Biography:
Oluwakemi Imole Adewunmi began studying for a PhD in Economics in September 2017. Her research interests cut across topics at the intersection of macroeconomics and finance, particularly macro-finance linkages, financial economics, and international finance.
Prior to coming to Kent, she was a Commonwealth scholar at Heriot-Watt University where she topped her class of MSc Quantitative Finance and Mathematics, graduating with distinction.
She is an alumna of the premier mathematics institute for mathematically gifted African students, the African Institute for Mathematical Science (AIMS), where she completed her first MSc degree in Mathematical Sciences in affiliation with the University of Cape Town South Africa. She was among the selected mathematics students offered the MasterCard Scholarship to cover the full cost of her graduate education.
Oluwakemi graduated with a first class (honours) degree in Mathematics from Ekiti State University. During her undergraduate education, she participated in the National Mathematics Olympiad for Universities and emerged as the best student in the female category and second highest ranked student in the combined category, winning a silver medal from among the 70 high-achieving contestants.
Professional Life:
Oluwakemi’s research examines the information conveyed by some financial indicators for the purpose of designing a monetary policy in the context of a Dynamical Structural General Equilibrium (DSGE) model. At the onset of her research she has worked on a modified medium-scale DSGE model that allows for an explicit bond pricing. The results produced by this model are suitable as they fit macroeconomic and bond data without compromise.
In the aftermath of the 2008 financial crisis, attention has shifted to macroprudential policies. While monetary policy has always been targeted at macroeconomic stability, especially through the inflation stabilisation framework, the new consensus is that macroprudential policy, if employed appropriately and timely, could contain most vulnerabilities in macro-economy. But could these vulnerabilities be contained if monetary policy took into account the realities of the events and vagaries in the financial markets as reflected in several financial indicators?
Evidence has shown that central banks have had to react to financial shocks and distress emanating in the financial sector using non-conventional policies such as Quantitative Easing (QE). How effective has this response been for the macroeconomy? Are these responses structurally traceable? Can the effect be optimised?
“[Economists] will have to do their best to incorporate the realities of finance into macroeconomics…” Paul Krugman (September 2, 2009)
Teaching:
Data Analysis
Financial Analysis
Problem-Solving
Research Interest
