The Scoponomist

Preface Dear Reader, I sincerely hope you enjoy reading this very ﬁrst digital-‐only version of our magazine, the Scoponomist. The decision to move to a digital version was one of many decisions that were taken over the course of this academic year preparing SCOPE | Economics for the future. We are celebrating our ten-‐year anniversary this year and are internally preparing ourselves to begin another ten successful years! My personal highlight of this magazine, besides the many interesting articles on the impact of major sports events on the economy, that our Publication Committee has edited this year, is an interview with the founders of the IES Network, now the SCOPE | Economics you know. The interview gives answers to many interesting questions all of us, Actives and the Board of SCOPE | Economics, have. Rediscovering our roots and the ideas of our founders were important for us this year as we worked on our vision for the next decade. Our academic events are more popular than ever before, our trips fully booked and our career events packed and well evaluated from both students and companies. We hope this boards’ successors will continue extending SCOPE | Economics’ network in Maastricht and in the company world. We hope to further build on the relationships we have with companies in many industries and on relationships with institutions that we are just now starting to build. It was a project of more than one year for the IES Network to be recognized by Maastricht University and it took many more years for the IES Network to grow in popularity and recognition within Maastricht. We are proud to be members and leaders of an organization that continuously strives to deliver enriching events to the students of Maastricht. Dear reader, enjoy reading the Scoponomist, we hope to see you at our next event! Yours sincerely,

Konstantin Kaufmann President SCOPE | Economics 2014-‐15

Table of Content

Preface

News Highlights 2014

The Eﬀect of Major Sport Events on the Economy

The Lacking Sustainability of World Cup Expenditures and Possible Solutions

IES Network Interview

London City Trip

UC Berkeley Fall 2014

Alumni Interview

Foreign Trip to Tokyo

News Highlights 2014 The Eastern Europe Immigration Jan.01.2014 –Romania and Bulgaria members of the European Union since 2007, are with beginning of 2014 fully integrated in Europe, the people of Romania and Bulgaria have as like other European citizens free and unlimited access to the European labor market. Western European countries for instance Germany, Great Britain and France are viewed by the Eastern European Immigrants as rich countries. Therefore many people from Bulgaria and Romania view the immigration as a chance to achieve higher living standards, better education and a chance to escape the grayness and poorness of their home country. In the contrary western European citizens are skeptical of this new pan-‐European immigration movement, the public and many politicians are fearing “poverty immigration” and it´s fueling an European wide debate about Immigration. Mayors in major cities in Germany are claiming that the cities are not prepared about the massive immigration in the cities. Whereas politicians like Horst Seehover wants to clarify with the statement “Those who cheats will be kicked”(“ Wer betrügt, der ﬂiegt”),that immigrants are not allowed to be unemployed and simultaneously get ﬁnancial support from the government.

Sotchi Feb.07.2014 -‐ Sotchi located at the south west of Russia at the black sea, is the new scene of the winter Olympics. The opening ceremony was based on the history and tradition of Russia in the 20th century, besides that ballet and classic music of Russia has also been addressed.

2873 athletes from 88 nations compete in 6 locations. Russia was with 13 gold medals, 11 silver medals and 9 bronze medals the leading country, Norway with 26 total medals second and Canada with 25 total medals the third. Even though the Olympic Games was a successful promotion strategy for Russia, the infrastructure in Sotchi was temporary very poor and many athletes did not even had running water. In addition political circumstances in Russia like the prohibition of homosexuality have been also criticized.

Sanctions against Russia March.06.2014 -‐ After Russia annexing Crimea, the United States of America (USA) started the first round of sanctions against Russia at the beginning of March. Three different sanction rounds with different countries participating were approved during that year. Up to this time a civil war in Ukraine was developing and the political changes in Ukraine are in close connection with progress of the sanctions but before any sanctions from the USA or the European Union were decided, thousands of people in Ukraine were demonstrating against the autocratic and corrupt regime of Viktor Yanukovych. Viktor Yanukovych was removed from his position and a new parliament was voted from the citizens of Ukraine. This new parliament changes their former political orientation from Russia dominated interests toward the European Union. This change offers for Ukraine positive potential change for the citizens and the policy of the country. The other side of the story is that east European countries as like Latvia and

Estonia were integrated in the militaristic organization NATO after the membership in the European Union which is of course not in the interest of Russia because it is led by the former enemy USA and therefore Ukraine is seen as aggressor. At the end, the Ukraine conﬂict was also the revival of the cold war between the US-‐ president Barack Obama and the Russian president Vladimir Putin with mutual allegation and menaces, but the major sacriﬁce have been paid by Ukraine. Although the sanctions hit Russia at his heard and the ruble-‐dollar exchange rose to 50 ruble for 1 Dollar and the oil and gas price fall hit the Russian economy, the Russian government is not willing to change the political course.

