Fed Challenge 2011 Competition
Mission Statement
The College Federal Reserve Challenge of the Federal Reserve System is a yearly academic competition sponsored by several reserve banks and is administered by the Eastern Economic Association in the 2nd and 3rd Districts. The College Federal Reserve Challenge consists of teams of three to five students from the area colleges and universities creating a professional presentation 15 minutes in length delivered in front of a panel of judges consisting of academics and professional economists followed by a 15 minute question and answer interaction. By advancing through three rounds of competition, successful teams win recognition, with the first place team continuing to Washington D.C. to compete against other regional winners at the Board of Governors.
In addition to the educational benefits and confidence arising through rigorous competition, students benefit from opportunities to apply their experience to acquire internships, discover potential career paths, and hone skills of public speaking, logical thinking, writing, and analysis which are essential to successful integration into the global economy. Instructors of undergraduate institutions benefit through the use of a venue to develop enthusiasm for the study of economics and to integrate their curriculum in macroecomics and money and banking course with an active learning experience promoting both necessary skills for student acquisition as well as student awareness of current events and conditions in the economy and the financial system.
Student Learning Goals
- To develop an understanding of the components of a modern economy and their long term contribution to economic growth and development, while appreciating the short-run fluctuations which lead to business cycle activity
- To comprehend the role of the Federal Reserve System in creating monetary policy designed to promote economic stabilization in furtherance of achieving the dual mandate of price level stability and maximum employment while assuring moderate long term interest rates and financial system stability.
- To understand the short-run and long-run interactions of monetary policy with regard to unemployment, inflation, economic growth, fiscal policy, and exchange rate stability.
- To promote an understanding of current political and economic issues which impact on overall economic and financial system activity.
- To be able to locate, organize, and incorporate substantial amounts of data into a presentation in order to create a comprehensive and coherent analysis designed to explain current and future economic and financial conditions.
- To better grasp fundamental economic relationships and their role in policy formation including the impact of productivity on economic growth, the relationship between unemployment and inflation, and the role of potential output, the NAIRU, and real interest rates in the determination of the stance of monetary policy.
- To appreciate the interaction between markets and government regulation and to understand trade-offs between the distortion of efficiency and the management of risk and return relationships.
- To understand the causes and evolution of the recent financial crisis and the use of unconventional monetary policy and innovations which followed.
- To develop an ethos of group participation with each member of the group expected to be integral to the success of the presentation while collectively producing synergies derived from close cooperation and team work.
- To understand the vagaries and complexities in forecasting future economic conditions which introduce an interpretive subjectivism into economic analysis which when incorporated with more of the technical elements of economics creates uncertainty in the decision making process.
- To become familiar with cutting edge and controversial issues such as choice of monetary policy regime, international dimensions of economic theory and analysis, management of asset price bubbles, and the role of communications and transparency in achieving monetary policy objectives.
- To receive a hands-on experience in professional, consultative, problem solving designed to increase skills and confidence while illuminating potential career paths.
- To understand the relationship between classroom education and its application to real world activities.
- To create a controlled environment where students can operate under conditions of moderate stress while being compelled to defend their ideas, extend their thinking, develop risk assessments for a variety of scenarios, and respond to hypothetical situations which encourage students to apply their knowledge in a broad integrative fashion.
- To develop improved communications skills allowing students to express themselves clearly and fluidly without sacrificing technical competence.
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