Economics and Finance Program

Professor Sanjaya DeSilva. Photo by Pete Mauney ’93 MFA ’00

The Bard Economics and Finance Program, established in the fall of 2007, is a five-year BS/BA dual-degree program.

Students receive both a BS degree in economics and finance and a BA degree in an academic program other than economics. The program is designed to meet the needs of students who wish to achieve a broad education in the liberal arts and sciences even as they prepare themselves for careers in the financial world.

Requirements

Degree Requirements

The BS/BA program requires 160 credits; the student must fulfill all general educational requirements of the College’s BA program. The BS degree will not be awarded unless the student also receives the BA degree. However, a student may elect to step out of the program, continuing in the BA program. Hence, the dual-degree program is structured to allow all requirements for the BA to be met within four years.
Course Requirements

Candidates for the dual degree must complete 56 credits in economics and finance, comprising the core courses of the program: Principles of Economics; Foundations of Finance and Investments; Money and Banking; Intermediate Microeconomics; Mathematical Economics; Accounting; Industrial Organization; Introduction to Econometrics; Seminar in International Economics; Advanced Econometrics; Contemporary Developments in Finance; and Corporate Finance. Students are required to complete a Senior Project relating to finance.

Student Work

Recent Senior Projects in Economics and Finance
- “The Closed-End Fund Paradox in Country Funds: A Conventional and Behavioral Perspective”
- “Forecasting Error in the U.S. Social Security Administration’s Economic Assumptions”
- “A Microdata Analysis of the Gender Pay Gap in South Korea”
- “Testing the Predictive Power of Equity Valuation Metrics: A Minskyan Approach”

Faculty

Program Director: Sanjaya DeSilva
Phone: 845-758-7072
E-mail: desilva@bard.edu

Kris Feder
Liudmila Malyshava
Michael Martell
Aniruddha Mitra

Dimitri B. Papadimitriou
Pavlina Tcherneva
Leanne J. Ussher
L. Randall Wray

News and Events

Bard Economist L. Randall Wray on How Modern Monetary Theory Isn’t the Future. It’s Here Now.

In the Wall Street Journal, Bard economist and leading scholar of Modern Monetary Theory L. Randall Wray comments on how important elements of MMT, including the claim that a government need never default on debt issued in its own currency, are now accepted by much of the economic and financial establishment. “We got five or six trillion dollars of spending and tax cuts without anyone worrying about payfors, so that was a good thing,” says Wray. “In January [2020], MMT was a crazy idea, and then in March, it was, OK, we’re going to adopt MMT.”

How Should We Measure Well-Being? Dimitri B. Papadimitriou Talks with Financial Times about Bard Levy Institute’s New Federal Contract to Broaden Measures of Economic Well-Being

Many of the metrics we commonly use to understand economic growth and well-being were developed nearly a century ago, and may no longer paint an accurate picture of the economy. The Levy Economics Institute of Bard College last week won a $300,000 federal contract to aid the US Department of Labor in its efforts to broaden how it measures the economic well-being of US households. Levy Institute President Dimitri Papadimitriou talked with Rana Foroohar of the Financial Times about how new metrics, such as measuring women’s unpaid labor, could create more clarity for policymakers.

Interview: Bard Economist Pavlina Tcherneva Talks with Thomas Piketty

Associate Professor of Economics Pavlina Tcherneva interviews French economist Thomas Piketty as part of the first-ever Global Forum on Democratizing Work, a project of the Open Society University Network’s Economic Democracy Initiative. Tcherneva and Piketty discuss how the #democratizingwork movement resonates with Piketty’s work on wealth inequality and the future of capitalism. “Human beings are not simple resources and human wellbeing cannot be governed by market forces alone,” says Tcherneva.

More Economics News

Professor Pavlina R. Tcherneva: A Just Transition Needs a Job Guarantee

Professor Pavlina R. Tcherneva: A Just Transition Needs a Job Guarantee

Associate Professor of Economics Pavlina R. Tcherneva says a job guarantee is necessary both for managing the disruptions wrought by global warming and for achieving a smooth, just transition to a low-carbon economy. And since the policy is also wildly popular, it should be a no-brainer for any politician who claims to be serious about tackling the climate crisis. “If ‘decent work for all’ is to become an actionable policy benchmark, access to a living-wage job must be guaranteed to everyone, not merely implied in the text of stimulus packages and other policies,” she writes.

Read in the Jordan Times

Read More

Post Date: 09-21-2021

Funny Money: Bard Economist Pavlina Tcherneva Talks with the BBC

Funny Money: Bard Economist Pavlina Tcherneva Talks with the BBC

Where does money's value come from in an increasingly online world? Pavlina Tcherneva, associate professor of economics, talks with BBC Sound’s Ben Chu about the historical origins of money and its lack of intrinsic value.

Listen Now on the BBC

Post Date: 06-07-2021

Alex T. Williams MS ’20 on the Global Tug of War Over Semiconductors

Alex T. Williams MS ’20 on the Global Tug of War Over Semiconductors

Your car, toaster, even washing machine can’t work without them. And there’s a global shortage. So writes Alex T. Williams MS ’20—an alum of the Levy Institute MS in Economic Theory and Policy Program—who traces the precarity of supply chains that deliver the microchips at the heart of countless products in our modern economy.

