and how the transactions work.

When you get into courses such as corporate accounting, where Accounting concepts dictate what you can and can’t do, and then how you must go about doing things, then this is hard.

However, once you get a grasp of the fundamentals of Accounting it is not that hard to learn.

There is still a lot of coursework in an Accounting degree, and there is a lot more quantitative work required.

There are also many technical terms you need to learn, and you need to have a grasp of computer software as well.

If you are not too familiar with excel good idea is a recording of debits and credits into a spreadsheet.

Once you have mastered this set up a General Ledger in excel.

By performing these in excel you will be better prepared when having to use Accounting software which is often a requirement at the submission requirement at College.

You don’t have to be fantastic with mathematics it is relatively simple.

If you can add, subtract, multiply, and divide you will be fine.

As mentioned above, getting an understanding of the basics can be challenging, but once you have them down the degree gets much more comfortable.

If you are a slacker at College you will struggle with Accounting at College.

Accounting is not intuitive, it’s not an easy degree where you can ignore the textbooks and classes.

Accounting at College requires you to learn and understand the coursework.

If you are looking to brush up your Accounting skills and knowledge have another article that touches on this topic, see link below

Final Thoughts

Any college major can be difficult and one may be more difficult for different people.

No major is easy and each major has a good amount of work.

The level of difficulty largely depends on your skills, interests, and what you are good at.

Hope you found this article useful, if you would like to know more about Economics or Accounting see links to other articles below