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2014 NZEP Issue 1 includes papers on recent NZ performance

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The contents of New Zealand Economic Papers, Volume 48, Issue 1, 2014 (available online or by subscription):

  • Foreign acquisition and the performance of New Zealand firms by Richard Fabling & Lynda Sanderson
  • New Zealand households and the 2008/09 recession by Christopher Ball & Michael Ryan
  • The S-curve dynamics of trade between the US and Korea: Evidence from commodity trade by Mohsen Bahmani-Oskooee & Jia Xu
  • The composition of government expenditure with alternative choice mechanisms by John Creedy & Solmaz Moslehi
  • Comparing merger enforcement across jurisdictions – New Zealand versus the European Union and the United States by Michael Pickford & Qing Gong Yang
  • Should bonus points be included in the Six Nations Championship? by Niven Winchester

Brian Easton to present NIDEA Seminar in Hamilton 27-Mar-2014

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The Long Term Prospects for Health Spending

Dr Brian Easton, Economic and Social Trust on New Zealand

ABSTRACT: Last year the Treasury released its long term fiscal projections which look up to 40 years out. Although initially the big concern was demographic change and New Zealand superannuation, it soon became clear that a major issue was public sector health spending. Brian, who was on the group advising the Treasury on the projections, will explain the population and health projections and outline what they might mean for public policy. The projections are at https://www.treasury.govt.nz/government/longterm/fiscalposition/2013

BIO: Dr Brian Easton has had a long involvement in health economics and in economic forecasting (and has made occasional forays into demographic analysis). He is currently writing a history of New Zealand from an economic perspective .which includes an account of the history of the health system and which is heavily dependent on the analysis of population change (especially where the economic data are deficient). Brian is Research Associate of the National Institute for Demographic and Economic Analysis and an Honorary Fellow of the Wellington School of Medicine of the University of Otago. He is also a Fellow of the Royal Statistical Society, a Chartered Statistician, and a Member of the Royal Society of New Zealand, and a Distinguished Fellow of the New Zealand Economic Association.

When: Thursday 27th March 2014, 1.10. – 2.00 pm

Where: I.1.05 For more information please contact Professor Jacques Poot (jpoot@waikato.ac.nz)

Seminar website https://www.waikato.ac.nz/nidea/events

Bob Buckle amongst 2014 New Year Honours list

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Congratulations to NZAE Life Member Bob Buckle for being appointed an officer of the New Zealand Order of Merit for his services to business and education.

As acknowledged in the New Zealand Herald,

“Bob Buckle is one of New Zealand’s leading economists and was principal adviser to the Treasury from 2000 until 2008, the same year he became pro vice-chancellor and dean of commerce at Victoria University’s Business School. A former chairman of the economic committee of APEC, Buckle is appointed an officer of the New Zealand Order of Merit for services to business and education.

He is a life member and former president of the NZ Association of Economists.

He also set up and funded a prize to help young people into university, which is awarded to one student from Whangarei Boys’ High School and another from Whangarei Girls’ High School each year. Buckle attended Whangarei Boys in the early 1960s.

He also established a scholarship to fund international mental health experts to come to New Zealand following the sudden death of his son in 2003.

Buckle was chairman of the Tax Working Group, which reviewed the country’s tax system and contributed to reform. He has authored more than 100 publications.”

2013 NZEP Issue 3 is a Special Issue on Innovation in Teaching Undergraduate Economics

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The contents of New Zealand Economic Papers, Volume 47, Issue 3, 2013 (available online or by subscription):

  • Returns to different ‘learning styles’: Evidence from a course in microeconomics by Taggert J. Brooks & A. Wahhab Khandker
  • Comparing online quizzes and take-home assignments as formative assessments in a 100-level economics course by Gillis Maclean & Paul McKeown
  • Challenge quizzes: A unique tool for motivation and assessment by KimMarie McGoldrick & Peter W. Schuhmann
  • Is activity in online quizzes correlated with higher exam marks? by Paul McKeown & Gillis Maclean
  • Assigning grades during an earthquake – shaken or stirred? by Stephen Hickson & Stephen Agnew
  • Optimal dynamic regulation of the environmental impact of mining across diverse land types by Graeme J. Doole & Ben White
  • An evaluation of New Zealand macroeconomic survey forecasts by Hamid Baghestani & Ilker Kaya

