IIM Interviews: Economics and Finance Questions

What are the questions related to economics or finance for MBA (IIM) interviews?

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Honestly, the interviewers always give a chance to the candidate to suggest which subjects they should quiz him/her on. So, if you’re not from an economics or finance background, you will not be expected to know them.

Having said that, if you’ve studied these subjects before, they would only ask you to the extent they think you would have studied them. For example, to one of my friends, who is an Economics Honours graduate, they asked:

1. Microeconomics - Consumer Behaviour (IC, etc.)

2. Macroeconomics -

• National Income Accounting

• IS, LM Curves

• Inflation and Interest

• Unemployment

• Philip’s Curve

• Okun’s Law

3. Econometrix -

• Correlation

• Regression

• OLS

• Multicollinearity

4. Game Theory

5. Lorenz Curve

6. Classical v/s Keynesian Theory

To me, a B Com Honours graduate, who had studied Economics only as an elective, they asked the following topics:

• National Income

• Accounting

• Substitution Effect

• Indifference Curves

• Giffen Goods

• Market Competition

• GDP - India’s Numbers

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Similarly, I had studied only one 1–2 finance subjects during my undergrad (that too very basic), so they asked me about:

• Indices - how they’re calculated

• Derivatives

• Underlying Assets

• LIBOR

• The risk-free rate of return

• India’s Interest Rates

In case you wish to prepare for finance, the easiest method is to take up some free finance courses online. What I’ve generally observed is that IIM-Ahmedabad focuses more on economics whereas IIM-Calcutta tends to quiz on both. But again, only to the students who have studied them anytime before.