Dear Graduates,
It is my distinct honor to congratulate you on your graduation from UCLA, with your Bachelor of Arts degree in Economics, Business Economics or Mathematics/Economics. Your college life began in a remote format. What many believe should be the happiest days of your lives were spent on computer screens, and you did not have any classmates to whisper to or ask questions when you did not understand what the professor said. The transition from the pandemic to normal life has been marked by various social movements. Your college days have been characterized by manifestations of many versions of Knightian uncertainty, and you shrugged off these complications with sang-froid. I am proud to have been a part of your life.
I hope that you enjoyed your UCLA training in the last few years. Your professors believed in your intelligence and resilience, and they pushed you with the most difficult and challenging courses. We demanded theoretical perfection through abstract mathematical concepts and challenged you to present empirical evidence through statistical analysis in the form of machine learning. You are now professional economists, and I would like to welcome you to the club.
As you leave the ivory tower and enter the real world, you need to grapple with the fact that your world is different from the world that welcomed the previous generation when they graduated college. Perhaps you can no longer be as optimistic as the previous generation who proclaimed the End of History and the Great Moderation. Perhaps you will end up re-analyzing the lesson that your grandparents learned half a century ago. Perhaps you will dust off the old books and relearn how to live with inflation and everyday geopolitical tensions. Although volatility may be the only constant in the future, I am confident that you will take this as an opportunity, not an obstacle, and let your intelligence and resilience guide you through. Even while you are heroically slaying the challenges in the next phase of your life, I am sure that you would choose to be rational and find some fun and happiness to maximize your utility function.
You are joining the proud family of UCLA alumni. I hope that you will remember your UCLA days with fondness and find ways to give back to the UCLA community. Before that, however, I hope that you take the time to celebrate your accomplishment and thank those who have supported you in achieving your goal of earning a degree from UCLA.
Congratulations and best wishes!
Jinyong Hahn
Professor of Economics and Chair, UCLA Department of Economics
