About me

My name is Jessica Chew and I am a data analyst from Australia, with a background in International Development. My personal mission is to work towards a world where every single person has a good quality of life. I believe there are fundamental injustices in our world and that we live in societies fraught with gross inequality and poverty. I am a big picture and systems thinker, and I enjoy studying and proposing solutions to the root causes of complex economic and social issues.

After having worked in a traditional International Non-Government Organisation in Cambodia for two years, whose mission was to end poverty through education, I began to understand that an inclusive and sustainable economy is a necessary requirement to lift people out of poverty around the world. The overarching challenges that our world faces now, from growing inequality, growth of precarious work and environmental degradation have their roots in economic policy-making. We have an economic system that is driven by a perverse set of incentives and exploitative behaviour, and there is a need to step back and assess the core values that underpin our society.

My predilection for macro-based problem solving and desire to design economies better has led me to pursue research in the following three key areas:

• Labour Market changes: The Impacts of Job Automation;
• Social Innovation: Universal Basic Income;
• New and Sustainable Economic Paradigms: Circular Economy.

It is my intention to pursue Masters in Political Economy from a heterodox and pluralistic school of economics, with the objective to study theory from a vast spectrum of economic thought throughout history in order to equip myself with diverse critical thinking skills that I can use to challenge today’s economic status quo.

The purpose of this blog is to document and share:

1. My readings and reviews on economic articles & literature on the three aforementioned topics;
2. My future reading lists & links to other resources;
3. The results of my personal data projects on my key areas of interest.

I hope that you enjoy my blog! Do not hesitate to contact me should you ever have any questions or comments relating to this blog’s content, and you may also find me on LinkedIn.