Learning About Fiscal Policy at Sidney Sussex – by Grace – Economics

Friday, 23 July 

I’m going to tell you about my lovely day at Immerse today. With blue skies and sunlight streaming in, I woke up bright and early, ready to face the exciting day ahead. I started my day by finishing two readings on fiscal and monetary policy for my morning session at 9:30 am. I particularly enjoyed understanding differing perspectives between Keynesians and Monetarists around the effectiveness of fiscal policy. I arrived with my new friends for breakfast at 8:10 am, having a much-needed coffee and cereal. 

After a quick registration at 9:15 am, the other students and I headed off to our first academic session of the day. The best part of today’s morning session was learning more about automatic stabilisers, as I’m really interested in the non-discretionary policies, as well as procyclical and countercyclical fiscal policy. For lunch, we explored the gorgeous city of Cambridge further, picking up a classic Tesco meal deal for a picnic in the park. My afternoon session was focused on modelling governments in an interactive game, wherein every student could pick 12 policies out of 28 to employ in a year, with the goal of reaching the highest government score.

After a quick turn-around, we headed out again for the sports day at Jesus common, taking part in dodgeball and rounders competitions, with my team winning overall, receiving an infamous jack’s gelato token and medal. Due to arriving slightly late to registration, me and some of the other students had to put together a cheerleading routine to be performed that evening as our punishment. Despite being at Jesus common with stares around, we began to learn a dance to Mamma Mia with poms poms, which later was swapped for ‘we’re all in this together’ from High School Musical.

 Soon it was 6:30 pm and time for dinner once again, with the highlight of double chocolate chip muffins. At 8:00 pm, the cheerleading routine was performed, followed by a group trading game made up of different sized shapes, paper and other resources. All in all, it was a fab end to the week, and I went to sleep looking forward to a weekend full of trips. 

Grace, Sidney Sussex, Session 3 – Economics