Eye on Alumni: James Marrone '09
James Marrone (Economics '09) is a Research Assistant in Risk Analysis at the Federal Reserve Board of Governors in Washington, DC (United States). He describes the "Fed" as a very egalitarian place to work, where Chairman Ben Bernanke eats lunch in the cafeteria and projects involve collaboration with several different teams.
When did you start working at the Fed?
I started in August 2009, after graduating from the GSE's MSc in Economics. My job is to support a group of PhD economists in all of their tasks. In general, this mostly consists of academic research, policy memos for the Federal Reserve governors, and peer review of other economists' work for conferences or journals.
What do they have you working on?
Most of my research revolves around finance and credit risk. Right now I have projects regarding the variance risk premium, granularity of loan portfolios and contagion in financial markets.
In particular, we are developing a paper now about measuring systemic risk (how much risk institutions pose to the economy as a whole). It has developed from a policy memo to an academic paper and has begun to incorporate many different people at many levels of the Federal Reserve system and beyond. It looks at a few different aspects of the economy and there are other teams of people looking at the same question from a different viewpoint. It is interesting to be working on such a relevant question and to be interacting with a wide variety of people in many different capacities.
You're digging into some big projects.
The Fed is a very egalitarian place. New employees, temporary employees and people at all levels of the organization are treated equally; there doesn't seem to be an aura of self-importance surrounding most people, or a notion that you have to "put in time" before you get to do something really interesting. Everyone feels that they are contributing to the mission of the bank, and the Board does a good job of showing its appreciation. The cafeteria exemplifies this egalitarian character; everyone eats on the same terrace, right next to each other. This includes Chairman Bernanke and all the governors, when they are in town. I'm sure they could have their lunch sent to their office if they wanted. But the bank just doesn't work that way.
Any culture shock transitioning from Barcelona to Washington?
There aren't many ways in which Washington, DC is like Barcelona. But one of the main ways is the work schedule. People here don't work the stereotypically long American hours. They put in their time, but at 5 PM sharp they are out enjoying themselves. Happy hours are a mainstay of the social life, and if the weather is hot enough I can almost imagine that I am back in Barcelona, perhaps in Eixample, which is most similar to DC. If the weather is nice we will also go outside for lunch, sit on the National Mall, and watch the tourists by the Lincoln Memorial.
Barcelona is another good place for watching tourists...
I would love to visit Barcelona soon. Working at the Fed I do get more vacation time than the average American (almost as much as a European!). If nothing else, I will try to take an extended European trip before I enter a PhD program - I have a lot of friends I've been meaning to visit.
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