Nikita Morozov, Y1 Master’s Student of ICEF: I Live by the Motto, “Primus inter pares”
Nikita Morozov, who is in his first year of Master of Financial Economics at ICEF, boasts an incredible amount of academic accomplishments in his portfolio. We started this interview by asking how Nikita has achieved them, what his first impressions of being an ICEF student are, and what he expects from his master’s studies.
Nikita, you major in economics and graduated with honours from Novosibirsk National Research State University in 2024. Your active academic and research activities earned you the 2023/2024 scholarship from Novosibirsk Mayor’s Scholars Programme. Can you tell more about your research interests and the projects you involved in as an undergraduate student?
During 2022-2024, I was involved in a series of baseline project activities run by RAS SO Institute for Economics and Industrial Engineering under the guidance of my research supervisor A.O. Baranov, D.Sc. (Economics).
The “phenomenon of NSU researchers” lies in their being “genetically connected” with the Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences, and I am no exception. My research deals with the monetary policy of Russia, economic outlook and mathematical modeling.
Also, during my undergraduate studies I stayed an active contributor to campus life, coordinating the student organization Case Club NSU and regularly participating in the national case championships. I was announced winner in NLMK Group’s national Case Championship RAZreshi 2023, landed a scholarship from Troika Dialog partners’ programme “Higher Than Dreams” and a prize from Sber-HSE Spring School in Economics. In 2024, I won top prize from HSE Winter School “Sustainable Development in the Context of External and Internal Economic Challenges”.
Bravo, Nikita! Your impressive record surely opened you the door to many prominent schools in Russia. Why ICEF? What guided your choice?
I didn’t expect deciding on a master’s programme would turn out so difficult. Indeed, I could pick any school in Russia and enter without sitting the entrance exams: my top performance in the Winter School on Economics earned me 100 points in the portfolio competition at ICEF. Besides, I qualified for a NES grant that would that fully cover my Y1 of Master of Arts in Economics programme.
How did I learn about ICEF? An interesting debate emerged one day in the NES applicants chat where they talked about how NES’s Master of Arts in Finance compared to ICEF’s Master of Financial Economics. I had never heard of ICEF before and decided to read about it. I then learned about its programmes and talked with its senior undergraduates, and the fundamental training that it offered did sound an interesting option.
You made your choice. What do you expect from this programme?
I expect to graduate with a vast knowledge of macro- and microeconomics and econometrics, as well as with a honed ability to use apps. I’m curious to learn more about the current trends and paradoxical phenomena that exist in modern economies and finance. Also, this programme offers hands-on experience in economic analysis and financial forecasting, which, coupled with my research potential, could benefit me even more.
What are your first impressions of ICEF? You have years of training at NSU behind, but ICEF might be something new to you.
I entered ICEF with a solid background from NSU Department of Economics, which helps me here at ICEF. The teaching style, the home assignments, the interaction with the studies office – I like them all at ICEF.
One of ICEF’s truly impressive assets is its teachers. I had the opportunity to meet them also at the research seminars and I admire them for their research interests. They are accomplished experts with impressive track record in research. Here at ICEF we don’t have to learn the long and complex proofs as long as we can understand their logic. Studying at ICEF isn’t easy, but I don’t want it easy.
Do you find it difficult to study in English?
Yes, at first I thought I would have difficulty studying in English. It was hard for me to follow the lectures and I thought I’d better use a translator. But with a math course as intensive as here, one acquires the ability to think in English. Besides, I’ve had some experience reading research papers in foreign journals and even following some talks by foreign speakers, and I noticed I was starting to develop an ear for those mathematical and financial terms I learned definitions of.
What do you like about your programme and why?
One reason why I like this programme is because it has a strong focus on finance. Since I already have a degree in economics, I thought it would be interesting to study banking, credit risk modeling and management, venture capital, direct investing, corporate finance, asset valuation, and personal wealth management. Even though I got familiar with all of it while studying for my bachelor’s at NSU and outside of campus, I now have the opportunity to enrich my knowledge.
I am absolutely confident this programme will equip me with the skills needed for a more effective use of cutting-edge financial tools, decision-making and risk management in this quickly changing world.
What is your favourite class, if you already have one?
I can’t say there’s one class I enjoy the most. I am interested to learn macroeconomics and time series analysis, they are the classes I am looking forward to.
Let me mention at this stage that it is thanks to the teachers of ICEF that I now have a better understanding of the majority of courses here.
Have you been to any on-campus events?
Sure. I’ve been to the Greeting Party, where I joined the Pokrovka Mysteries Quest and my team even came first in it. It’s a highly useful quest because it teaches campus navigation, given that the campus in Pokrovka is where one can easy get lost. Following was an engaging meet with senior students. They told us more about the teachers and their courses. We, in turn, shared our own interests and passions. By setting up events like Greeting Party, ICEF offers a good avenue for finding like-minded people.
Do you still make time to pursue your passions or did you have to say good-bye to some of them?
We all should cultivate in ourselves a large hinterland of interests. My personal experience is that work-life balance doesn’t work for those tailored to succeed. Despite my busy schedule and academic load, I always try to squeeze in time to go to public venues. One recent event I’ve been to is Moscow 2030, where I was particularly impressed by the talk called “Human Brain and Its Potential”, given by neurophysiologist and psycholinguist Tatiana Chernigovskaya. As once said by Arseny Tarkovsky, the future is happening right now. We can’t hide from our future behind financial economics books.
You quoted a line from Arseny Tarkovsky’s poem, but do you read prose? Do you have a favourite book or is there one that impressed you most?
Apart from books on economics, I was impressed by Stephen Landsburg’s The Economist on the Couch. It’s a fascinating account and surprisingly sensible explanation of the many paradoxes within economic behavior. It was from this book that I learned about the incentive problem, the principle of indifference and the asymmetry of information that affect us in everyday life.
I see economics as a rapidly progressing science. One website to use if you want to keep updated on emerging ideas or patterns that are being explored by the financial economists, is Econs. I use it for clarity in economics and to source topics for my research or talk. Also, there are some good microeconomics channels to join on Telegram. The uncertainty is growing as the economic landscape changes, requiring us to reinterpret the future of economics itself.
What’s your life motto, or a phrase you live by?
Primus inter pares (first among equals). You’ve got to set yourself ambitious goals if you want to succeed. The path to success is marked by resilience, which often means working seven days a week and staying fully committed. My ambition is to make progress by getting involved in curious projects, even if I had to work longer than 24 hours a day to get them done.
Where does my motivation come from? The anticipation effect, when I think about the end result and contribution that my work can make. I have a big passion for economics and am willing to share my knowledge. Robert Lucas, one of the most influential economists in history, once said, “I had learned that one can make a living by pursuing one’s intellectual interests and writing about them.”
Thank you for your meaningful answers. Lots of luck!