Use of Bloomberg Professional in support of finance and economics teaching

Abstract

This paper evaluates the use of specialist software within university trading rooms in order to enable students to experience a simulated environment which allows them to gain an appreciation of “real life” decision-making within the finance and banking industry and become familiar with real-time data. An important additional aim of trading room-based instruction is to encourage responsible financial decision-making. Our analysis focuses on business schools within the United Kingdom and provides a detailed illustration of use of such resources, in particular, as deployed at the Bradford University School of Management. We provide a critical overview of the main challenges involved in making effective use of a trading room. We also offer recommendations to other academics to enable productive and appropriate use of resources such as Bloomberg Professional in order to enhance the student learning experience and to facilitate the development of valuable skills.

Keywords:

• trading room
• finance
• economics
• teaching
• Bloomberg
• economic tools for teaching

JEL classifications:

• A2
• A20
• G17

Public Interest Statement

The Great Recession of 2007–2009 and financial crisis led to much greater scrutiny of the financial and banking industry in general, and the role of government regulation in particular. Real and perceived excesses by financial managers have contributed to an ongoing critique of regulation and governance of the financial industry and the impact of unethical behaviour. Financial trading platforms such as Bloomberg Professional can play an important dual role, both in terms of demonstrating “real life” financial decision-making and the power of real-time data for informing decisions to student audiences, as well as highlighting the consequences of irresponsible or unethical decision-making. Trading rooms can ground learning within a real-life financial context and enable educators and students to evaluate the consequences of both good and bad decisions in a more realistic setting, thereby enabling learning and hopefully stimulating positive changes in behaviour.

Notes

1. Bloomberg Professional is a registered trademark of Bloomberg Finance L.P.

2. Bloomberg Finance L.P claim to have 325,000+ subscriptions to Bloomberg Professional. Source: http://www.bloomberg.com/company/bloomberg-facts/?utm_source=bloomberg-menu.

3. http://www.bloomberg.com/professional/education/.

Additional information

Funding

Funding. The author received no direct funding for this research.

Notes on contributors

Abhijit Sharma

Abhijit Sharma is currently a senior lecturer in Economics at the Bradford University School of Management. His research interests include international economics, innovation and technology adoption decisions, environmental economics and applied econometrics. Abhijit is academic lead for the Bradford University School of Management’s trading room lab and he is also programme leader for the MSc in Finance and Investment. Abhijit previously worked as a lecturer in economics at the Department of Economics at the University of Sheffield. He has also worked as a postdoctoral research economist at the Centre for Environmental Policy, Imperial College London on an ESRC and RCUK funded project involving econometric modelling of technology adoption decisions. Abhijit is currently working as a co-investigator on an EU FP7 research project titled “Crossing Boundaries” (EUR 194,500), with particular focus on innovation, technology adoption and knowledge diffusion, as well as links between intellectual property rights and innovation. He also worked on a project sponsored by the Food Standards Agency on the effectiveness of the Reduced Salt Campaign.