The April 2013 issue of Asymmetric Information is now available online here.
Issue No. 46 April 2013 contents:
CLOSING DATE: Ongoing.
The purpose of the Business & Law Graduate Assistantship Awards is to support postgraduate research students with an excellent academic record to undertake doctoral research in the Faculty of Business and Law, and to offer students experience as Teaching or Research Assistants. Graduate Assistantship Awards are funded by Faculty and are offered to full-time students on a contestable basis when a vacancy in a particular department or school becomes available. Further information can be obtained from the Head of Department (tim.maloney@aut.ac.nz).
AMOUNT AND TYPE OF AWARD
TENURE
APPLICATION REQUIREMENTS
CRITERIA
All applicants for this scholarship must:
CONDITIONS OF SELECTION AND ACCEPTANCE
The contents of New Zealand Economic Papers, Volume 46, Issue 3, December 2012 (available online or by subscription):
Congratulations to Isabelle Sin, who was awarded the 2012 A. R. Bergstrom Prize in Econometrics for her paper “The Gravity of Ideas: How Distance Affects Translations”. The Bergstrom Prize can be awarded every two years and aims to reward the achievement of excellence in econometrics, as evidenced by a research paper in any area of econometrics.
The citation for the award writes that Izi’s paper, elements of which appeared in her PhD dissertation, is “an innovative study of how various measures of distance affect the international transmission of ideas, as one potentially important component underlying growth and development processes.” More information about the prize is available from the New Zealand Association of Economists.
The contents of New Zealand Economic Papers, Volume 46, Issue 2, August 2012 (available online or by subscription):
Stephen Turnovsky is an outstanding academic economist. His academic career spans over 40 years, with a distinguished publication record which has kept him in the very top echelon of the profession’s academic journal publishers over a particularly long time period.
Early foundations for Stephen’s academic career were laid with a BA in Mathematics and Economics and an MA with 1st class honours in Mathematics from Victoria University of Wellington (VUW). These degrees were conferred in 1962 and 1963 respectively, and during that period he also held positions of part-time research assistant at NZIER and the Applied Mathematics Laboratory of DSIR, and as a Junior Lecturer in Mathematics at VUW. As a signal towards the now over 236 journal publications to come, he quickly had a joint publication in 1964 in the NZ Journal of Geology and Geophysics on the statistics of New Zealand earthquakes, and an econometric case-study of Disequilibrium in the NZ Automobile Market in the June 1966 issue of the Economic Record. The latter study was completed early in Stephen’s time at Harvard University.
Stephen’s PhD from Harvard was conferred in 1968, and led to positions at the Universities of Pennsylvania and Toronto. He was Professor of Economics at the ANU from 1972 to 1982, including as Chairman of the Department of Economics for 3 ½ years, and was then IBE Distinguished Professor of Economics at the University of Illinois from 1982 to 1988. He has been Castor Professor of Economics at The University of Washington in Seattle since 1993, following his appointment in 1988 as Professor of Economics at that University. Since 2010, he has also been Adjunct Professor of Economics at VUW.
Stephen’s publications through to the early 1970s included three important contributions to the then emerging empirical evidence on price and wage expectations, published in the Journal of the American Statistical Association, Economica, and the Review of Economics and Statistics. However, the distinctive features of Stephen’s on-going research became the use of mathematical tools and economic concepts to model problems in the areas of economic growth and dynamics, including applications to optimal macroeconomic policies. Moreover, as befits his having lived and worked for lengthy periods in Australasia and Canada, a great deal of his modelling has been of (small) open economies. The diverseness of Stephen’s publications is reflected not only in the range of core macroeconomic areas addressed and quantitative tools utilised, but also through the number of coauthors with whom he has published – for example, from his September 2011 CVi, I counted an extraordinary number of 77 different journal co-authors and 8 book-related co-authors, for the period since 1969.
Of his 13 books solely or jointly authored or co-edited, there are academics throughout the world who can attest to finding his 1977 Macroeconomic Analysis and Stabilisation Policy, and his 1995 and 2000 editions of Methods of Macroeconomic Dynamics particularly valuable for their graduate macro courses. I’m not going to single out particular articles or journals from Stephen’s CV – suffice to say that by the late 1970s, he had cracked every top-ranked economics journal at least once, with many acceptances since then in these and the best of more recently established journals.