November 2013 AI (#48) features interview with Len Bayliss

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Asymmetric Information Issue 48 2013 available as pdf copy here

Issue No. 48 November 2013 contents:

  • Editorial

  • An Interview with Len Bayliss (by Michael Reddell)

  • NZIER Economics Award 2013: Jacques Poot

  • The Five Minute Interview (Jacques Poot)

  • From the 2B RED File (by Grant Scobie)

  • ‘Frames’ (by Stuart Birks)

  • Blogwatch (by Paul Walker)

  • Fine Lines (by Paul Conway and Lisa Meehan)

  • Heterogeneity in management practices in NZ dairy farms (Motu: Suzi Kerr)

  • Regional Estimates of Tourism Expenditure (by Vij Kooyela and Peter Ellis)

  • International investment data in the NZ LBD (by Lynda Sanderson)

  • The Government Economics Network (GEN)

  • Research in Progress (Lincoln University)

August 2013 NZEP features Stephen Turnovsky on growth and inequality

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The contents of New Zealand Economic Papers, Volume 47, Issue 2, August 2013 (available online or by subscription):

  • The relationship between economic growth and inequality
  • Evaluating research – peer review team assessment and journal based bibliographic measures: New Zealand PBRF research output scores in 2006
  • A microstructural analysis of housing renovation decisions in Brisbane, Australia
  • Does higher social diversity affect people’s contributions to local schools? Evidence from New Zealand

New Zealand Social Statistics Network courses starting 18-Nov-2013

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The New Zealand Social Statistics Network (NZSSN) is offering twelve 5-day courses, two 3-day courses and two 2-day courses in social science research methods, over the period 18th–29th November 2013. The courses will take place at Victoria University of Wellington’s School of Government. The courses on offer are summarised below.

Week 1

INTRODUCTION TO STATISTICS: 18th–22nd November 2013

Christine Miller, Department of Statistics, The University of Auckland

An introductory course in statistical techniques with an emphasis on those applicable to the social sciences, focusing on concepts rather than mathematics.

 

INTRODUCTION TO R: 18th–19th November 2013 (2 DAYS)

TBC, Department of Statistics, The University of Auckland

An intensive course in statistical methods using R, with alternating lecture and lab sessions, so that skills are applied right after being learnt.

 

QUALITATIVE RESEARCH TECHNIQUES: 18th–22nd November 2013

Dr Delwyn Goodrick, Program Evaluation Consultant

An introductory course consisting of lectures and practical workshops, designed for those with no background in research or with no previous experience with qualitative techniques of data collection and analysis.

 

APPLIED COMPUTER-ASSISTED QUALITATIVE DATA ANALYSIS USING NVIVO: 18th–22nd November 2013

Dr Leonie Daws, Principal Consultant, Kihi Consultancies

A course designed for those familiar with qualitative research approaches and interested in using NVivo to assist with qualitative data analysis. The focus is on learning the NVivo data analysis toolkit through hands-on experience.

 

INTRODUCTION TO STRUCTURAL EQUATION MODELLING USING AMOS OR MPLUS: 18th–22nd November 2013

Associate Professor Everarda Cunningham, Swinburne University of Technology

An applied course in using Structural Equation Modelling (SEM), which is used to find and test complex relationships among observed and latent variables.

 

INTRODUCTION TO SURVEY DESIGN: 18th–22nd November 2013

Dr Gordon Emmerson, Honorary Fellow, Victoria University, Melbourne

An introductory course covering underlying theory and best practice in quantitative survey design.

 

INTRODUCTION TO SOCIAL NETWORK RESEARCH AND ANALYSIS: 18th–22nd November 2013

Associate Professor Malcolm Alexander, School of Humanities, Griffith University, Queensland

This course introduces information and data collection methods used by social scientists working on social networks.

 

FUNDAMENTALS OF SPSS: 18th–22nd November 2013

Associate Professor Brian Phillips, Swinburne University of Technology

This course provides the beginner in quantitative data analysis with the basic requirements for analysis in an SPSS computing environment, focusing on the analysis of survey, administrative and/or census data.