European election Jul.01.2014 -‐ Until the beginning of July the citizens in the European Union had the opportunity to elect the new European parliament. The party with the most votes is the Group of the European People's Party, which is mostly based on Cristian-‐traditional parties (29.43%) and the Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats became with 25.43% the second largest party in the parliament.

European Separation Movement Sep.18.2014 -‐ 2014 was also the year of some separation movements across few European countries; this movement was in the case of Great Britain and Spain most prominent and p e a ke d i n t h e S co tt i s h i n d e p e n d e n ce referendum. The history of independence movements within European countries is not very old, in the 1959 the ETA a terrorist organization was formed to force a separation of the Basque Country from Spain and also IRA (Irish Republic Armey) used terror attacks to

force the reintegration of north Ireland into the Republic of Ireland from the government of the United Kingdom. Despite the failed separation of these regions, the peaceful independence movement in 2014 was reasonable in the opinions of many experts. Regions as like Scotland, Catalonia or the Basque Country have got high GDP´s and they don’t see themselves responsible for the debt overhang of the whole country, but also the island as Sardinia view the separation as chance to reach better ﬁnancial situation. In the particular case of the Scotland referendum 55% voted against the independence of Scotland but also the referendum of the autonomic region of Catalonia remained without any eﬀect because the supreme court of Spain stopped it. Although the political map of Europe after the independence of these regions would look very i n te re s t i n g, t h i s s e p a ra t i o n wo u l d b e destabilizing for the EU and the European community.

Nobel Price for Economics Oct.13.2014 -‐ One of the most influential theoretical economists of our time has received for his analysis of market power and regulation the Nobel Prize for Economic Science. Jean Tirol studied the dominance of oligopolies or monopolies on the market. In these markets the oligopoly companies are unregulated, build cartels and block the market entry for other possible competitors and leaving the costumer paying higher prices in these markets and other undesired effects. The economist focused his work on a theory that unify the market power whereby central policy questions are the focal point. Jean Tirol from the Toulouse School of Economics provided general frameworks for industry specific policies.

American Midterm election Nov.05.2014 -‐ The mid-‐term election in the USA is regarded as referendum on the prevailed party performance. In this election 34 of 50 States of United States of America elect new governors; this election represent to a certain extend the current public opinion of the American President. In the mid term election in 2014 the republicans achieved 6 more seats on the house of senate then the democrats because of the general unpopularity of Barack Obama and the republicans increased also their grip on the house of representatives.

Arabia invest even more in the domestic oil ﬁelds, unimpressed of the danger for Saudi Arabia the country’s interest is to keep its leading position in oil exportation, as like the oil minister Ali Al-‐Nami said “when the oil price is falling then it is falling…we don’t care”.

The oil price slump Dec.08.2014 -‐ The brand oil price sunk during 2014 nearly by 50% from 100 dollar to nearly 50 dollar but also the Dollar price for crude oil reduced. The reasons for the decreasing oil price lies in the geographical and climate change in the world and also the new exploiting wracking method from the USA diminish the demand for oil from oil exporting countries as like Russia or Saudi Arabia. In a speech President Obama clarified the importance of oil for the economy and the target of oil independence for the next decades. These developments urged OPEC the leading organization of oil producing countries to constitute a conference. One Strategy of OPEC could be to keep the oil in the refineries to certain period where the international supply is decreased and the price of oil is increased in the long-‐term. Nevertheless the future for the oil exporting countries is uncertain because the oil price also determines the household income for instance Venezuela and Russia need a dollar price of 60 till 90 for a profitable trade transaction of oil in the international market. In contrast Saudi

The Effect of Major Sport Events on the Economy Cities and regions are investing billions of dollars in major sport events such as the Olympic Games or the FIFA Football World Cup. The main economic benefit for a region comes from the consumption by visitors during the event and increased tourism in the post-‐event period. For that reason an increasing number of countries are seeking to host such events. In recent years, there has been increased interest in the idea of promoting development of urban areas and change through hosting major sport events. This approach offers host cities the possibility of rapid urban transformation. It is also a stimulus for economic growth, improved transport and cultural facilities and, last but not least, enhanced global recognition and prestige. To illuminate the impact that hosting such events has on the city’s economy, it is worth mentioning the Barcelona Olympic Games held 1992 as this seem to be the perfect example. Barcelona’s dream about hosting an Olympics that would achieve the highest levels of human and sporting quality eventually came true. In the process of preparing for the Games, the city i t s e l f u n d e r we n t a r e m a r k a b l e u r b a n transformation. Not only were the Barcelona Games a total success in terms of organisation and sport but, what is more important, the urban transformation generated by the Games had far-‐reaching positive economic and social impacts. Also, Barcelona has been highly successful in harnessing the momentum and legacy of the Games. As a result, in 2001, the city was ranked as the Europe’s sixth most attractive.

