05 May 2005
Though I really enjoyed the microeconomics class during the first term, I am not too fond of the macroeconomics class this
term. While the first one provided me with great insights related to our strategy and marketing classes, I feel the second one
sounds more like “CNN Global News” explained to B-schools students.
From my discussions with my fellow MBA2006, I am part of a minority on that one as most of them like it. Of course, it’s hard to get into advanced academics and the course provides more than what I say but I don’t think it is relevant to our curriculum, apart from a few set of future financiers and analysts.
Anyway, my point is not really about the course. It has more to do with education and what parents can pass to their children. Both my parents studied Economics and much to their despair (just kidding), neither my sister (literature / communication) nor I (engineering / business) followed their path or have displayed any interest in the field. However, I did great on my microeconomics class and I joked with my family that I could attribute it to the genes.
It got more interesting two weeks ago during a macroeconomics class opening on China’s huge saving rate. As Wouter Denhaan, our teacher, asked the class about what could be the explanation behind that, three students failed to provide the right explanation. I had my hand in the air and was asked fourth. My answer in four words was: “the single-child policy”. It was the correct answer – most Chinese can’t rely on their unique child alone to support them in their old days.
I really believe that this is elementary stuff and that my answer was a common fact heard in too many occasions, but it appeared it wasn’t the case. What is funny and why I wanted to write about it is the fact that I heard my mum telling me about the single-child policy so often that it almost became a joke in my family – something I got confirmation from my wife (always double-checking sources before writing, hmm I’m becoming a serious blog author).
To conclude, this is not just the genes: what children learn from their parents is really important. And sure, my parents weren’t entrepreneurs, financiers or marketers. They were – and in the case of my mother this is still true – economists and I guess I learned a lot from them and the issues we talked about around the kitchen table. In that regard, I might have learned more about macroeconomics there than I’ll learn in my expensive MBA course. Now, we’ll see how I do on the exam.
Note: Interestingly, my mom doesn’t like “micro”. :)
From my discussions with my fellow MBA2006, I am part of a minority on that one as most of them like it. Of course, it’s hard to get into advanced academics and the course provides more than what I say but I don’t think it is relevant to our curriculum, apart from a few set of future financiers and analysts.
Anyway, my point is not really about the course. It has more to do with education and what parents can pass to their children. Both my parents studied Economics and much to their despair (just kidding), neither my sister (literature / communication) nor I (engineering / business) followed their path or have displayed any interest in the field. However, I did great on my microeconomics class and I joked with my family that I could attribute it to the genes.
It got more interesting two weeks ago during a macroeconomics class opening on China’s huge saving rate. As Wouter Denhaan, our teacher, asked the class about what could be the explanation behind that, three students failed to provide the right explanation. I had my hand in the air and was asked fourth. My answer in four words was: “the single-child policy”. It was the correct answer – most Chinese can’t rely on their unique child alone to support them in their old days.
I really believe that this is elementary stuff and that my answer was a common fact heard in too many occasions, but it appeared it wasn’t the case. What is funny and why I wanted to write about it is the fact that I heard my mum telling me about the single-child policy so often that it almost became a joke in my family – something I got confirmation from my wife (always double-checking sources before writing, hmm I’m becoming a serious blog author).
To conclude, this is not just the genes: what children learn from their parents is really important. And sure, my parents weren’t entrepreneurs, financiers or marketers. They were – and in the case of my mother this is still true – economists and I guess I learned a lot from them and the issues we talked about around the kitchen table. In that regard, I might have learned more about macroeconomics there than I’ll learn in my expensive MBA course. Now, we’ll see how I do on the exam.
Note: Interestingly, my mom doesn’t like “micro”. :)
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