Mineral and Energy Economics Student Blog
Meet Amar Gujral, MS Candidate in Mineral and Energy Economics
4/16/12 Blog 12 – “Time Series Analysis in ‘Metrics”
Midterms are over and all my courses are moving into slightly new subject material. The biggest change in subject material is happening in my Econometrics course. We have moved from cross-section analysis of data into analysis of time series. Essentially we are moving from studying explanatory factors within data sets in the present into forecasting future data over time. Personally I am enjoying this much more. It just seems more relevant. For example, in our most recent lab assignment we analyzed Copper prices over time, learnt techniques for model selection, applied the theory in practice using the EViews software, and began forecasting the future prices of Copper. Granted what we are doing is on a very low level when looking at forecasting techniques in the finance industry, but we are gaining the fundamentals needed that will give our program’s students a serious advantage in finance or economic analysis job hunting. As the course continues to progress I will fill you in with more detail on the different econometric models we are using to forecast the time series data.
4/3/12 Blog 11 – “Internship Offer, IFP Acceptance, and a Challenging Micro Exam”
My blog title basically sums it up…I have had a busy week. I spoke in past blogs about the career fair and my pursuit for an internship, so I might as well take a moment to tell you what I am doing this summer. I will be working as a summer analyst doing oil & gas equity coverage for a boutique research group in NYC. This is pretty in line with my interests and fits very well with the degree here so I am pumped. Getting a job would make a pretty good week by itself, but this week I have also been accepted into the IFP program. IFP is a dual degree joint masters program between this Mineral & Energy Economics degree at Mines and a Petroleum Economics & Management degree from the IFP School in Paris. Carl Evans, an IFP/MinEc student, has a blog here: http://econbus.mines.edu/IFP-Student-Blog/, if you want to learn more about IFP. Now with the good news out of the way, let’s talk about Microeconomics. This exam was super challenging. First, I have never really felt a time crunch on exams this year, but this one really had me scrambling at the end. The reason I felt the time pressure and why I felt the exam was difficult is because my professor feels very strongly about wording exam questions as an industry professional would word a question to an employee. So basically each question is a very ambiguous word problem. First task is to figure out what the question is asking, second task is to organize the facts, and the third task of course is to write down your answer. If you can get through tasks one and two with ease then you will be fine, but it is not that easy. You really have to think. Weird, right? I say that in jest, but it really has some truth to it. Many times you can just go into an exam with strong preparation and crush the test without even thinking if you really know your stuff. These microeconomic exams do not give you the luxury of cruising through it, but instead you really need to think about each question and provide very thoughtful answers. So after all of that in the last few days, I am pretty tired. I will try to take a day or two off this weekend for sure to celebrate and relax.
3/23/12 Blog 10 - “Angel Conference”
The Economics & Business Department at Mines works hard to develop students’ knowledge beyond the classroom through various speakers and events. As an example, the E&B department and Entrepreneurship club sponsored several students to attend the Denver Angel Investor Conference last Thursday. As a leader of the Entrepreneurship club you bet I was in attendance, and this conference was incredible. Calling it a conference may not actually do it justice, because when I think of a conference I imagine ballrooms with keynote speakers and some tasty appetizers. This conference did have some of that, but all-in-all it was more like that TV show “Shark Tank”, well maybe not as exaggerated but the same idea. The conference was set up for roughly 40 start-ups to pitch their company ideas/products to groups of Angel Investors (Angels are essentially high net-worth individuals looking to invest at very early stages of companies…high risk but obviously very big upside). Four companies presented each hour in different auditoriums, and each attendee had the option of which pitch to sit in on. The start-up representative spent about 15-20 minutes presenting and covered target markets, growth potential, barriers to entry, revenue, costs, exit strategy, and risks. Following the presentation all attendees were able to ask questions, and although the Angels have the most incentive to question their potential investments, many students, including myself, asked prying questions as well. The companies varied from biotech and sustainability companies to tech and consumer product companies. I sat in on a toy called “Ubooly”, a smart phone application store company, and a company setting up consoles at bars to make closing tabs easier. I had a blast! As someone with a hobby in Entrepreneurship this event was really awesome, and I feel very fortunate to have been able to attend a conference like this one.