The impact of the city’s nomination as Olympic host city was immediate: unemployment underwent a significant fall, the housing market rose from the dead and, of course, the construction industry underwent a tremendous boom. However, one decade later, it is surprising to find that this expansive trend continues. Every year since has seen new growth records on all indicators: employment, investment, income, attractiveness, etc. Not only did Barcelona react well to the Games, it succeeded in maintaining the growth generated, on a scale never seen before. Looking at Barcelona Games and their remarkable results one may conclude that this solution should be implemented to help developing countries. But is this really the case? Historically the International Olympic Committee has awarded the Olympic Games to western, industrialized nations. Only the 1968 and 1988 Games hosted by Mexico City and Seoul, respectively, and the 1984 Winter Games in Sarajevo had been held in developing nations. Recently cities from developing nations have increased their interest in having the right to host these prestigious events. However, the experience of developing nations hosting a mega-‐event may differ significantly from that of a developed nation. The expenditure required for infrastructure is expected to be obviously much higher in developing nations. As well as the Olympic Games, the FIFA World Cup attracts attention of millions of people around the world and, at the same time, generates substantial costs.

Before the 1994 World Cup, the United States spent less than $30 million on infrastructure improvements since the country could easily provide nine facilities (already existing before) that met FIFA standards for hosting the event. On the other hand, in 2002 South Korea needed to build its stadium infrastructure from scratch, spending around $2 billion on ten new arenas. Similarly, South Africa, hosting the 2010 World Cup, required signiﬁcant renovation of its stadiums in order to meet FIFA’s demands. Probably other potential hosts would have needed even more massive building programs.

How could there be money for a 46,000-‐seat stadium while many of them still fetch water from dirty puddles and live without electricity or toilets? A motive for exaggerating the impact of a mega-‐ event clearly exists. However, cities and countries should be more careful in evaluating booster promises of a manna from heaven and ﬁnancial windfall from hosting a sports mega-‐ event such as the World Cup and Olympics before committing substantial public resources to such an event. In fact, hosting such major events may be more of a burden than an honor.

The opportunity cost of capital may also be particularly high in developing nations. From an economic point of view, the cost of building a new stadium is not best described by the amount of money needed to build the facility but rather the value to society from the same amount of capital spent on the next best public project. The extent to which newly constructed sports facilities represent a good public investment depends not only on the immediate economic impact of the mega-‐event. It is also strictly connected with the usage of the facility after the event. Sport and entertainment is a luxury good. Therefore, the demand for sports infrastructure after the FIFA World Cup or the Olympics will likely be lower in developing nations than in developed countries. To illustrate the scale of the problem let us have a closer look. Riddled with allegations of corruption the football and rugby stadium was constructed in Nelspruit (South Africa) for the 2010 FIFA World Cup, generating a cost of $137 million. Now, people living nearby the Mbombela, proud as they were to host this great sport event, probably keep asking themselves:

The Lacking Sustainability of World Cup Expenditures and Possible Solutions The football world cup took place in Brazil last year and in South Africa five years ago. Both of these countries have big social issues and a big part of the people living in poverty, raising the question if the great expenditure for organising such an event is appropriate under those circumstances and if it is able to change the overall situation. As it was first announced that South Africa would host the world cup the enthusiasm among the people was big, it was seen as a big opportunity for the country not only to demonstrate how they finally mastered their past but also to boost their economy with big investments in the country´s infrastructure. After the games however it turned out not to be as expected, the unemployment is still at a similar level, the situation of the people hardly changed and many of the old stadiums are almost empty. The public perception in Brazil was different, the country faced rage and anger among the people before the games started. Many people protested against spending money for a sport event, while some people are still suffering from poverty. The negative development in South Africa reinforced the people`s hostilities towards the world cup and in fact many issues are similar to the situation four years ago, many stadiums will probably not be used after the games and a big part of the infrastructure is only needed for the world cup and yields no future benefits.

should always be socially responsible and go together with structural changes. Besides that fact such big events are however still very important for emerging markets like Brazil and South Africa as they are able to generate attention about the culture and situation of the people. Furthermore it should be the spirit of such tournaments to involve the whole world and thus it should also be possible for developing countries to host such an event. Hence in order to fulfil its natural aim the FIFA should definitely try to stick to a more sustainable concept and respect the state of development in the host countries. The IOC recently came up with a proposal to decrease the expenditure needed for the Olympic Games and to increase common support for host countries. The FIFA should take this as a model for own operations to ensure the future of the football World Cup as a multicultural event bringing the world together, rather than a unaffordable expenditure for developing countries.

