Going in my 4th year in a European university i have pretty much formed an opinion about it but i want to listen to other opinions as well.
I have seen people good and bad in both sections. Good theorists, try to find a simple theoretical reason explaining the financial problem we discuss and usually make a valid point.
Bad theorists say absurd things that are too general and hardly form a logic relation to the problem and the evidence.
Bad “mathematicians” form a model that may not even have causality with the phenomenon, while the good ones, have good math and some minimum understanding of theory (or common sense to develop some reasoning to whats happening)
I have met econ/finance major with great understanding, developing fast possible solutions and explanations to a problem, i have also met, people with bad understanding, using “theory” to prove common sense, or using their own “theory” to say something against common sense, that usually has no point.
I have also met cs/math guys, that are quite dumb, they know math, but with their poor understanding every good output will be on luck, (and they sure are arrogant)
Its bad but in the few math/cs guys i have met there is no “good” one.
In my opinion understanding is more important than math. If you understand what you are talking about, you will know which parameters to put on your model, even if it is a basic linear one, how financial activities interact with each other and so on.
While if you have all the math of the world and you dont have basic understanding of economy, the only thing you can do is execute commands, from someone who does have the econ understanding.
Your opinions?