However, recognition for outstanding achievement does not always follow from publications alone, and in this respect it is important to detail the considerable wider recognition of Stephen’s professional achievements.
His Professional Honours include Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences in Australia (elected 1976), Fellow of the Econometric Society (1981), President of the Society of Economic Dynamics and Control (1982-84), and President of the Society of Computational Economics (2004-06).
He has held visiting positions of distinction over many years, including at the University of California-Berkeley, Nuffield College (Oxford), Academia Sinica (Taipei), IAS Wuhan University, IAS Vienna, CESifo (University of Munich); and has been awarded Doctorat, Honorary Causa by the University of Aix-Marseille II (2005) and an Hon DLitt by Victoria University of Wellington (2009).
The unusual breadth and depth of Stephen’s Editorial Board activities, and hence his indirect influence on and contributions to developments in the macro-theoretic economics literature, can be illustrated by his having been variously Associate Editor, Editor and Advisory Editor of the Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control continuously since 1978, Joint Editor of the Economic Record for the period 1973-77, and Associate Editor of the Journal of Money, Credit and Banking (1977-2010), the Journal of Public Economics (1982-87), the Journal of Public Economic Theory (from 2000), Macroeconomic Dynamics (from 2001), and the Journal of Human Capital (from 2006). He has been on the Editorial Advisory Board of New Zealand Economic Papers since 2007.
Finally, against the background of Stephen’s outstanding global academic achievements, let me record his most recent contributions to the economics profession in New Zealand: invited keynote speaker to the NZAE/ESAM08 50th Anniversary Symposium, honouring the tradition of A W H (Bill) Phillips; invited keynote speaker to the 1st and 2nd NZ Macroeconomic Dynamics Workshops (April 2011, April 2012), and to the Southern Workshop in Macro (SWIM, April 2012). Recently, he also endowed the Stephen Turnovsky Visiting Fellowships, to be held in the School of Economics and
Finance at VUW.
It gives me great pleasure to provide this citation for sustained and outstanding contributions to the development of economics, to Castor Professor Stephen Turnovsky, Distinguished Fellow of the New Zealand Association of Economists.
Viv Hall
It is with great pleasure the Association honours Frank Scrimgeour with the award of Life Membership of the New Zealand Association of Economists.
From his farming origins in Golden Bay, Frank commenced his academic career at Lincoln University where he gained First Class Honours and was awarded the Sir Malcolm Burns Prize for outstanding student contributions to Lincoln College. This dedication to wider communities was to become a hallmark of Frank’s subsequent career. He went on to complete a PhD at the University of Hawaii. Many may not know he also holds a Bachelor of Divinity from the Melbourne College of Divinity.
His professional career began at the Meat and Wool Boards’ Economic Service, but this was soon followed by over five years in development work with the Christian Leaders’ Training College in Mt Hagen, Papua New Guinea.
Frank has spent more than two decades at the University of Waikato, first as an active member of the Economics Department, then Chair of several departments and finally as current Dean of the Waikato Management School. In addition to a heavy administrative load, he has maintained his highly productive career as an economist publishing widely in international journals and generating an extensive number of research papers, conference proceedings and consulting reports.
In making this award we wish to honour Frank for his service to the profession, the academic community, the wider New Zealand community and the Association, in particular. His contribution to all of these groups has been outstanding.
Notably Frank has
In all these endeavours he has shown genuine human understanding, concern for the
wellbeing of others, always tempered with a quiet sense of humility.
The Association honours Frank for his broad economic citizenship and has pleasure in
awarding him Life Membership of the Association.
citation to come
The contents of New Zealand Economic Papers, Volume 46, Issue 1, March 2012 (available online or by subscription):
An invitation to all economists and organisations seeking economists to list here employment opportunities for economists in New Zealand.
Applications are now being sought for the tenth A R Bergstrom Prize in Econometrics.