These two examples do not generally show that such events are economically inconvenient for such countries but they show that organizing such an event is not enough for enhancing the country`s performance. Such expenditures

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IES Network Interview In early 2004, one bright economics student visited the Maastricht Finance Days organized by SCOPE | FOCUS. He realized that although there were different study associations for the topics of accounting, econometrics, finance, management and marketing, there was none which focused on the topics of economics. Together with a few other IES and Infonomics students he came up with the idea of starting a study associations that focuses on topics related to the field of Economics. That was the moment the IES Network, which changed its name to SCOPE | Economics in 2011, was born. It took the IES Network over a year to become a recognized study association of the SBE. They started with organizing lectures with friends who, over time, became the Active Members of the organization. They met with their Actives to discuss current economics topics: something we today call EconRound. During the first years the organization overcame many challenges. In 2011, the IES Network became part of the newly created SCOPE framework and changed its name to SCOPE | Economics. What started over 10 years ago with a few friends’ passion for the topic of Economics is now SCOPE | Economics. Today, we have almost 800 passive and 40 Active Members. Nils Holinski and Robert Vermeulen are the co-‐ founders of the IES Network. For our 10 year anniversary we decided to interview them and ask them about the roots of the organization.

1. What made you choose Maastricht University for your Bachelor? Robert: I knew from the beginning that I wanted to study Economics. I was looking for an international program in which all courses were in English. When we started studying it was not common to have a completely English-‐speaking program. This was one of the main advantages of M a a s t r i c h t ! Fu r t h e r m o re , s t u d y i n g i n Maastricht allowed me to commute from my parents’ home to the university. Nils: It was pure luck. Back then UM was well known in the cities close to the the Dutch border. I visited a fair in Leverkusen. My aunt told me about Maastricht University after she read that all courses were taught in English. I also visited the the university during one of the Bachelor Open Days and that is how I got to know Maastricht University. Furthermore, Robert and I were in the ﬁrst batch of students studying in the Bachelor/Master System. There was no Bachelor/Master system in Germany at that point in time and no program which was entirely taught in English. These were the two key aspects for me to eventually come to Maastricht. We both ended up studying at Maastricht University for 8 years and we both received our PhDs in 2010.

2. How did you meet each other? Robert: We met during one of the tutorials. Back then only a few people studied Economics. We were between 50 to 60 students in around 4 tutorial groups.

Nils: For us it was a lot when we had around 150 members in the IES Network, because it implied that almost every IBE, IES and Infonomics students was a member of the organization.

Network and continued organizing them.

3. How did you come up with the idea of creating the IES Network?

Robert: I agree with that. I really learned a lot from a board position. You learn how the faculty works from the inside and you meet interesting people. It really enriched my studies by learning diﬀerent skills which were not part of the standard curriculum.

Robert: The most relevant factor was that there was no study association which covered the subject of Economics. We felt that something was missing. Nils: I attended a career event organized by FOCUS and recognized that something similar is missing for Economics students. From time to time we had guest lectures as part of the standard curriculum, but we could not inﬂuence who the speaker was and the topic they were talking about. As a study association we could select interesting speakers and topics that interested us. Robert: We felt that we could not organized such activities within the other, already existing, study associations. For example, a very important activity in the ﬁrst year was our congress: “Fifteen Year Anniversary of the Maastricht Treaty”. Its hard to imagine that we could have organized such an event in one of the other study associations.

4. How did founding the study associations impact your student life? Nils: It was deﬁnitely a very enriching experience. Since we were a small group of students, it felt more like organizing things with friends. Prior to founding the organization we regularly had coﬀee with friends in the afternoon and discussed economics-‐related topics. We just included such events in the IES

Those who joined knew each other very well and just spend time together and eventually became active within the IES Network.

Nils: We had a very good contact to the head of the Economics Department Prof. Dr. Joan Muysken. The whole department was very open to our initiative and supported us a lot. We met many people we would not have met without the organization.

5. Why do you believe that study associations are important for student life? Robert: Its a important to make a distinction between a study association and a student association. In a study association you learn a lot and they give you a possibility to organize activities, which are very difficult to organize without the framework. We had lectures from the beginning with always different interesting topics ranging from health economics to the e ffe c t o f i n fo r m a t i o n te c h n o l o g i e s o n economics. I believe that such lectures can be very enriching and show students different aspects of what they study. Nils: If you have an idea for new events you need to go somewhere to put it into practice. Study associations help students who have new ideas to put their ideas in place. Its fun to be with people who were like-‐minded and work towards a common goal. From the beginning we were all people who had similar interests and the same

enthusiasm for organizing events. We wanted to organize events that interested us ourselves. We assumed that others would share this interest and would attend our events as well. Usually this worked out very well.

