Januari is over

January is a depressing month. The month that shows you that all your New Year's resolutions are intentions rather than actual plans. It is also the month of exams for Block 2. Although I planned to start working on papers and exams early, I found myself finishing them at 6 AM. Both EPPM-courses in Block 2 were graded by the combination of an exam and a paper. My background in political science has taught me a lot about writing papers, so these were more satisfying for me. My exams went alright, but they only test the general knowledge I got out of the book, while I prefer to research a specific topic in-depth. That was possible in the papers. We were lucky that the word limits turned out to be more suggestions than actual limits, since political scientists tend to use a lot of words to explain their arguments.

The second block builds on the first. After we learned the basics in block one, both on Public Economcics as on Statistics, the courses in Block 2 (Public Risk Management and Policy Competition in an International World) use these basics to discuss current issues on social security. How do pension or health care systems work? Does migration lead to a race to the bottom in social security spending? The debates we discussed are very relevant today and the topics of our papers were actually in the news last month.

At first we wrote a paper on possibilities to include the self-employed in the social security system, especially via the Dutch Broodfonds-iniative. The highest official of the ministry of Economic Affairs raised the same issue in that week. The other paper proposed plans to include EU-migrants into social security systems and this time the WRR – the Dutch Scientific Council for Government Policy – proposed the same plans only 10 hours after we handed in our paper.

In the past two decades we have seen that we cannot longer just let the economy rule our society, we have to make political decisions on where we want our economy and our social security to go. At EPPM we cover the same issues that are covered in the news or amongst politicians right now. One point of critique though; seeing these debates are fought right now, it was slightly disappointing that both courses used textbooks that were already more than 10 years old. But a wide variety of recent articles did partly make up for that. I passed both courses, so we're done with that now. Next week I'll tell something about my new course: Energy and Environmental Policies. February has started at last.

Back to reality

Hi everyone!

As you can very well see (or read) I made it it safe and sound back from the snowy mountains of France. (even though I missed my flight at first place!) Although this little ski trip may not be study related, I am writing about it to let you know that after the exams you have each period, (4 times a year) you have 2 weeks of freedom :D (given that you did not fail any of your previous exams...) So its quite a good incentive to study! Just so you know, in Financial accouting I got an 8.0 which is a really nice grade especially comapared to the 5.0 I scored in Microeconomics...which means that next time there is no holiday for me :-(
Anyway the two new courses I have are Statistics and since I did not choose a minor, Marketing. They both are really interesting but seem really hard too! Meanwhile I found a part-time job in a really nice Kafé so you can imagine how happy I am about it as a student.
If that wouldn't be enough, one of my friends from hungary is visiting me the coming week and another one promised to do the same in the following months.

Now I must turn my attention back to my studies, but you will hear from me soon again.

Have fun,
Bence

New blogger: Economics of Public Policy and Management

While writing this first blog as a student at USE, I am also working on a paper and presentation that need to be finished soon. Whether I am just avoiding doing these things right now or that studying inspired me to write this blog, I am not sure. But with two presentations in the coming week and two exams in the week after that, I don't think there is a calm moment to write these blogs anyway. Soon, I will expand more on the characteristics of the master, the exciting moments or the long nights of studying, but for now I will try to answer one simple question: why did I choose for the master Economics of Public Policy and Management.

Let me first tell you where I come from. My name is Martijn Otten, 20 years old, born and raised in Leiden, about 50 km west of Utrecht. I finished a bachelor at Leiden University College last summer. I am interested in all different aspects of how we have organised our societies, such as the political, social and economical level. Therefore, in choosing what to study, I considered about everything they offer in the social sciences departments. Leiden University College gave me an opportunity to combine these interests and my study included international relations, political philosophy, journalism and, of course, economics. Next to my academic interest, I am also interested in its practical side and I want to be involved in these political processes; I am active in the young social democratic movement in the Netherlands and I am a candidate council member for Labour Party in Leiden.

After finishing my bachelor, I felt that it was essential to gain more economic knowledge which would be of practical use to my political interest. Economics is all around us and I believe that USE understands that it is, in essence, a social study. Many scholars attempt to transform economics into some semi-mathematical science, but that misses the point of economics. Even the simplest debates about employment, investment or welfare can never be answered fully with the simple utilitarian 'what is most effective?' We always need to look at equity, social consequences or non-economical norms. At the moment, I am reading an inspiring book by Harvard philosopher Michael Sandel, called 'What money can't buy'. At USE we are able to both learn all essentials about economic research, while at the same time we are able to discuss that in the broader frame of social sciences.

