Page 34 - The Keble Review 2016

Interview
Professor Tim Jenkinson Professorial Fellow
As an undergraduate at Cambridge in 1979, what made you want to study Economics?
Like a lot of people I was influenced
by one teacher at school, who sort of introduced me to the joys of Economics. I always enjoyed a good argument and at that time I took what was then a rather unfashionable, free-market view, at least for an 18 year old. I knew of course that Cambridge was institutionally different, very Keynesian, but it meant I had a wonderful time arguing with tutors ...
I always enjoyed discourse.
Your doctoral research was on the econometrics of wages but after your DPhil you switched to finance, where your interests have been ever since. Why was that?
Yes, I started research with David (now Sir) Hendry on econometrics although I published my first papers in collaboration with Wilfred Beckerman, who also got me my first teaching post – a college lectureship at Balliol. He introduced
me to the cut-and-thrust of academic publishing. Later Colin Mayer got me involved in a research project on finance ... this was the early days of privatization and IPOs (Initial Public Offerings) ...
and I spotted that there were a lot of unanswered questions in that field. So, I’d like to say that it was a grand vision but it was, to some extent, random!
And what is it about finance that you find interesting?
A lot of economics is increasingly theoretical, but I’ve always been
drawn to the more practical or applied side. Finance is fundamentally applied and practical; I’m trying to find that interesting question which other people haven’t been able to answer principally because there isn’t the data. The
theme of my work has been conflicts
of interest, for example between investment bankers and clients or investment consultants on pension funds and their trustees, and how that possible non-alignment of incentives – rather than rational expectations – affects outcomes. It turns out that a lot of the problems in financial markets, in banking or sub-prime mortgages, arise from conflicts of interest. It’s also meant I’ve
been closely involved with business –
so for example I’ve been involved in a consulting firm, Oxera, for 30 years. Lots of my questions come out of that kind of practical contact.
What were your first impressions of Keble when, in 1987, you arrived as a Tutor and Fellow in Economics?
Keble was extremely friendly, unhierarchical. As a twenty-six year- old I might have been expected to be intimidated by Governing Body, but I never felt that. My colleagues in PPE, who included Jim Griffin and Richard Hawkins in Philosophy and Larry Siedentop in Politics, treated me as a peer from day one. And of course I had an exceptional first cohort of students, Ed Balls and Paul Johnson (now Director of the Institute of Fiscal Studies) among them. I still run into former students on the financial services conference circuit – they’re sometimes surprised to see me in finance, having known me more as a general economist. Some of them have asked me to be involved in their businesses.
In 2000 your academic career took a new direction when you moved to the Business School and eventually became a Professorial rather than a Tutorial Fellow. How did that come about?
Yes, I realise that I’ve been at Keble for thirty years, fifteen as a tutorial fellow and fifteen as a professorial fellow. After helping to launch Economics and Management (I was the programme’s first course director) I was put on the working group for the new MBA. When it started I was somehow invited to teach on it and then in 2000, with
the new regime following John Kay’s departure, I was asked to direct the MBA programme. I kept teaching tutorials for a further two years but then switched entirely to the Business School.
Of course, the Said Business School was not uncontroversial at the time; so, was this a risk?
It felt a little bit risky because the reputation of Business School had yet to be determined. But most researchers in finance around the world are in Business Schools; it was a natural place to go.
There was no chance to teach finance
in the Department of Economics. The School started with just 50 MBAs and 50 on the Economics and Management degree, but now of course it’s the largest department in Social Sciences.
How do you find teaching graduates?
It is different from teaching undergraduates. Classes are three-hours long, teaching
is often more compressed. You have to create an environment in the classroom for people to learn, say through problem-solving or being creative. Teaching is more deductive, based around case studies. And it’s incredibly rewarding. I introduced a course in Entrepreneurial Finance for the Executive MBAs which we run in Palo Alto. There are 60 students, and you’re with them dawn to dinner for the whole week. We’re just outside the Stanford campus and people, entrepreneurs, drop by on their way to work. So we’ve had Peter Theil and Max Levchin from PayPal, and Jeff Lewis, CEO of the app developer Guidebook. We do trips to Google and Facebook, start-ups. And in that one week you get to know the students really well.
Looking back, what are you most proud of in terms of your accomplishments?
I’ve been involved in a lot of things – Economics and Management, the MBA – but one thing I do look back on with some pride is the Dartmouth Exchange. I had two terms sabbatical in Dartmouth College in the ‘90s and saw the value
of the US experience. But negotiating
it was not straightforward, because
we wanted the Dartmouth students to earn credits while they were here. And I insisted that they should be embedded in the College, mixed in with the PPE and E and M students and not, say, housed separately. And it’s still going along
the same lines. That’s what I like to do, create things and move on.
34 The Keble Review 2016