Parul Jain

Parul Jain, PhD, teaches Economics and Finance at Rutgers Business School (after teaching for several years at Baruch’s Zicklin School of Business) and is founder and Chief Investment Strategist of MacroFin Analytics, a firm that has an ambitious agenda of providing cutting edge macroeconomic and financial market insight, covering a wide spectrum of issues. This includes Fed analytics and macroeconomic risks, along with asset class risks, including mortgage-backed securities. Sector specific risks – from a macro-sector to industry-sector perspective – are also addressed. The analysis draws upon Parul’s vast experience at several financial firms and academic institutions. She makes presentations to several international groups.

Parul is a panelist for the Blue Chip Economic Forecasts and Financial Forecasts, the Bloomberg Monthly Forecasts, and is a member of The Forecasters Club of New York. She was named as the 2009-2010 Forecaster of the Year by the National Association for Business Economics (NABE) and has consistently ranked among the top 10 forecasters. She was elected to the NABE Board of Directors for 2008-2011 and has been serving as Associate Editor for Business Economics (NABE’s journal) since 2003. Parul was the 2003-2004 President of the New York Association for Business Economics; she was appointed as Leadership Adviser for this group. She is a member of the Money Marketeers Club of NYU and several other associations.

Prior to forming MacroFin Analytics, Parul was Director of U.S. Credit Strategy at Standard & Poor’s, where she developed analytics and commentary relating to several asset classes. Her research included issues relating to spreads, defaults, credit quality, credit momentum and liquidity indices, sector analysis and portfolio strategy. Her publications covered outlook discussions on the corporate bond market, the high yield market, commercial paper, with analysis relating to RMBS, CMBS and ABS sectors, all of which involved substantial client interface and received considerable media attention.

Parul also developed and published GICS sector commentary, covering the 10 key GICS sectors and 38 industry groups. Parul’s report on the credit profile of the S&P 500 index set forth a unique way for examining bond-equity allocations across sectors. Before joining Standard & Poor’s, Parul served as Deputy Chief Economist at Nomura Securities International, Inc. in New York, where she interacted heavily with traders and strategy teams, interpreting key economic releases and their market impact, with heavy focus on liquid markets and mortgage markets. In addition to analytics covering macroeconomic and financial markets, she was very active on the speaker circuit, with regular outlook presentations on financial markets for different groups.

She interfaced heavily with the media. As Director and TIAA Economist for TIAA-CREF’s Investment Research and Portfolio Strategy Group, spanning four years, Parul monitored and analyzed macroeconomic and financial market developments, assessing macro-financial risks for U.S. and overseas markets. She wrote the group’s biweekly publication “Economic Highlights” and presented the “Monday Morning Economic Brief” to the Securities Division. She participated in asset allocation meetings and helped define market risks, by asset type and by sector; this was tied to modeling work on bond spreads and issuance projections. She worked on TIAA’s portfolio and developed econometric models on defaults and risks. She made several presentations to Financial Advisor groups.

As Director of Economic and Investment Analysis (Portfolio Management Group) at the Prudential Insurance Company of America (now Prudential Financial), Parul addressed myriad issues relating to investment analytics for the U.S. and the global economy for internal and external groups. This included specific market analysis, country risk monitoring and modeling, developing interest rate strategies and forecast models for major market segments, including real estate and private placements. Parul’s professional experience spans several years in academia and she has published several articles in leading journals dealing with macroeconomic, monetary, financial and international issues and has also served as a referee for several academic journals. She has occupied faculty positions at Rutgers University (New Brunswick, NJ), Indiana-Purdue University (Fort Wayne, IN) and Washington University (St. Louis, Mo.).

She also taught Risk Management in Financial Institutions at NYU’s Stern School of Business, and Issues in Applied Portfolio Management at Columbia Business School. Parul has also served on several Bond Market Association Advisory Committees (now SIFMA) and was a consultant/advisor for this association as well; she helped draft the association’s July 2005 letter to the U.S. Treasury, calling for a resumption of 30-year bond sales. Additionally, she served as Senior Research Fellow at the Skolkovo Institute of Emerging Market Studies, which is a think tank with offices in China, Russia and India. Parul holds a doctorate degree in Economics from Washington University in St. Louis. She obtained her MA degree from the Delhi School of Economics and her BA degree from Miranda House, Delhi University.