6. What was the original vision of the IES Network? What was your idea for the future of the organization? Nils: Its a bit difficult to answer. I am not quite sure if we had long term vision. We focused more on the “now” when we founded the organization and not so much on the future. In the beginning it was more of a struggle to become accepted by the different stakeholders. It was not so easy to be accepted by other e x i s t i n g a s s o c i a t i o n s wh o fe a re d t h a t competition would increase. We were a very informal study association, less formal than the association is today. There was no official recruitment where you had to submit your CV. We knew each other and there were always people interested in contributing time to the organization. For me it was more about having a group of people with similar interests who were enthusiastic about the events the organized. Robert: Although we did not have a long term view in mind when we started the organization, we were a bit forward looking. We established a supervisory board whose task it was to keep the long-‐term focus. Furthermore we developed statues that would ensure continuity. Our goal was to establish a stable study association which would last through time. We did not have a clear a vision of where we wanted to go. We were very flexible and it was our goal to organize academic, career and social activities.

Nils: When we came up with the idea for a new study association, we talked to the Economics Department first. Joan Muysken was very enthusiastic, but he also mentioned to us that there was a prior attempt to start an Economics-‐association which was unsuccessful. It was very important to him that we were recognized formally by the university as well as by other stakeholders. We went to the notary and created formal statutes. We were too occupied with short term challenges, so that we did not have time to develop a long-‐term vision. For us it was very important that the study association would last and that people would be serious about it. Robert: You cannot forget that it took us one and a half years from planting the idea to being recognized by the university. We had the idea in early 2004 but we became an official association in 2005. Nils: Our very first activity was a lecture by Joan Muysken about labor economics. He had just published a new book and he presented the basic ideas and concepts of this books. This was our first activity. We organized that as a subgroup of the EFM Academy (now part of SCOPE Maastricht), where we organized ourselves initially. This was for the very first month and afterwards we took off and became more and more independent. We also introduced extra tutorials for the first year Micro and Macro courses. Unlike the extra tutorials of EFM Academy, these tutorials were free of charge. We knew some third year and master students who had an advanced understanding of the topic. Because there were so few Economics students, we were more like a big family and it was our plan to help each other out.

It was a bit idealistic but it shows the spirit we had in our organization back then.

7. What were the struggles of the organisation during the first year? Nils: One of the problems we had in the beginning was to have funds for organizing events. Robert: We received a start up subsidy from the faculty in order to pay for the notary and the startup costs. Because we did not receive any membership fees we had to be creative. We have received a lot of help from the department for organizing academic events. Nils: We did not have any continuous funding. Each time we wanted to create a new event we had too look for a new partner, which was often the Economics Department, to organize the event with. It helped that we could use the SBE facilities for evening lectures, this reduced our funding cost. Later when we organized events or trips to other cities, we planned them in a way that they would be self-‐supporting. Robert: After the lectures we went to the Preuverij and kept on discussing the topic we had the lecture on to some drinks. The Economics Department and the speakers often joined us as well.

8. What were the most important skills and theories you learned in your bachelor that you still value today? Robert: For me the broad macroeconomic picture was very important. The diﬀerent Economics courses in my bachelor still help me when studying the diﬀerent aspects of the

economy. The ability to recognize a problem and to find a solution in a structured manner. It is probably the most important skill I learned during my time at Maastricht University. Nils: It not only about you learning about an individual theory. Its more about being analytical! To know that you can encounter a complex economic situation, to have a structured approach to it and to find a solution. For me though it is not only important to find a structured solution but also to be able to present it and to be able to express oneself. These abilities are essential to the PBL approach and they still help me today.

10. Where do you work now? Robert: I now work as a researcher at the De Nederlandsche Bank. I conduct academic research in international finance by combining macroeconomics, finance and econometrics. I am also working in a group responsible for macroeconomic modeling and forecasting. Every half year we forecast, among others, GDP growth and unemployment and we use a model with between four to five hundred variables to generate forecasts. Every half year we forecast, among others, GDP growth and unemployment and we use a model with between four to five hundred variables to generate forecasts. One of the big projects I currently work on is including a banking sector in our macroeconomic model of the Dutch economy. In this project micro, macro, finance, banking, accounting and econometrics all come together. Nils: I now work for KPMG in Germany. I work in the Transfer Pricing Department. We advise multinational companies on how to set prices for products within the company group.

According to the OECD, approximately two t h i rd s o f wo rl dw i d e t ra d e i s b e t we e n international divisions of the same company. For instance many companies produce their parts worldwide and assemble the ﬁnal product at yet another location. We advise clients on the price tag they put on the products they shift between the diﬀerent locations of a company. The team I work in consist approximately of one third lawyers, one third people with a business administration background and another third economists.

Robert: My advice is that if you miss something, you can go for it. You can succeed and you can fail. Failing is fine as long as you try! Nils: Enjoy your studies, be curious and follow your interests. Students always should be curious enough to question the theory they learn in the books! Another advise of mine is that students should do something next to their studies. Maastricht has a variety of organization that offer many different possibilities.