3/4/12 - Blog 9 – “Macro”
I feel like I have neglected Macroeconomics in this blog thus far. It is not that I dislike Macro, I just find it difficult to explain the material we have covered, but here goes my best shot. We started out the semester going over Macroeconomics terminology. Ok I can’t lie, this part was really boring, but hey, without knowing the terms, you will not get very far in the course. We followed this introduction to the course with an analysis of economic growth and a detailed look into the Solow Growth Model. Please raise your hand if you took a Macroeconomics course in undergrad (my hand is up). Now, please raise your hand if you took a Macroeconomics midterm in undergrad and had to utilize differential equation phase diagrams for economic intuition. Keep the hand up if you also had to do calculus comparative static analyses (I definitely did not see anything like that in undergrad intermediate Macro. If your hand was up for either of those, good for you and you should be well prepared for this program…if not, you can still be fine do not worry, but keep this in mind if you are not very quantitatively adept). Since that midterm we have moved on and are looking at one-period models of the goods market and labor market. Once again we make use of comparative statics to check for the economic intuition behind these models. With analyses of these macro models, we have finally gotten into the heart of macroeconomics and are able to use these very basic macroeconomic models to extract conclusions about the broad economy.
2/26/12 - Blog 8 – “Taking a day off from work”
I have spent a lot of time writing about the program details in this blog. I described a few classes, discussed some homework, and last week I gave an overview of the career fair. I can’t lie, the program is rigorous and the majority of my time is spent dedicated to work in one form or another. With that said I do have a life outside of work, and living in Colorado offers a TON of fun activities to keep me satisfied with a good work life balance. Example one, I went to Vail on Saturday for a full day of skiing. If you ski or snowboard and have not been to Vail, then go! Seriously, it was awesome. I have skied in some pretty cool places before in both the US and Europe, but I do not know if much can compare to what Vail offers. First, the mountain is massive. You can ski all day and maybe cover just a little part of the mountain. Also, the Vail villages have so many restaurants and stores that you can spend the day there and stay busy without even setting foot on the mountain. Even if you do not ski or snowboard, I suggest you go visit Vail at least for the views. The mountains in Colorado are gorgeous, and the views you get during the drive up are worth the trip alone.
So my ski day was great, but while trying to get the most out of my day off I decided to take the short 15 minute drive into Denver (I live in Golden about 1 mile from campus) for dinner with some friends. Dinner eventually turned into drinks after and we ended up making a night out of it.
So all in all I drove about an hour and thirty minutes to ski at one of the best mountain resorts in the country, then later that evening took a 15 minute trip from Golden and spent the night out in Denver. Yes, all in the same day! The work might pile up sometimes, but life out here is great.
2/19/12 - Blog 7 - “Spring Career Fair”
2/12/12 - Blog 6 - “Econometrics Lab Project and EViews”
As you may remember I am currently taking econometrics and along with the lecture that meets twice a week we are responsible to attend a lab session on Thursday evenings. To be honest, I find econometric theory extremely boring, but our lab sessions are showing how applied econometrics is both interesting and constructively put to use. The lab project, on which we are currently working, models a Cobb Douglas production function and seeks to explain how labor and capital contribute to value added for 27 actual metal producers. This project and learning exercise goes beyond building modeling skills, but also introduces a computer program, EViews, which is a popular application utilized in industry. Later in the semester we will model copper prices and seek to extract useful insights again utilizing EViews.
2/5/12 - Blog 5 - “Microeconomics in a little more detail”
So I am about 4-5 weeks into the semester and the work is picking up. I spent a lot of my Saturday working through microeconomics as I read and finished up the assigned problem set. I must say that graduate level micro is a lot different from my undergraduate microeconomics course. Of course the same concepts are trying to be instilled, but there is much more of a quantitative aspect to the work. To give you an idea, we have spent these last few weeks covering integrals and differential equations. The goal here is to master the basic techniques for converting a derivative function into a primitive function, a.k.a. integration. The use of integration techniques in economic applications is abundant. A particular example of integration in economics we are covering is converting an oil/gas production flow over time into a value for reserve stock total, which in integration, as you may remember from calculus, is the area under the production flow curve. Another example applying calculus to our economic problems is utilizing differential equations to work through climate change models. In this problem we examined a possible model where the stock of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere may or may not reach a steady-state over time. Our conclusions were reached using differential equations and phase diagrams mapping out time paths for greenhouse gas emissions. The work is definitely picking up and my free time is shrinking, but having interesting assignments directly applied to the energy and mining sectors makes the workload feel a little lighter.
