One More Beer: Keeping UCL Economists Alive On Campus

Our university blew out 200 candles this year and, as home to the oldest economics department in the UK, it seems only right to indulge in some more birthday-spirited self-praise. While our very own Jeremy Bentham needs no introduction, many other prominent figures, notably economists, have left their mark on our campus. Many theories and areas of interest of these figures are still very relevant today and around us. We explore how our student choices, no matter how irresponsible or irrational they may seem, continue to keep these UCL economists not only alive, but very relevant.

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William Stanley Jevons (1835-1882) and what we choose:

Long before the SEAtS app was fighting for our attention, a UCL economist was asking a question that still shapes our daily lives: why is our coffee expensive, while grabbing a glass of water on campus feels almost effortless? The answer lies in the idea of marginal utility, developed by William Stanley Jevons in the 19th century. Jevons, both a student and later a professor at UCL, was one of the central figures in the Marginalist Revolution, a shift away from explaining value through production costs and towards the satisfaction goods provide.

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At its core, marginal utility is simple. It is the additional benefit we get from consuming one more unit of a good or service. The first coffee between lectures might feel essential, the second is enjoyable, and by the third the benefit has already begun to fade. What matters for value is not how useful something is in total, but how useful that next unit is.

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Jevons’ insight was that our decisions are made at the margin. We are constantly weighing whether one more Print Room coffee, one more hour in the library, one more Rocket pint, or one more scroll is worth it. That way of thinking still underpins modern economics, shaping how we understand everything from pricing to consumer behaviour. Even in the small decisions that define student life at UCL, Jevons’ framework is quietly at work.

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But understanding how we make decisions is only part of the story. The more fundamental question is why we are forced to choose at all.

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Lionel Robbins (1898-1984) and how we choose:

Besides his push for the expansion of higher education, our fellow UCL student, albeit with a few years’ delay, explored a more fundamental idea: scarcity. Lionel Robbins famously put it that “humans want what they can’t have.” This is not the Schopenhauerian idea of insatiable desire, but a simpler and more economic one. Our wants are effectively unlimited, while the resources available to satisfy them are not.

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This is something most students encounter daily. Choosing to study at home means giving up the energy and social atmosphere of the Student Centre. Heading to the Student Centre, on the other hand, often means sacrificing focus for noise and distraction. Every decision involves a trade-off.

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What Robbins made clear is that the real cost of any choice is not just what we pay, but what we give up. Economists call this opportunity cost. The value of studying at home is not just comfort or convenience, but the loss of everything the alternative might have offered.

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From this perspective, economics becomes the study of how we allocate limited time, money, and attention. Whether it is us deciding where to revise or a government setting policy, the problem is the same: how to make the best possible use of what is limited.

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Angus Deaton (1945-) and how we view outcomes:

But even if we understand how people make decisions, and why those decisions are necessary, a final question remains: how do we know if people are actually better off? This is where Angus Deaton comes in. He may have a Nobel Prize, but more importantly, he holds an honorary degree from UCL, which, for the purposes of this article, is close enough to claim him as one of our own.

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Deaton’s contribution was to change what economists measure. Rather than focusing on broad indicators like GDP, he looked at what people actually consume and experience in their daily lives. The idea is simple but powerful. A place can appear wealthy on average, while many of the people in it are not.

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This helps explain a familiar feeling. We study at a prestigious university, in one of the richest cities in the UK, yet it is still possible to feel persistently broke. The averages suggest abundance, but the lived experience often tells a different story.

By using detailed household data, like what people spend, eat, and pay for different items, Deaton showed that what matters is not just how much income exists, but how it is distributed and how it translates into real living standards. Economics, in this sense, becomes not just a way of describing economies, but a way of understanding how people actually live.

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Wrapping up

From deciding whether one more coffee is worth it, to choosing between the Student Centre and the quiet of home, to wondering why we still feel broke despite being surrounded by prestige, the ideas of UCL economists are never far away.

Perhaps the real takeaway is that economics is not something confined to lectures or problem sets, but something we live every day. And if that is the case, then maybe UCL’s greatest contribution to economics is not just its history, but its students, still making marginal decisions, facing trade-offs, and measuring their own wellbeing, one overpriced coffee at a time.

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References:

1. Jevons, William Stanley. The Theory of Political Economy. London: Macmillan and Co., 1871. https://www.econlib.org/library/YPDBooks/Jevons/jvnPE.html.

2. Jevons, William Stanley. The Coal Question: An Inquiry Concerning the Progress of the Nation, and the Probable Exhaustion of Our Coal-Mines. London: Macmillan and Co., 1865. https://oll.libertyfund.org/title/jevons-the-coal-question. 

3. Robbins, Lionel. An Essay on the Nature and Significance of Economic Science. London: Macmillan, 1932. https://mises.org/library/book/essay-nature-and-significance-economic-science.

4. Deaton, Angus. The Analysis of Household Surveys: A Microeconometric Approach to Development Policy. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1997. https://documents.worldbank.org/en/publication/documents-reports/documentdetail/593871468777303124/the-analysis-of-household-surveys-a-microeconometric-approach-to-development-policy.

5. Deaton, Angus. The Great Escape: Health, Wealth, and the Origins of Inequality. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2013. https://press.princeton.edu/books/hardcover/9780691153544/the-great-escape.