11. What do you like most about your job? Robert: The most interesting thing is the variety. As you know there are a lot of things going on in the central bank world at this time. This creates a lot of interesting questions that need to be answered. In the research department at De Nederlandsche Bank you have a lot of academic freedom to engage in this research. The academic freedom and the excitement of the central bank environment are what I like most. Nils: The variety of challenges I encounter is also one of the things I like most about my job. It is project-‐based and each project is different. I get to know about many different industries. I have completed projects in the natural resources industry as well as the retailing and car manufacturing industry. You are able to encounter a lot of different companies and value chains.

12. Thank you very much for all the great insights you gave us. What would be your advice to current students?

Vertel als student maar eens aan een financiĂŤle instelling dat de balans niet op orde is.

Een masterclass in het zenuwcentrum van de economie? Schrijf je in op werkenbijdnb.nl DNB zet je op scherp.

London City Trip Report Surprisingly, we met a former president of the IES Network, the predecessor to SCOPE | Economics. From PwC, we went to Strada, a nice Italian restaurant around the corner. We then rounded of our ﬁrst day with a beautiful walk around the city at night.

On the 12th of November 2014, 20 students of Maastricht University School of Business and Economics met at the train station to set oﬀ on a four day adventure in London. After taking the train from Maastricht to Eindhoven, we took an overnight bus to Calais, where the ferry awaited to take us to Dover. Due to someone jumping overboard on the previous ferry, we arrived in London a couple hours later than expected.

We started the next day with a wonderful hostel style continental breakfast consisting of plain toast and cereal. The ﬁrst company of the day was the highly reputed rating agency Standard and Poor’s (S&P), whose building is located at Canary Warf, one of London’s main business districts. While having a view of one of their competitor’s buildings, Fitch, we were given a presentation on the procedure behind ratings and what they mean. Afterwards we enjoyed a light lunch and casual chat with some S&P employees. Our last company visit of the trip was Bloomberg L.P.

Having decided not to go to the first company, which was the Institute of Economic Affairs, we had more time to get suited and booted at the hostel before heading to Charles River Associates (CRA). This global consultancy firm, headquartered in Boston, gave us insights into financial and economic issues such as mergers and acquisitions. With an empty stomach we enthusiastically went to PwC, where we were able to negotiate on some snacks to eat. After being impressed by their brand new building by the river Thames, we were even more impressed by their presentation on economic consulting on market reforms, foundations for growth, disputes and investigation.

We were overwhelmed by their modern and sustainable values, working practices and employee engagement. We got to know interesting stories about the company, such as the fact that they have the biggest private aquarium collection, which includes a shark in the sales in the sales department! Having completed the business side of the trip, we turned to the social side, but not before going to Nando’s – a ﬁrst for some people! Suits oﬀ and party clothes on, we headed to Fabric – the fourth best club in the world, and it didn’t disappoint. The last day we separated into groups and went sight seeing around the city. We were all very sad when we had to head back to Victoria station to travel back to Maastricht Saturday night.

To sum up, we can happily say that this city trip by SCOPE | Economics was a major success, from both an academic and social perspective.

We would like to thank the City Trip Committee, Caroline, Anabelle, Tim and Ege, for giving us the opportunity to experience this adventure together!

UC Berkeley Fall 2014 The wide range of partner universities students are able to select among at the SBE has always been the main reason why I chose to study in Maastricht. Therefore, I got even more excited when I ﬁnally received the e-‐mail about my allocation to UC Berkeley.

My adventure in the Golden State started at the end of August. Since I arrived one week early and wanted to get some insights into the entrepreneurial spirit of the Bay area as well as to meet some local students, I decided to participate in a four-‐day entrepreneurship crash-‐ course, the so-‐called ‘Berkeley Method of Entrepreneurship Bootcamp’. Having entered the class without any further anticipations, I was very astonished when I found myself next to extremely ambitious students ready to start their own company as well as investors looking for the ‘next big thing’. My own team even found an ‘Angle Investor’ who was very interested in our idea and with whom we became good friends.

To give us more advice on our project, after the classes’ end he continued to invite us to watch baseball, for pizza with the Chief Editor of the Economist as well as for Thanksgiving. Captivated by the entrepreneurial spirit of the Bay Area, it was time to move into I-‐house-‐ the place to live when you are up to meeting international people, traveling and just lots of fun. The semester at Berkeley started with the ‘recruiting week’ of the Greek society, which is basically when all the fraternities are having huge parties every night to recruit new members. Educated with movies like ‘American Pie’ I felt I knew what to expect. Regarding beer pong, red cups and lots of alcohol I was right. I was not prepared for Parties at which arriving around 10 is considered late and which do not rarely get shut down by the police already at 1. However, thanks to the I-‐house game room we were usually able to start an After Party.