1/30/12 Blog 4 “An Extracurricular”
I am a strong believer that one should take advantage of all the opportunities available when in school. This means taking the time to go beyond the work in the classroom and joining another group on campus. With that said, I am spending some of my time in the program working with the Entrepreneurship Club (E-Club). The E-Club had a presence at Mines a few years back, but since had disbanded. I, along with a few other students and a very supportive advisor, am working hard to bring this club back on campus. It just makes a lot of sense to us. I mean although I am studying Economics, Mines is essentially an Engineering school with a lot of smart students. With the E-Club I am trying to spread the ideals of entrepreneurship throughout the campus and get my fellow students thinking innovatively and daringly. The first step in this process is to bring a number of well-respected professionals to come on campus and speak to our club. The first of whom is Lauren Evans, a Mines grad who started her own very successful environmental consulting company. The second is Brad Feld, a Boulder based venture capitalist who has invested in and sat on the board of several tech start-ups including the gaming company Zynga. I am excited for the opportunity to be apart of the E-Club and hopefully we can put the club on a sustainable path to remain intact at Mines for many years to come.
1/22/12 Blog 3 “Spring Course First Impressions”
In my first blog entry for the semester I mentioned I was taking Microeconomics (core course), Econometrics (core course), Macroeconomics (core course), and Economic Evaluation and Investment Decision Methods as a fourth course. I made a slight change by dropping Economic Evaluation and Investment Decision Methods and picking up a special topics course titled, “Mineral and Energy Policy Topics in the News”.
So, now I am in this awesome special topics course where we analyze current events from an economist’s and policy analyst’s point of view. The course offers an applied approach to learning economics by facilitating the use of our economic tools to analyze a news event such as the Nigerian government’s action to remove gasoline fuel subsidies. Econometrics has also started out great. In addition to lecture, there is a weekly lab session in which we work through econometric analysis using a software package called EViews, which is utilized by many consulting companies in the industry. The software package is cool because it helps to visualize problems, while also helping me learn how econometrics is applied in practice. There is not much to say about Macroeconomics because we have not gone into much detail as of yet, but keep posted for a future blog post, I am sure I will have something to say about it. Finally, microeconomics is probably my favorite course thus far. Professor Graham Davis really does his best to show how each economic problem is applied in the natural resource sector. Who would have thought you can use an integral to calculate an oil reservoir’s remaining stock? Not me, but that is just one of the many things I am learning here.
1/16/12 Blog 2 “This Feels Like My Junior Year”
In my first blog entry I reminisced a little about undergrad, and when I really got down to comparing grad with undergrad I realized this year is a lot like my junior year, why? The internship search. Last semester here at Mines provided many opportunities to nail down a position for the summer, and I know many other students are already set up for their internships with companies like Schlumberger and Newmont Mining, but unfortunately I am still looking. In the past I may have been discouraged by something like this, but the Mineral & Energy Economics program and the School of Mines is giving me a lot to be optimistic about. In the last few days alone I have found 3 incredible summer opportunity postings on the School of Mines Job Board Website for positions with Baker Hughes, Mckinsey, and Tudor Pickering & Holt, all of whom were looking for Mineral & Energy Economics grads. These postings online that I expect to see more of along with the upcoming spring career fair gives me a lot to feel positive about job-wise (look out for a future blog devoted to my experience at the career fair), but like anything, what you get out of these opportunities reflect how much work you put into them. My coarse load is heavier this semester with a fourth course and the workload in the program is demanding, so in order to find success in my internship search, while excelling in my coursework, I need to manage my time very very carefully. This all also means limited free time this semester, but c’est la vie.
1/11/12 Blog 1 - “First Day of the Semester”