Read more in the New York Times

Post Date: 05-18-2021

Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago President Charles Evans Plays Down the Risk of Higher Inflation at the Levy Institute’s 29th Annual Hyman P. Minsky Conference

Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago President Charles Evans Plays Down the Risk of Higher Inflation at the Levy Institute’s 29th Annual Hyman P. Minsky Conference

“‘I think the risk of this scenario is remote,’ Evans said Wednesday during a virtual conference hosted by the Levy Economics Institute of Bard College,” reports Bloomberg. “The Chicago Fed chief, who has long been one of the central bank’s biggest worriers about inflation being too low, was responding to critics of the Biden administration’s fiscal programs, which include not only Republicans but also some economists associated with the Democratic party.”

Read more in Bloomberg

Post Date: 05-05-2021

Citing Work of Bard Economics Professor Pavlina Tcherneva, Foreign Policy Article Argues that Public Jobs Guarantee Program Is Best Way to Address Unemployment and Climate Crises

Citing Work of Bard Economics Professor Pavlina Tcherneva, Foreign Policy Article Argues that Public Jobs Guarantee Program Is Best Way to Address Unemployment and Climate Crises

“How can we possibly hope to address mass unemployment without economic growth? Fortunately, there’s a straightforward solution. We can fix the problem directly without needing additional growth by introducing a progressive, public job guarantee program, as proposed by economists like Stephanie Kelton, Pavlina Tcherneva, and a growing chorus of others,” writes Jason Hickel. “The idea is that anyone who signs up can train to do dignified, socially useful work (the opposite of ‘bullshit jobs’) and be paid at a living wage.”

Full story in Foreign Policy

Post Date: 03-03-2021

Guardian Editorial Calling for Strong COVID Relief Spending Cites Work of Bard Economics Professor and Levy Economics Institute Senior Scholar L. Randall Wray

Guardian Editorial Calling for Strong COVID Relief Spending Cites Work of Bard Economics Professor and Levy Economics Institute Senior Scholar L. Randall Wray

As Yeva Nersisyan and Wray “have pointed out, the US government is engaged in relief, not stimulus, spending. It is offering much-needed assistance to the devastated balance sheets of households, school districts and local governments. Rescuing public services, making sure people don’t starve and building Covid-testing systems is not an economic stimulus but a necessary antidepressant. Reducing the size of the relief package would prolong the recession, which, given the virus’s capacity to surprise, may last longer than the experts predict.”

Read more in the Guardian

Post Date: 02-09-2021

Events

6/06
Monday

Monday, June 6, 2022 – Friday, June 10, 2022
Summer Workshop in Public Finance and Economic Policy
OSUN Economic Democracy Initiative
The Open Society University Network welcomes undergraduate applications for its summer workshop in Public Finance and Economic Policy. Organized and hosted by the OSUN Economic Democracy Initiative, this five-day workshop is for undergraduate students interested in public policy to tackle economic instability and insecurity, and in understanding the financing capacity and policy space available to governments to pursue these aims.

The workshop provides undergraduate students with a unique opportunity to learn about the latest research on modern money, public finance, and public policies that tackle economic instability and insecurity.

June 6-10, 2022
Bard College, Annandale-on-Hudson, NY, USA

All undergraduate students, regardless of whether they attend an OSUN institution or not, are welcome. Applicants from partner OSUN institutions are eligible for financial assistance and are especially encouraged to apply.

COVID and the climate crisis have taught us that governments must act decisively to tackle the most pressing challenges before us, and not leave solutions exclusively to private actors. These developments have led to a rethinking of the role of the state on a global scale. How shall we think about the policy options before different governments? What are their abilities to achieve them? What kind of real or financial constraints do they face? This workshop will provide students with a new framework for thinking about these questions and with concrete tools and techniques to explore these policy-relevant concerns.

2021

Thursday, November 18, 2021

Monday, November 15, 2021

Friday, November 12, 2021

Thursday, October 7, 2021

Wednesday, October 6, 2021

Tuesday, October 5, 2021 – Thursday, October 7, 2021

Tuesday, September 14, 2021

Tuesday, May 11, 2021

Wednesday, May 5, 2021 – Thursday, May 6, 2021

Tuesday, March 16, 2021

Economics and Finance Program

Requirements

Student Work

Faculty

News and Events

Bard Economist L. Randall Wray on How Modern Monetary Theory Isn’t the Future. It’s Here Now.

Bard Economist L. Randall Wray on How Modern Monetary Theory Isn’t the Future. It’s Here Now.

How Should We Measure Well-Being? Dimitri B. Papadimitriou Talks with Financial Times about Bard Levy Institute’s New Federal Contract to Broaden Measures of Economic Well-Being

How Should We Measure Well-Being? Dimitri B. Papadimitriou Talks with Financial Times about Bard Levy Institute’s New Federal Contract to Broaden Measures of Economic Well-Being

Interview: Bard Economist Pavlina Tcherneva Talks with Thomas Piketty

Interview: Bard Economist Pavlina Tcherneva Talks with Thomas Piketty

Professor Pavlina R. Tcherneva: A Just Transition Needs a Job Guarantee

Funny Money: Bard Economist Pavlina Tcherneva Talks with the BBC

Alex T. Williams MS ’20 on the Global Tug of War Over Semiconductors

Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago President Charles Evans Plays Down the Risk of Higher Inflation at the Levy Institute’s 29th Annual Hyman P. Minsky Conference

Citing Work of Bard Economics Professor Pavlina Tcherneva, Foreign Policy Article Argues that Public Jobs Guarantee Program Is Best Way to Address Unemployment and Climate Crises

Guardian Editorial Calling for Strong COVID Relief Spending Cites Work of Bard Economics Professor and Levy Economics Institute Senior Scholar L. Randall Wray

Events

Summer Workshop in Public Finance and Economic Policy

2021