Coming to daily life, Berkeley is also quite diﬀerent from Maastricht. Next to the diversity of students, the beautiful campus with speciﬁcally for Nobel-‐laureates reserved parking slots, especially students’ pride in their university was remarkable.

Everyone seemed to wear at least one Cal (how Berkeley is also called) item at all times. Another great aspect of studying at Berkeley is the wide range of courses. I chose to take Negotiations, Leadership, Public Finance, Investment Management and American Politics-‐ Campaign Strategies. Among these I most enjoyed the two latter ones. In the investment management which was taught by a portfolio-‐manager of Fisher Investment, we discussed current developments in financial markets, listened to lectures by professionals from all functions of the investment management firm and finally had the assignment to construct our own investment portfolio. In my favorite class on politics we had to develop the campaign strategy for a potential presidential candidate in the 2016 election. In my opinion, this was a great and more indirect way to learn about the political system of the US. The professor, who ran as candidate for Secretary of State in California last year himself and developed the campaign for McCain in 2000, was a great source of advice also on personal career planning. He even arranged a personal meeting with the US-‐ambassador in Berlin for me.

Of course, traveling as much as possible was one of my priorities. However, I also had to learn how complicated planning trips could get when too many people from very diﬀerent cultures want to join. Next to the ‘usual’ road trip down Highway 101 to San Diego, I had the chance to visit Lake Tahoe, Silicon Valley, Vegas, Grand Canyon, Palm Springs, Joshua tree and Yosemite national park and even saw a huge bear right next to me in the Sequoia Park. Sadly, the semester was over much sooner than expected. However, it was one of the greatest experiences in my life and I am already looking forward to return some day in the future. Text and Photos by: Anna Helmke

Alumni Interview 3 . W hy d i d yo u c h o o s e t h e specialization Economics and Management of Information (more commonly known as Infonomics)?

Meet Heiko Lampe, Senior Manager Financial Performance Management Systems at Phillips. In his free time he plays computer games and goes jogging.

Infonomics was another gut-‐feeling decision. During the information day I met the ﬁrst Infonomics year ever. I liked the people and the bond they had formed (since it was just 1 tutorial group in the entire year). I also enjoyed the freedom Infonomics could give me in my choices, enabling me to re-‐create either a full Economics track or go for a solid economic foundation with a lot of added topics. The latter option, to learn how to become the linking pin to other disciplines was what ﬁnally hooked me.

1. Why did you decide to study Economics and Business Economics?

4. Why would you recommend the I n f o n o m i c s t ra c k t o c u r r e n t students?

I worked in a bank before and thus economics felt close to home. Initially I was enrolled in IB, but a friend of mine, who was studying economics, told me to call UM to switch. I have never regretted listening to him.

Every big company uses IT. A lot of IT. All this to shape data into information and then insight. Although the tools are getting easier to use, there is the need for people that can serve as an interpreter between the normal world of business and the more IT heavy areas. Studying Infonomics can shape you in such a person and open a lot of opportunities and a lot of freedom, while still ensuring that you have a solid basis to stand on.

2. Why did you decide to study at Maastricht University? I thought I was lazy and lacked the drive to study without some sort of pressure. Having seen UM with PBL years earlier, I felt motivated by the small groups and the requirement for me to be able to explain to the others the correct solutions. I always liked teaching and used this thought as my intrinsic motivation. I had the feeling that UM would enable me to get the best out of me to be a good student.

5. What were the most important skills and theories you learned in your bachelor that you still value today? Team-‐work and being able to get a lot of information and ﬁlter out what I really need to

know. Also, being able to take a step back here and there and look at the total picture.

6. You were one of the founding members of the IES Network (now known as SCOPE | Economics). What was the most valuable experience you received from your time in the organization. Apart from recruiting my current wife from the second IES board, I fondly remember the passion my fellow networkers had for Economics and to bring economic topics to the attention of other students. I was more responsible for some of the social activities and happily think back of the Active Members Weekend and smaller events I helped to organize.

the whole of Philips worldwide. I am seen as an expert in my area and can inﬂuence and even shape the direction Philips as an organization is heading. I know that without me we would not be where we are today (at least in my little area).

9. Thank you very much for all the great insights you gave us. What would be your advice to current students? You and I are in the privileged position that we will never need to worry about satisfying our basic needs … so don’t. Study what interests you, ﬁnd a job that excites you and in general follow your passion.

7. You now work at Phillips. What exactly are you doing there? After various positions I worked for the last 3 years as the linking pin between IT and the ﬁnance department. The Finance people in Philips use a lot of applications to gather the information you need to steer a company of 113000 people and I was responsible to make sure that they could address potential problems to the right people and that these people would understand what was needed to be done. Recently, I have become responsible for the planning and forecast process and introduced a new process and toolset to the organization to be used to speed up and improve our worldwide process of forecasting.

