Why Mathematics is Important in Business and Hospitality Education
“But professor, will this be useful in real life?”
This is, as all my colleagues teaching mathematics would agree, one of the most frequently asked questions from students - and a perfectly valid one. In business and hospitality, dealing with numbers may at first seem obvious: recipes must be scaled, prices set, costs controlled and customer flows anticipated. Yet the role of mathematics in these contexts runs far deeper than simple calculations. In this article, I argue that today, perhaps more than ever, it is essential for students to take mathematics seriously. Beyond formulas and techniques, our collective responsibility as educators is to equip students with quantitative skills, problem-solving abilities and analytical thinking, all of which mathematics is uniquely positioned to help develop and which are increasingly indispensable across business and hospitality professions.
Reality of the Marketplace
Before discussing the specific skills that a mathematics course brings to the table, it is worth taking a step back and facing the reality of today’s world. Our economies are becoming increasingly digital, numerical and data-oriented, and the workplace is no exception to this trend. Using data from the OECD Survey of Adult Skills (PIAAC), Hanushek et al. (2015) show, in a study covering more than 80,000 workers across 23 countries, show that a one-standard-deviation increase in numeracy proficiency is associated, on average, with an 18% increase in hourly wages (around 12% after controls).
Problem-solving skills, while yielding smaller returns than numeracy, are still associated with wage increases of around 10-12% (approximately 6% after controls). Higher numeracy and problem-solving skills are also associated with a higher probability of being employed, indicating that quantitative skills matter not only for earnings but also for participation in the labor market.
This emphasis on analytical capabilities is echoed by employers. According to the World Economic Forum’s Future of Jobs Report 2025, based on responses from more than 1,000 employers representing over 14 million workers across 55 economies, analytical thinking remains the most frequently cited core skill, with roughly seven out of ten firms identifying it as essential.
Basic Quantitative Skills and Data Interpretation
Many everyday decisions in business and hospitality contexts rely on basic quantitative skills, such as working with percentages, ratios, averages, growth rates and simple projections. These skills are used when building and monitoring budgets, forecasting staffing needs, comparing cost structures, tracking productivity or interpreting key performance indicators in hotel operations and investment decisions. Indicators such as occupancy rates, average daily rate, RevPAR, operating margins and labor cost ratios are central to operational and strategic choices, even though the underlying mathematics remains relatively simple.
Evidence from practice supports the relevance of these skills across a wide range of professional roles. Campos et al. (2022) highlight that effective professional practice consistently relies on quantitative indicators-such as financial ratios, productivity measures and performance metrics-which require solid basic numerical reasoning to be used correctly.
Beyond calculation, these activities increasingly involve working with data. While data interpretation is often associated with statistics, statistics itself is a branch of mathematics, and statistical reasoning builds directly on the same quantitative foundations. Firm-level evidence illustrates the importance of this interpretative capacity. Using data from thousands of firms, Brynjolfsson et al. (2011) show that data-driven decision-making is associated with higher productivity (of about 5-6%), provided that quantitative information is properly interpreted and acted upon.
Mathematics - One of the Languages of the Financial World
From calculating depreciation in accounting to computing marginal costs in microeconomics or analyzing GDP-to-debt ratios in macroeconomics, mathematics is one of the core languages through which the financial world is described and understood. Yet the link between mathematics and finance runs deeper than technical calculations alone. Using a sample of more than 2,000 adults, Skagerlund et al. (2019) show that numeracy is strongly and positively associated with financial literacy, even after controlling for education, income, age and general cognitive ability. The study also finds that mathematics anxiety is negatively associated with financial literacy, with an effect stronger than that of financial anxiety itself. These results suggest that mathematics shapes not only financial techniques but also how financial information is interpreted and evaluated.
Mathematics and Analytical Thinking
The study of mathematics is apt to train the mind to think. Plato
Beyond practical tools, one of the most important outcomes of mathematics education is the development of reasoning itself: the ability to approach unfamiliar problems, structure them and think them through. Mathematics offers a simplified and controlled environment in which students learn to clarify assumptions, identify relevant information and evaluate whether a solution is coherent- habits of mind that transfer well beyond the classroom.
Empirical evidence supports this view. Data from PISA 2012, covering more than 80,000 students, show a strong association between mathematical performance and problem-solving skills. More focused studies further indicate that particular components of mathematical reasoning are linked to the development of logical and analytical thinking (Attridge et al., 2015). Similar patterns are observed among adults: Ghazal et al. (2014) demonstrate that higher numeracy is associated with better judgment and decision-making, including decisions under risk and intertemporal trade-offs, as well as lower overconfidence. Together, these findings suggest that mathematics trains individuals to compute as well as to reason more carefully when facing complex problems.
