Talk:Financial economics

Should this article be merged with Finance?

The topic of this page appears to duplicate the topic "finance". Should the two articles be merged? If not, why not? What is in Financial Economics that would not also be part of Finance? Please see the JEL classification here. There is no separate code for "finance" and the "financial economics" category appears to include everything in this article. SPECIFICO talk 17:50, 13 July 2022 (UTC)

I agree 100%. Especially that this is based on JEL codes rather than innuendos and weird ambiguous citations. Thesmeagol2 (talk) 13:13, 14 July 2022 (UTC)

SPECIFICO, this is what I was arguing above. Theoretical Finance is financial economics. Limit-theorem (talk) 18:14, 14 July 2022 (UTC)

this discussion seems basically the same as the above thread. Protonk (talk) 18:52, 14 July 2022 (UTC)

Not at all. I am proposing that we merge the articles because the distinction is false and OR and not reflected in the American Economic Association categorization of subjects. SPECIFICO talk 19:04, 14 July 2022 (UTC)

Hi all. At the same time, the NSF classification (latest) has finance completely separated from (financial) economics: "Finance" is under "Business management and administration" while "Economics" is one of the "Social sciences" (and financial economics is presumably subsumed under "Other economics^j"). Fintor (talk) 11:09, 8 August 2022 (UTC)

In other words, "finance" is a recognized subject. "Financial economics" is not recognized as a distinct field. SPECIFICO talk 15:01, 8 August 2022 (UTC)

What I take from this, is that "Finance" and "Financial economics" should continue as separate articles. Finance as a field of economics (JEL) is different from finance as an activity (NSF) (here is one of my favorite pieces on this). Please let's poll all relevant WikiProjects before this merge. Thanks. Fintor (talk) 15:28, 8 August 2022 (UTC)

I think the point is that there is no such field as "financial economics" That's why it is not listed in the NSF classification you cited. As you have said, Finance is practical and much of it is normative -- Its engineering. Indeed "Financial engineering" is taught in the engineering schools at some top universities, in addition to being part of the business school curriculum. Economics is the social science that studies the effects of peoples' interactons. We do not have articles called Physics bridgebuilding or Chemistry detergents. SPECIFICO talk 15:36, 8 August 2022 (UTC)

But it is a JEL field; and numerous universities offer both as separate degrees. I'm just saying, please open this up to a very broad poll before merging. Fintor (talk) 15:43, 8 August 2022 (UTC)

If you're saying you would oppose the merge, please present your case here. That would be very helpful. The content of this page is exclusively about Finance in the sense you and I have discussed -- normative, prescriptive analysis as to how one should manage a portfolio of assets. There is nothing about monetary economics, banking institutions, the function and regulation of auctions and securities markets, etc. -- in short, this page has nothing that could be called "financial economcis". Just Finance. We've already discussed the titles of majors/degree tracks a bit above. SPECIFICO talk 15:59, 8 August 2022 (UTC)

Oppose. If this article needs expanding then do so; but retain both articles. Finance and Financial Economics exist in parallel; and, whereas Finance is very broad, Financial Economics is very narrow. Finance is a practical, daily, "real life" everyday activity (and problem) for most adults and all businesses. Financial economics is a body of theory (often informing the practice) with its own JEL codes, journals and degrees. I've worked in both, they're not the same thing (I've never met a personal finance advisor, financial manager, or stockbroker who's even heard of state prices - let alone stochastic dominance). Fintor (talk)

There's no content in either page that relates stockbrokers, insurance and annuity salesmen and the like to Finance or Financial economics. Nor would any RS be found that relates them. These both need to be evaluated in terms of their respective peer-reviewed literature and not OR or the claimed authority and employment related experience of editors who may have thought of themselves as financiers or whatnots. SPECIFICO talk 16:54, 8 August 2022 (UTC)

Look, nobody is trying to Essjay you. This is now the second editor on this talk page whose contribution you've seen fit to denigrate as stemming from private information. We are just trying to have a conversation, where necessarily inputs that come from experience, interest and inference have a place. We should, frankly, ask YOU what your evidentiary basis for this merger is aside from your interpretation of JEL codes. Alternatively, we could all accept that we are seeking a consensus on page content and therefore act a little bit more collaboratively. Protonk (talk) 19:20, 8 August 2022 (UTC)

What is a SJ? I hope you'll review my contributions on the article and talk page. I've clearly stated the problem. SPECIFICO talk 20:08, 8 August 2022 (UTC)

Essjay controversy

Not clear the relevance of that. But what you've said is backwards. Various editors have claimed to be teachers or practitioners and therefore knowledgeable about the subject beyond what they are willing to articulate or for which they can provide references. Such claims are pointless. SPECIFICO talk 20:28, 8 August 2022 (UTC)

I also oppose this merger for the reasons Fintor notes above. Furthermore I echo their call to "open this up to a very broad poll before merging" as this is a subject which needs more eyes on it before it is subsumed into a very broad topic. Protonk (talk) 16:28, 8 August 2022 (UTC)

Preparing to request merge

I've begun attempting to clean up some of the worst unencyclopedic, unverified, and unintelligible content on the page. Once it is in straightforward, well-cited shape, I expect to propose a merge of this page with Finance, which is indistinguishible from the content and sourcing of this page. SPECIFICO talk 15:49, 5 August 2022 (UTC)

some history

Hi gents. You might be interested here that the finance article historically lead as follows:

"Finance is the application of the principles of financial economics to an inter-related set of monetary problems."

This was then changed (see Talk:Finance#Lead section); the consensus was that "finance" is not just a branch of economics / academia but rather and mainly a "real life" everyday activity (and problem) for most adults. I'm leaning towards the latter view (see also above re the NSF). Fintor (talk) 09:07, 8 August 2022 (UTC)