Oxbridge Economics interview preparation

danny111

what does that mean?

What the RES YE 2009 bit? It's the Royal Economic Society's Young Economist of the Year Competition 2009. :wink:

And the sheer complexity of the economy makes it impossible for economists to make accurate predictions for anything but the very short term. Economists have an even tougher job (and worse reputations) than weather forecasters for predicting, although as better technology has dramatically improved the quality of weather forecasting, hopefully technology will also allow economists to improve.

Reply 84

danny111

3

Greg.

What the RES YE 2009 bit? It's the Royal Economic Society's Young Economist of the Year Competition 2009. :wink:

which you won, with a paper on "are recessions inevitable"? who were the judges and what did they say?

Reply 85

danny111

which you won, with a paper on "are recessions inevitable"? who were the judges and what did they say?

I entered, but I didn't win it. Someone called Tiffany Young won it. :p:

The question for the competition was 'are economic recessions inevitable', everyone had to answer it. For the final report see this:
http://www.res.org.uk/society/forms/FINAL_Announcement_RESessay2009_2.pdf

Reply 86

danny111

3

Greg.

I entered, but I didn't win it. Someone called Tiffany Young won it. :p:

The question for the competition was 'are economic recessions inevitable', everyone had to answer it. For the final report see this:
http://www.res.org.uk/society/forms/FINAL_Announcement_RESessay2009_2.pdf

that sucks. are you at uni?

ps thanks

edit: ah i see its just for sixth form?

Reply 87

danny111

that sucks. are you at uni?

ps thanks

edit: ah i see its just for sixth form?

Nope, not at uni yet, I'm in year 13, and yes it's a competition for sixth formers. :smile:

Reply 88

Greg.

I entered, but I didn't win it. Someone called Tiffany Young won it. :p:

The question for the competition was 'are economic recessions inevitable', everyone had to answer it. For the final report see this:
http://www.res.org.uk/society/forms/FINAL_Announcement_RESessay2009_2.pdf

I think it's good practice writing these things but the inevitable vagueness of the selection criteria do make awarding prizes a bit of a farce (in other words I'm bitter about entering but not winning essay contests).

Reply 89

Kneechuh

12

Fiasco

This has nothing to do with my ego: that's just the best cheap shot that exists on the internet. Your analogies are bad, they don't translate well at all and make everything more confusing.

What do pesticides have to do with the questions I'm asking? You said that all problems have real/true solutions to them, and I posed some normative questions to challenge that. Why then have you decided to ask an unrelated question about pesticides and talk about ethics?

Anyway, what do you think is the job of an economist? (to return to the original disagreement)

Asking 'what is the job of an economist?' is like asking 'what is the job of a hammer?'. A hammer could make a fantastic paper weight, it could be used to torture someone, or it could be used to secure nails into a wall. There are several types and situations where an economist is necessary, and I, personally don't have a 'right' answer. One role of an economist could be to deal with the relationships of commodities; for as long as commodities will have a relation to society, so will an economist. Upon thinking about it though, I believe that the question is also normative. If you were to ask 'what is the role of a politician', you would most likely hear an answer along the lines of manifesting the will of his people -- to produce happiness for them. You could say the same of the economist, and also the same of the bin-man. I don't really think it can be properly answered, but there are certain roles for an economist to play in society.

If you accept that economics is linked to politics, then an economic advisor to a democratic government's job would be to devise policies that would allocate resources in a way that would allocate resources in the way that most resembles the will of the people. Obviously, one runs into problems of 'the people' being knowledgeable - they'd have to know what they wanted. A lot more could be said on this issue, and I'd like to hear other peoples' views, but it's near midnight and I can't be bothered to elaborate further.

(I still hold the view that my analogies were accurate, and pertained to the physical science comparison. I raised the pesticide issue as it was a normative biological question, like how your questions were normative economic questions)

Reply 90

BigFudamental

I think it's good practice writing these things but the inevitable vagueness of the selection criteria do make awarding prizes a bit of a farce (in other words I'm bitter about entering but not winning essay contests).

True, especially when you consider:

Philip laid out a multi-equation macro model of a kind not normally encountered before university level, and related it well to the question, though more emphasis on financial issues would have been welcome

It was interesting and informative to prepare the essay, although the £1000 prize would have been nice to win. :biggrin:

Reply 91

Fiasco

danny111

im sorry, but i just completely disagree with this.

1) it is impossible to predict the future.

2) yea right some ppl "predicted" the recession. people "predict" things all the time, and you would obviously only notice when they turn out right.

3) this resulted from a financial crisis, not every economist is interested in finance.

ps its actually not a poor analogy.