Mathematics Education and Brain Development
Recent research suggests that mathematics education may also be reflected at the neural level - A UK study by Zacharopoulos et al. (2021) finds that adolescents who continue studying mathematics after compulsory schooling show differences in brain chemistry, specifically in the concentration of GABA - a neurotransmitter linked to attention and reasoning, compared to those who discontinue mathematics.
Evidence from adult learning contexts points to a similar direction, with research on arithmetic training showing changes in brain connectivity following continued mathematics practice, particularly in networks supporting numerical cognition and executive control (Klein et al., 2019). While these studies do not establish simple causality, they do suggest that sustained engagement with mathematics is linked to the neural systems that support reasoning.
AI as a Learning Tool: Opportunities and Limitations
Sir, why can’t I just use ChatGPT instead?
This is another frequently asked and fair enough question. In short, skills such as analytical thinking, problem solving and interpretation are developed through active cognitive engagement and experience, not by outsourcing reasoning entirely.
This does not mean that AI and digital tools are useless. Research on intelligent tutoring systems shows that well-designed digital tools can support learning when they provide guidance and feedback (VanLehn et al., 2005). However, how these tools are used matters. A recent experimental study by Kosmyna et al. (2025) - not yet peer-reviewed - reports reduced neural engagement and weaker recall when writing tasks are performed with LLM assistance, with some effects persisting even after assistance is removed.
These findings align with earlier research on cognitive offloading, such as the Google effect (Sparrow et al., 2011), which shows that when information is expected to remain easily retrievable, individuals tend to encode it less deeply. In short, AI can be a powerful aid, but it cannot substitute the experience of thinking through a problem, making mistakes and refining one’s understanding over time.
So is Mathematics Important?
The evidence reviewed in this article points to a clear conclusion: mathematics is not an abstract or peripheral subject in business and hospitality education, but a foundational one. From labor-market outcomes and everyday professional practice to financial reasoning, problem solving and even cognitive development, mathematical skills shape how individuals understand information and engage with complexity. While tools and AI can support learning and decision-making, they cannot replace the underlying quantitative reasoning and analytical thinking that mathematics helps to develop. Taking mathematics seriously, therefore, is about cultivating durable skills that remain essential well beyond the classroom.
References
Attridge, N., Doritou, M., & Inglis, M. (2015). The development of reasoning skills during compulsory 16 to 18 mathematics education. Research in Mathematics Education.
Brynjolfsson, E., Hitt, L. M., & Kim, H. H. (2011). Strength in numbers: How does data-driven decision making affect firm performance?. SSRN.
Campos, F., Lima Santos, L., Gomes, C., & Cardoso, L. (2022). Management accounting practices in the hospitality industry: A systematic review and critical approach. Tourism and Hospitality.
Ghazal, S., Cokely, E. T., & Garcia-Retamero, R. (2014). Predicting biases in very highly educated samples: Numeracy and metacognition. Judgment and Decision Making.
Hanushek, E. A., Schwerdt, G., Wiederhold, S., & Woessmann, L. (2015). Returns to skills around the world: Evidence from PIAAC. European Economic Review.
Klein, E., Willmes, K., Bieck, S. M., Bloechle, J., & Moeller, K. (2019). White matter neuro-plasticity in mental arithmetic: Changes in hippocampal connectivity following arithmetic drill training. Cortex.
Kosmyna, N., Hauptmann, E., Yuan, Y. T., Situ, J., Liao, X.-H., Beresnitzky, A. V., Braunstein, I., & Maes, P. (2025). Your brain on ChatGPT: Accumulation of cognitive debt when using an AI assistant for essay writing task. arXiv.
Skagerlund, K., Östergren, R., Västfjäll, D., & Träff, U. (2019). How does mathematics anxiety impair mathematical abilities? Investigating the link between math anxiety, working memory, and number processing. PLOS ONE.
Sparrow, B., Liu, J., & Wegner, D. M. (2011). Google effects on memory: Cognitive consequences of having information at our fingertips. Science.
VanLehn, K., Lynch, C., Schulze, K., Shapiro, J. A., Shelby, R., Taylor, L., Treacy, D., Weinstein, A., & Wintersgill, M. (2005). The Andes physics tutoring system: Five years of evaluations. Proceedings of the 2005 Conference on Artificial Intelligence in Education: Supporting Learning through Intelligent and Socially Informed Technology.
Zacharopoulos, G., Sella, F., & Kadosh, R. C. (2021). The impact of a lack of mathematical education on brain development and future attainment. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America.
