Behzad Diba

Professor of Economics
Age: 61
Hometown: Arlington, Va.
Education: B.S. Pahlavi University (Iran), Economics; B.A. University of Cambridge, Economics; Ph.D. Brown University, Economics
Areas of research: Microeconomics, monetary policy
Time at Georgetown: 26 years
Courses Taught: “Mathematical Methods,” “Microeconomics,” Microeconomics, “Principles of Microeconomics,” “International Finance,” “Intermediate Macroeconomics,” “Topics in International Finance”

What would you say the most fascinating question in your field is?
What are the effects of monetary policy?

How did you narrow your focus to what you are studying today?
I worked — I spent a year at the Fed, and I became more and more interested in the practical aspects of monetary policy.

What was something memorable about working at the Fed?
I realized I don’t want a job other than being an academic. It was a learning experience in terms of macroeconomics and reality. Macroeconomics is a little bit disconnected from what’s going on, so I learned a lot of practical stuff.

What do you like more about academics?
I like doing research. I really like teaching, I enjoy the act of education: explaining things to students. I like the lifestyle of doing research, I like going to many central banks, hanging out and doing research about their work is pleasant.

What’s one memorable encounter that you had with a student?
I’ve had many students who are kind of interesting and interested in policy questions and in applications of economics, but I don’t know if I’ve had one that I would single out.

If you could teach a course here that you haven’t taught yet, what would it be?
I would teach a more advanced course in macro to the undergrads, like a practical macro course.

What’s something that you wish more students would take away from your courses?
I wish they would focus a little bit more on the bottom lines rather than the graphs and — I feel like there is not enough retention of things like, why do we care about this stuff? Not just for my students, but even for all well-educated people, the basic ideas of macroeconomics have not been reasonably well-communicated.

Interview by David Chardack