It is impossible to predict the future? Really? People do it all the time, and in my long answer I elaborated on my point, which is that it isn't guess work at all. You can't 'yeah right' these people, they didn't just wake up one morning and claim that a recession was coming as a result of the housing bubble. They use theories and have a deep understanding of financial systems. They have written at length and with astonishing accuracy about how the current recession would unfold. The clues were there all along and only some people picked up on it/decided to speak out. Nouriel Roubini? Paul Krugman? Hyman Minksy? The list goes on. These are economic weather men - they use data and theories to predict the future. Use your hindsight and tell me that it was impossible to predict the current recession.

The conclusions that I draw are:

- It is possible to predict* the future and prevent future recessions.
- Economists have the job of predicting these crises.
- Economists are also there to find solutions to the problems when they arise.

Many economists failed to predict the crises, and macro-economics still struggles to find solutions to these recessions.

*Predict: to tell about something in advance of its occurrence by means of special knowledge or inference.

Reply 92

Greg.

True, especially when you consider:

Yea I saw that...honestly, what a loser.

Reply 93

I_Am_Abbas

Greg.

True, especially when you consider:

Philip laid out a multi-equation macro model of a kind not normally encountered before university level, and related it well to the question, though more emphasis on financial issues would have been welcome

:biggrin:

It was interesting and informative to prepare the essay, although the £1000 prize would have been nice to win. :biggrin:

Haha

BigFudamental

Yea I saw that...honestly, what a loser.

Sorry?

Reply 94

I_Am_Abbas

Sorry?

I guess my complaint should really be against the judges, not the guy. If a panel judging a secondary school essay competition on the nature of recessions is suckered in by some mathematical model the guy found in a first year uni macro textbook I find that a bit pathetic.

Or maybe I misinterpreted and he just put together a little model of his own for illustrative purposes, in which case it is highly likely to have been crap though.

Reply 95

I_Am_Abbas

BigFudamental

I guess my complaint should really be against the judges, not the guy. If a panel judging a secondary school essay competition on the nature of recessions is suckered in by some mathematical model the guy found in a first year uni macro textbook I find that a bit pathetic.

Or maybe I misinterpreted and he just put together a little model of his own for illustrative purposes, in which case it is highly likely to have been crap though.

I'll ask the judges what their criteria was when I meet them next week.

Regarding the latter, it was a simple model I created with notational reference to a textbook as a different way to approach the question. I have read the 2 essays that beat mine and, whilst admittedly better written, more comprehensive and empirically backed (hence the higher ranking), I believe mine was somewhat more technically proficient. It seems reasonable to me that demonstrating knowledge past the A level syllabus, and integrating it into a standard question 'well' (their words, not mine) deserves some credit.

I fail to see the problem here?

Reply 96

I_Am_Abbas

I'll ask the judges what their criteria was when I meet them next week.

Regarding the latter, it was a simple model I created with notational reference to a textbook as a different way to approach the question. I have read the 2 essays that beat mine and, whilst admittedly better written, more comprehensive and empirically backed (hence the higher ranking), I believe mine was somewhat more technically proficient. It seems reasonable to me that demonstrating knowledge past the A level syllabus, and integrating it into a standard question 'well' (their words, not mine) deserves some credit.

I fail to see the problem here?

So you are Philip? Nice. :cool:

Would there be any chance on expanding on your answer? Did you conclude recessions were inevitable? I'm intruiged. :biggrin:

Reply 97

Dumb Economist

Greg.

So you are Philip? Nice. :cool:

Would there be any chance on expanding on your answer? Did you conclude recessions were inevitable? I'm intruiged. :biggrin:

Sorry for butting in. I did not take part in the competition - but for my simple mind 'recessions are inevitable' as basically there are many external issues on which there is no control - like 1) Natural calamities, 2) Weather 3) Irrational behaviour of Human - effects of Greed /fear.

This is my simple 2 line take on the subject. :smile:

Reply 98

I_Am_Abbas

I'll ask the judges what their criteria was when I meet them next week.

Regarding the latter, it was a simple model I created with notational reference to a textbook as a different way to approach the question. I have read the 2 essays that beat mine and, whilst admittedly better written, more comprehensive and empirically backed (hence the higher ranking), I believe mine was somewhat more technically proficient. It seems reasonable to me that demonstrating knowledge past the A level syllabus, and integrating it into a standard question 'well' (their words, not mine) deserves some credit.

I fail to see the problem here?

The report (and your above post) make it sound as though the chief virtue of the essay is that it's technical and that you won the prize for having a bit of maths in it. Economics is generally a subject where form sadly dominates function, but I don't think "technicality" should be a criterion in an economics essay pitched at secondary school students.

That said, I haven't read your essay. Maybe your model really did offer a unique and illuminating way of approaching the question that was not found in the essays of the other finalists who didn't win an award. But the citation basically reads "for putting some equations in it" (without even referring to the quality or usefulness of your model), which I don't think should have been a factor.

In any case, you really don't need to give a **** about what I say. Winning the prize is a great achievement.

Reply 99