8. What do you like most about your job? I have the freedom to take decisions that aﬀect

Foreign Trip to Tokyo Tokyo, Japan - Foreign Trip to the country of the rising sun This year’s foreign trip went to Tokyo, Japan. 24 students accompanied by a tutor got the chance to visit the GDP wise 3rd largest country of the world. Being located on an island, Japan has a traditionally quite “isolated” position in the world in the sense of preserving most of the country speciﬁc cultural traits in a society which consists to 98 (!) % of Japanese people. Immigration is hardly existent and English is known only by the minority of people in the streets-‐ a challenge, which we tried to overcome by extended use of sign language and by having the comfort of having one student in our group who was able to speak Japanese. Luckily for us, looking ahead to the Olympic Summer Games in 2020, the Japanese government started to introduce street signs and the like in Roman and not solely Japanese letters which made navigating our way through the urban jungle much easier.

Rush hour at Tokyo Central Station: overcrowded but the Japanese travel in absolute silence!

Tokyo is the epicentre of the country, consisting of more than 30 million residents, which makes it the largest metropolitan area in the world. Having this city as destination for this year’s Foreign Trip opened to us the opportunity to get first hand insights in the secrets of Japanese business. From our hostel to the Japanese way of doing business, it is true that Japan is way different to anything we were used to from Europe. The first thing to do in the hostel was taking shoes off, the same held for traditional restaurants we went to.

In Japan wearing shoes inside the house is very impolite and Japanese people are by far the politest people I have met so far. This taking-‐ our-‐shoes-‐off custom and general Japanese habits and ways of living resulted in the hostel being exceptionally clean (the same held for the city itself). Staying with ten people in a room of small size was at times nerve racking but other than that worked out better than expected: we definitely adapted to the Japanese way of saving space! The common room also offered a traditional Japanese feeling in the sense that the tables were so low that we had to sit on the floor. In the streets bowing was common practice and we learned that the same politeness is displayed in Japanese businesses.

We had the great opportunity to visit a wide range of companies and institutions-‐ having something to ofer for everyone: IBE, IES and Information and Network Economics students. One of our ﬁrst stops was the visit of the Dutch embassy – the lady could give us some interesting information about the historic development of Japan as well as how she as a foreigner perceived living with her family in Tokyo (weekly earthquake trainings included). Other visits included the EU delegation in Japan, the Tokyo Stock Exchange and the Fujitsu Research Institute. Furthermore, we had the great opportunity to visit the IMF and listen to the CEOs of DHL and Philipps. During those visits we learned that even in today’s fast moving world, Japanese businesses still heavily rely on long term relationships. Business only happens after completing several dinner rounds and other relatively informal events, in order to ensure you know with whom you are working. Nothing happens in days but everything takes time. However, this also implies that once a business relation is established, the Japanese stick to their word and are very unlikely to drop out and change supplier or the like.

For all future Economists among us, it was especially interesting to learn more about “Abenomics”-‐ the economic strategy introduced by Prime Minister Abe in order to fight Japan’s long lasting deflation. After having heard different opinions about the three arrows on which Abenomics is built (extensive quantitative easing, fiscal stimulus and structural reforms s u c h a s l i b e ra l i s a t i o n a n d p ro m o t i n g investment) we are all curious to observe the news and to see to which extent these policies will be successful to help Japan to return to old s t r e n g t h , s o m e t h i n g w h i c h w a s y e t unforeseeable during our stay in Tokyo.

When not being on “mission” in our business outfits there was a great variety of things to do in Tokyo. One of many highlights was definitely watching the world cup football matches in a Japanese bar having a crowd of super friendly Japanese in the back, cheering for the Netherlands, Germany or whatever team we were supporting-‐ for this experience it was definitely worth waiting until 2 or 4am, the time the world cup matches would start in Japanese time.

Next to Japanese bars (also loads of Karaoke ones of course), Tokyo has a lot more to oﬀer: from the famous Shibuya crossing (packed during the day as well as during the night) to the Tokyo Imperial Palace and the impressive Edo museum, displaying the history of Tokyo, and of course the famous Fish market where they sell the biggest Tuna I have ever seen. Another highlight was the relatively cheap (all thanks to the depreciation of the Yen in the previous year) and high quality Sushi. You could even see the kitchen chefs taking the ﬁsh out of the aquarium and preparing it in front of you!

After two weeks, however, most of us were craving European salty bread or at least food diﬀerent from rice, even though I am sure by now most of us are missing the super fresh Japanese Sushi again. All in all, I am conﬁdent to say that we all had a great time and returned with more knowledge about economics, business and culture in Japan as well as many memories to keep.

Finally, big thanks to the Foreign Trip Committee, Rafael Veiel, Roos Vegting and Vera Schmickler who made this trip possible through their great work throughout the academic year and the trip itself!

Thank you. We would like to thank all our sponsors for their support as well as the companies we were able to visit for their cooperation.