Tra i Leoni and the Economic Society for Bocconi Students are proud to announce a new and exciting partnership: starting with this article, TiL and ESBS will collaborate on articles in our new Economics and Finance column!
In this opening event, the Economic Society showcases itself to the university community, by explaining its internal functioning and presenting fascinating research to the attending students. TiL was invited to recount the night, and a couple of our members showed up alongside more than a hundred aspiring economists up to the challenge.
In the ever colorful and cheerful venue of Leoni’s building, on a warm night of mid-September, the Open Seminar of the Economic Society for Bocconi Students (best known as ESBS) unfolded. Tra i Leoni was invited to cover the event, and I personally attended in the best shape, among well-dressed and passionate economics students that make up this wonderful association. The report that follows is my humble attempt to keep up with the big brains of the Society, and to report their discussion. One thing is for certain, the merch that ESBS produces, from the “looking for causal relationships” t-shirt to the “whatever it cakes” apron, is among the best that I have ever seen.
The event begun with the introduction of President Beatrice De Waal, which started by describing the structure of the association to the many prospective members present in the room. ESBS is fascinating, a rather unique association among the many that operate in Bocconi, and it certainly deserves the name they earned in their professionalism and quality of work. It was funded in 2014 by a group of ESS students and through the years it was home to more than 200 members, that now form a rich alumni community around the world, from top research universities to economic consulting firms. This network is a key asset for the association, as it offers valuable connections and precious experience for all current members. Members of ESBS take part in two different programs: the fellowship and the affiliateship. The 70 fellows are either third year bachelor or master students, and they represent the backbone of the association structure. At the same time, first- and second-years undergraduate students can be affiliates, a role designed to help them get close to the world of economics with the support of one “fellow buddy.”
The main activities of ESBS, as described by the President, are divided in three main categories: seminars, events and networking. Seminars are the closest thing to the real world of economic research that a young student can hope for: fellows present research papers in front of a receptive and kind audience, with the goal of simulating how real research is presented to colleagues by distinguished economists. Speaking in public and employing data correctly are extremely important skills for anyone in the modern world, and members of ESBS can practice early during these seminars. Events are the most attended moments of the Society, as they attract hundreds of students in front of a guest speaker. Last year, the association hosted several events, including an in-depth analysis of the Nobel Prize winning papers and a series named “Women in Economics”, giving due recognition to the fundamental contributions of female researchers. Lastly, networking helps members of the association connect with experienced researchers and professionals in the economic field, many of which have walked in their same shoes not so long ago. Visiting the European Central Bank and Deutsch Bank in Frankfurt or the Compass Lexicon offices in Milan are only two of the many opportunities offered by ESBS to its fellows and affiliates.
The second part of this Open Seminar was the presentation of a behavioral economics paper, conducted by Jakub Przewoski and Giovanni Cecchi, two of ESBS fellows. They presented Stories, Statistics, and Memory by Graeber, Roth and Zimmermann (QJE, 2024), which studies how the form of information affects what we remember. The authors’ experiments show that statistics lose most of their influence on people’s beliefs within a day, while stories keep most of theirs. The reason, they argue, lies in similarity. A story is more easily brought back to mind when it resembles whatever prompts the memory, while irrelevant information that also resembles the prompt can crowd out what actually matters. The presenters highlighted the relevance of these findings in a world where we are constantly bombarded by information.
The event concluded around 7:30, as darkness was setting on the Bocconi campus. The packed room emptied quickly, as people left the Leoni building to head to a nearby bar for a well-deserved aperitif. The organization was characteristically smooth even through this careful transition, and soon after everyone was holding a glass. For far too long economics has been neglected by our newspaper, and in the coming weeks a new Economics and Finance Column will finally bring to our readers news and stories from these core fields of studies of Bocconi University.
My name is Pietro Ferrari and I was born and raised in the city of Milan. After three fantastic years in BIG I have decided to continue my Bocconi Journey in Politics and Policy Analysis. My interests span across multiple fields but the one I am most interested in are History, Politics and International Relations. But what still makes me hopeful about the world is traveling, the only thing I consider my real passion, especially when I manage to find the time to write down my thoughts and feelings on the road.