The objective of the Prize is to reward the achievement of excellence in econometrics, as evidenced by a research paper in any area of econometrics. The Prize is open to New Zealand citizens or permanent residents of New Zealand who, on the closing date of applications, have current or recent (i.e. within two years) student status for a higher degree. It is intended that the awardee will utilise the proceeds to assist in financing further study or research in econometrics in New Zealand or overseas.
The Prize can be awarded once every two years, with its value currently being $2000. The selection committee will consist of Professors P C B Phillips, V B Hall and their nominees.
Applications/nominations must include:
• a formal letter of application and, in the case of students, a letter of nomination by their research adviser or chairperson
• a research paper written by a single author, reporting original research in any area of econometrics
• a CV and relevant academic transcripts
Applications should be emailed or posted by 24 August 2012, to:
Professor V B Hall
School of Economics and Finance
Victoria University of Wellington
P O Box 600 Wellington
NEW ZEALAND
Email: viv.hall@vuw.ac.nz
The Prize is supported by funds generously provided by the following sponsors:
The New Zealand Association of Economists
The School of Business and Economics at the University of Auckland
The Department of Economics at the University of Canterbury
The Faculty of Commerce and Administration at Victoria University of Wellington
Lincoln University
The Economics Group, Commerce Division at Lincoln University
C R Wymer
A D Brownlie
R J Bowden
H A Fletcher
R H Court
J A & D E A Giles
Anonymous
V B Hall
D M Emanuel
K B Nowman
P C B Phillips
In addition, royalties from the Festschrift Volume Models, Methods and Applications of Econometrics: Essays in Honour of A.R. Bergstrom, P.C.B. Phillips (ed.) Blackwell, Cambridge MA and Oxford UK, 1993, and from A Continuous Time Econometric Model of the United Kingdom with Stochastic Trends, by Albert Rex Bergstrom and Khalid Ben Nowman, Cambridge University Press, 2007, are applied to support the prize.
The contents of New Zealand Economic Papers, Volume 45, Issue 3, December 2011 (available online or by subscription):
The 2010 A R Bergstrom Prize in Econometrics has been awarded to David Baqaee, PhD student, Harvard University, for his paper ”Using Wavelets to Measure Core Inflation: the Case of New Zealand”. David’s paper was completed while employed as an Economic Analyst at the Reserve Bank of New Zealand.
The 53rd Annual Conference will be held at the Convention Centre in Palmerston North on 27-29th June 2012 more
The 52nd Annual Conference was successfully held at the Amora Hotel in Wellington on 29th June to 1st July 2011. Details, including copies of papers, can be found at Conference 2011
The Jan Whitwell prize was awarded to Alex Olssen at the NZAE 2011 Conference.
From the University of Otago School of Business …
“An official book launch celebrating Emeritus Professor Lyall McLean’s “A History of Economics and the Development of Commerce Degrees at the University of Otago 1871-2009” took place last night in Council Chambers of the University of Otago.
Lyall’s book builds on the work undertaken by Emeritus Professor T.K. Cowan who in 1988 wrote “Commerce at Otago, 1912 – 1987”
…
In addition to the history of the School the book includes, as an appendix, the names of all 19000+ graduates, listed by departments and 100+ photographs including the professors, Deans, heads of departments and the first PhD graduates of each department, will be available for sale at the launch.
This book is available for purchase at University Book Shop.”
A History of Economics and the Development of Commerce Degrees at the University of Otago 1871-2009 by Lyall McLean
The annual NZIER Economics Award promotes and recognises excellence in economics of relevance to New Zealand. Nominations for the 2011 Award are now open. For further details visit www.nzier.org.nz/public-good/nzier-economics-award
Gary Hawke and Ralph Lattimore presented the paper History of NZAE 20 July 05 at the New Zealand Association of Economists Meetings, Christchurch, June 2005. The paper is work in progress, intended to stimulate input into a history of the first 50 years of the NZ Association of Economists which will be celebrated in 2009. If it is quoted, its preliminary nature should be respected. Hawke, Head of the School of Government, Victoria University of Wellington, Gary.Hawke@vuw.ac.nz, Lattimore, consulting economist, Hope, Ralph.Lattimore@xtra.co.nz. The authors acknowledge the valuable library assistance of Sarah Spring and advice from John Yeabsley.