When I tell my friends at home I am concentrating in economics, they assume a general understanding of what I am studying. It's not until I talk to another economics concentrator that I run into trouble explaining my course of study. My friends from state schools, or other schools that have a student population that resembles the distribution of those at a state school, have more specialized economics curricula. For instance, students at Northeastern can study finance or insurance.
Thus, as I explain my studies to these friends, I assume the tone of a government bureaucrat, creatively assuring my friends that while my work seems ambiguous and impractical, one day it will produce great fruits.
Regardless, I understand that most financial employers hire Brown students for their natural abilities as opposed to what they actually learn in class. At all of the banking information sessions I have been to, many alums have told me point-blank that they knew little to nothing about corporate finance before venturing into the analyst program. After a few weeks of training however, they adjusted immediately and gained boatloads of knowledge thereafter.
While Brown students are certainly capable of learning on the spot, wouldn't it be great if they knew what they were getting into before they actually showed up to work? Economics at Brown is a general, ambiguous concentration, and Brown should institute a "Financial Economics" program or simply a "Finance" sub-concentration.
I am extremely passionate about finance and investment banking, and I believe that many students stand to benefit from a concentration track that focuses on finance. Creating a distinction within the economics department may be a reasonably easy process given the classes already offered.
Professor of Economics Ivo Welch, who specializes in financial economics, has listed a sample curriculum on his Web site for Brown students interested in pursuing banking, consulting and other sector-related jobs. [1] I have already taken many of the classes that he has listed, and given that first-hand knowledge, I believe he has laid some solid groundwork for administrators looking to develop a finance curriculum.
In addition to the standard concentration requirements for economics, Welch recommends taking a range of financial classes depending on the individual's interests. For instance, students interested in corporate finance would enroll, unsurprisingly, in ECON1720 (Corporate Finance), while students interested in specialized investments would take ECON1770 (Fixed Income Securities) and Welch's own course, ECON1759 (Data, Statistics, and Finance), among others.
Personally, I would also add ECON1650 (Financial Econometrics) and ECON1550 (International Finance) to the list. The topics covered in ECON1650, namely analyzing asset returns and interest rates, would be extremely useful to any future finance professional. As for ECON1550, not only did 2008's Economics Nobel Laureate Paul Krugman write the textbook, but students can gain a precise understanding of interest rate effects on currency exchange rates, and the inner workings of monetary policy. Such tools could prove important for a future hedge fund manager.
All in all, Professor Welch has provided an excellent foundation for an official finance curriculum at Brown, and with the correct adjustments, this makeshift idea should become a reality. Having a designated finance concentration would not only give Brown students interested in banking and related fields a definite direction, but would make them more attractive to employers.
Currently, only a handful of major bulge bracket investment banks recruit at our University. Citigroup ceased recruiting this year, while J.P. Morgan, Bank of America, Credit Suisse, United Bank of Switzerland, Lazard and plenty of other reputable financial institutions continue to look past Brown.
Why do these banks avoid us? Could it be because they see a pool of uncontrolled, rampant liberalism permeating every inch of the campus (except my suite)? Or could it be that Brown has yet to acknowledge the importance of a financial curriculum? Let's make the easiest correction first.
Anish Mitra '10 is an economics concentrator from New York City.