I'll come back to you soon, but I'm now returning to my papers on alternative risk sharing devices amongst the self-employed (certain types of co-operative enterprises) and on migration within the European Union and it's effect on policy makers in Western European countries. Both issues are in the news on a daily basis. Romanian and Bulgarian workers that may enter all other European countries. The highest Dutch government official at the ministry of Economics arguing that the self-employed should have more social security. If you are interested to discuss both the economical theory and arguments behind these developments, whilst also engaging in political debates about the legitimacy and equity of the policy outcomes, you're at the right place here.

Holidays!

As I promised, I am giving a sign of life here (my endterms went reasonably fine). Also, these are  the first days of the new year! After 4 months of living here in Utrecht I visited my friends and family for the first time and spent my holidays at home. So you can imagine how excited I was about meeting them all again. Until now, I also lacked the experience of flying alone which I think is special moment in everyone's life (especially this age). However the New Year's Eve was extraordinary with my friends, I am back again in Utrecht and even though its officially winter time now, the Dutch weather is really kind to me lately. Something extraordinary to point out, is that I was given the chance to participate in Antony Burgmans' guest lecture a while ago and it was really interesting. All credit goes to the DLC (Discussion and Lecture) committe for that. Meanwhile the regular financial accounting lectures are also spiced up with interesting topics and interesting lecturers from the various fields of the industry. New exams are coming up in microeconomics and financial accounting, but after that, ski trip with friends to France will make me forget every stressed moment.
That's all folks for now ;-) will see what will happen in the following weeks!

This Is the End

First of all I hope all of you had great holidays so far and enjoyed the Christmas days. For me that always means spending time with my family, seeing my oldest friends again and tons of good food :-) 

Now the year 2013 is coming to an end. Every year I wonder where the time went and every year it seems that especially the period after the summer until the Christmas break flies by faster and faster. Next summer I will be done with my Master. By then I will be hopefully working in my dream job (whichever that might be), or travelling around the world. But before that I have enough on my plate: Finishing my last courses, mastering exams and writing the Master Thesis. However spending time with friends, eating well, going out (concerts, exhibitions, parties), watching movies and travelling should also be part of the agenda. I believe if you are well rested and having other influences (next to your study) , which stimulate your creativity, you are able to concentrate and to perform better.

The end of this year also marks the end of my blog entries. A student from another study will take over this task. I hope you enjoyed reading these entries and if you got anything out of it, let it be insights, ideas or advice, I see this work as a success.

Good luck!

Jana

A Masters choice: Thesis Topic

During the last weeks I was busy coming up with a research topic for my master thesis and finding a suitable supervisor. Already at the very beginning of the Master we had a lecture about the procedure for the master thesis. Of course it is helpful to get these information as soon as possible, but at that moment you are more worried about finding your way around the university, getting to know fellow students and passing your courses. In general the idea is that you can hand in your own topic if you find a professor who supervises you. The other option is to choose a topic from a given lists from the university in around February. The deadline for handing in your own topic, was yesterday (17.12), so already around half a year before your actual research course, you have to think about it. 

The whole process for finding a supervisor can be very time consuming, so I say start early! In my case, I already had a supervisor, but unfortunately around 2 weeks before the deadline it turned out that I am not able to write under her supervision. So I had to start all over again: I asked my way around the professors I still new from my Bachelor study, but also approached some which I did not know. I would say the most difficult part is to find a supervisor, who has expertise in the area you are interested in and having an existing data set to analyze. Coming up with your own data might be too challenging for a Master thesis. I ended up with a research topic I am really interested in and I will participate in an actual lab research.  I will write about non-monetary incentives and their effect on corporate social responsibility.

So be aware if you start your master that soon enough you have to think about your thesis topic already. Don’t start too late, since complications can always occur and you need to change your plan of actions.

Career Day

 As you can tell from the absence of recent blog entries, the time-demanding requirements of my Master study hold me back from keeping you up to date.

The last weeks have been really eventful: There was among others the career day organized by ECU92, the study organization from the Economics faculty. The career day is offered to give you the chance to get in closer contact with a couple of interesting firms, talk to experienced employees and of course to network.

You had to sign up beforehand by sending in your CV and you could already decide what kind of workshops and lectures you wanted to visit. Furthermore it was possible to apply for personal meetings with the firms (e.g. ABN Amro, KPMG & SNS). The day started with a lecture by a young entrepreneur from Rockstart, which was a former UU student.  I thought it was great to hear the experience and advice from a very young person, who can relate to your situation. These kind of lectures are often very inspirational and can give you a better idea what is possible after your studies.

For the rest of the day I attended two workshops, one by a social entrepreneur and one from the “Belastingsdienst” (tax authorities). So you can shape the day according to your interests. In case you are not entirely clear on what you want to do after your studies, or if you are simply interested in meeting some interesting people, I definitely advice to attend the career day. And if that did not convince you, there is always a free lunch and nice goodies to take home J