purplejesus28

Money and Banking it is! Thanks for the help everyone!

I will be working for a financial services corporation in a rotational analytical role after graduation instead of going to grad school/academia. I will experience roles in econometric modeling, financial reporting, product development, etc. I have to take one more econ class before I graduate, and I'm wondering which of these two would be more likely to provide some practical benefit. By practical, I mean helping provide a better understanding of current macroeconomic issues and how they affect the business/corporate world. Money and Banking The nature, evolution, and functions of money; the role of depository financial institutions; structure of financial markets; principles of central banking; monetary theory and monetary policy; introduction to international banking and finance. Text: Mishkin - Economics of Money, Banking, and the Financial Markets Economics of International Finance This course introduces students to a variety of tools and methods used to analyze international asset flows with a view toward better understanding issues and problems arising in the global financial world. Topics include: exchange rate determination; balance of payments; foreign exchange and derivatives markets; the international monetary system; optimum currency areas; and monetary policy in an open economy. Text: Undecided I'd appreciate any input you can offer!

I know of a couple of actuaries that work for the World Bank. Unfortunately, all are there on short term assignments, and they are usually distinguished actuaries who are brought on to consult for microinsurance-type initiatives. In the US, most state governments have a couple of actuaries, but 95%+ work for insurance companies or consulting firms.

Grayson graduated Summa Cum Laude from Harvard with a major in economics. How sad is that?

I've been looking for economics/business economics programs housed in business schools, but I am getting tired of looking through each individual website, so does anyone know of a comprehensive list of some sort?

Thank you both for the info! To be more specific, I was thinking more about World Bank/Economic Consultancy-type jobs. It sounds like for these type of jobs, it would be a master's in public policy/econ at a bare minimum, and a PhD would be preferred. Is this so, or does it just depend on the specific job function?

PhD in Applied Econ? Master's program? MBA? I really don't know too much about the field, but I am curious as to how one gets involved in this type of work. Any insight/advice you can offer would be helpful. Thanks!

Ok great! Thank you so much!

The textbook does says it must by 1) monotonic and 2) homogeneous. It later proves that it must be homogeneous of degree 1, because you can take the rth root. My question is essentially, can r be negative? i.e. does the function have to have constant or increasing returns to scale or can it also have negative returns to scale?

No kidding. The wiki entry from Economists along with this one Production function - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia seem to imply that the function can be homogeneous of any degree. This would contradict what my notes appear to say. Which one is it? I appreciate the help so far and I apologize for not being able to understand this seemingly simple concept.

The textbook definition say that the function has to be homogeneous, but it doesn't specify if the degree has to be positive. I have something in my notes that says that it has to be homogenous of a positive degree (at least it appears to say that). So then I would say the function is not homothetic because it is homogenous to a negative degree?

...but I have a homework question, and I don't really have anyone else that can help. I'm trying to find if a function is homothetic, and when testing for homogeneity, I got something like h(tx,ty) = t^-r * h(x,y). Does it matter that it is homogeneous to a negative degree (-r) or would this still be considered homethetic, given the derivative of the outside function is greater than 0? Again, I know this is not the best place to ask, but if anyone knows, it would be of great help. Thanks!

Was your internship in the US or elsewhere, if you don't mind me asking?

Has anyone ever worked as an economist for one of the big 4 accounting firms? Do they hire people with bachelor's, master's, Ph.D.'s or all of the above? What kind of work do they do other than transfer pricing? If you've worked at one, or know someone who has (as an economist), please share your experiences.

Outside of the intro micro/macro, intermediate micro/macro, and econometrics classes, which are the most "important" or "significant" econ courses to take?