The Summer School in Economics and Finance (SSEF) 2021 was undoubtedly one of the best academic experiences I have had in my life. Specifically, the course that had the most impact academically and personally was Heterogeneous Agents, one of the relatively new approaches to facing economic problems. It also has opened the door to a series of further research questions to understand better the economic-policy implications applied by countries.
This course taught cutting-edge tools to face the basic and advanced models of heterogeneous agents in continuous time, such as the Hamilton-Jacobi-Bellman equation. Additionally, we reviewed the potential applications these models may have in economic science, such as wealth distribution and asset prices. An important part of this course was that it encouraged me to take this line of research for my future professional development. This is due to the great interest and potential applications of this topic, how little explored it still is, and thanks to the assistance and mentoring of excellent professors from some of the best universities in the world, who provided us with the opportunity to develop ourselves as research assistants.
Summer 2021 was the second time that I participated in the Summer School, and each time it exceeded my expectations in all aspects. I did not know that one could learn so much, have so many new experiences, and form so many new friends in such a short time!
One of the peculiarities of the Summer School is that it can be attended by undergraduate and graduate students from all over Latin America. This unique feature makes the SSEF a diverse and heterogeneous group in which we can learn in a faster and dynamic environment. Not everything is competition! One of the main points of this Summer School was teamwork and fellowship among colleagues.
If you dare to participate in the next Summer School, I would recommend the following: strengthen your quantitative techniques, learn to handle some research-oriented software (Matlab, Python, or Julia), be very eager to learn cutting-edge topics in economics and finance to apply them in the development of your research. And, of course, be ready to apply to SSEF 2022, which is already open for Latin America.
I am sure that the Summer School in Economics and Finance will soon become the most important economics and finance program in Latin America!
Rodney Menezes.
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