The building faces Plaza Bernardo Houssay, opposite of which is the new seat of the Faculty of Medicine, the Hospital de Clínicas, and a number of other UBA dependencies.

The Faculty of Economic Sciences traces its history to the Instituto de Altos Estudios Comerciales ("Institute for Higher Commercial Studies"), founded in 1913.

Raúl Prebisch, creator of the Prebisch–Singer hypothesis and a major proponent of dependency theory, studied and later taught economy at FCE.

[15] Economy ministers of diverse political views and pertaining to different economic schools of thought have also earned their degrees at UBA; among them José Martínez de Hoz, Roberto Lavagna, Axel Kicillof, and Nicolás Dujovne.

Other FCE alumni include Mercedes Marcó del Pont, Carlos Melconian, Alejandro Vanoli and Mario Firmenich.