 

DATA ANALYSIS USING STATA: 18th–22nd November 2013

Joanna Dipnall, CogNETive

The aim of the course is to provide the participants with understanding and experience to undertake a basic research project in the social or health sciences using Stata as the statistical tool. Stata is a comprehensive integrated package for data management, analysis and graphics.

 

 

Week 2

PROGRAMME EVALUATION – SUPPORTING EVIDENCE-INFORMED PRACTICE: 25th–29th November 2013

Dr Delwyn Goodrick, Program Evaluation Consultant

A course designed for public sector workers and academics interested in commissioning, managing or conducting evaluations of public policy or programmes. (Previously called Introduction to Program Evaluation.)

 

APPLIED MULTIVARIATE ANALYSIS USING STATA: 25th–29th November 2013

Joanna Dipnall, CogNETive

A followup course in Stata, focusing on multivariate statistical techniques, from multiple and logistic regression through principal components analysis and multidimensional scaling, and data visualisation using these methods.

 

MIXED METHODS IN SOCIAL RESEARCH: 25th–29th November 2013

Dr Gordon Emmerson, Honorary Fellow, Victoria University, Melbourne

A course intended for current and emerging researchers who want to know more about using both qualitative and quantitative methods in their research.

 

APPLIED STRUCTURAL EQUATION MODELS USING MPLUS: 25th–29th November 2013

Associate Professor Everarda Cunningham, Swinburne University of Technology

The first part of the course focuses on using Mplus to specify and interpret common models in SEM, e.g. path analytic and confirmatory factor analysis models; the second part introduces multi-group comparisons and complex longitudinal models.

 

ADVANCED QUALITATIVE DATA ANALYSIS USING NVIVO: 25th–27th November 2013 (3 DAYS)

Dr Leonie Daws, Principal Consultant, Kihi Consultancies

An advanced course designed for those working on research projects already utilising the software, focusing on higher-level data analysis, theory building and hypothesis testing, validating findings, and producing reports and accounts.

 

BASICS AND BEYOND OF FOCUS GROUP RESEARCH: 25th–27th November 2013 (3 DAYS)

Dr Martha Ann Carey

This workshop uses a hands-on approach to focus groups for varying levels of rigorous research. Understanding the underlying concepts will enable you to master and adapt the tools effectively with various groups and communities.

 

Q-METHODOLOGY: 25th–26th November 2013 (2 DAYS)

Dr Amanda Wolf, School of Government, Victoria University of Wellington

We will complete a Q study from soup to nuts, with workshop participants serving as both researchers and data providers. Attention will be given to both the basic steps involved in a Q-methodology study and the foundational theory.

 

 

For more information and cost/payment details, please visit www.nzssn.org.nz. Discounts are available for multiple enrolments from a single institution. Our earlybird closing date is Friday 18th October 2013.

 

NZSSN courses are designed to serve a wide variety of needs for training and professional development in the academic, public and private sectors. Courses cater not only to researchers in the social and political sciences, but also those in areas such as the behavioural sciences, medical and health sciences, epidemiology, policy research, education, economics, law, management, marketing, public relations and human resource management. Our short courses are delivered by highly qualified instructors and previous courses have received outstanding reviews.

 

If you are aware of any other individuals/departments/companies that might be interested in these NZSSN courses, could you please advise me, and I will forward information directly to them. Alternatively, please do not hesitate to circulate the material yourself.

 

For more information, and/or to enrol, please visit www.nzssn.org.nz or email courses@nzssn.org.nz

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Call for Papers: The Ninth Forum of the World Association for Political Economy 23-May-2014

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Call for Papers (1st round)

Growth, Development and Social Justice

The Ninth Forum of the World Association for Political Economy

May 23–25, 2014, Vietnamese Academy of Social Sciences

Hanoi, Vietnam

The 8th forum of the World Association for Political Economy (WAPE) was successfully held in Florianopolis, Brazil on May 24-26, 2013. About 100 participants from 18 countries attended this forum. Ninety three papers or abstracts were submitted. Theotonio dos Santos (Brazil) and Wei Xinhua (China) were granted the Marxian Economics Award, and nine professors from USA, UK, France, China, Japan, Brazil, and Vietnam were granted the Distinguished Achievement Award of World Political Economy of the 21st Century. A Statement on “Inequalities and World Capitalism: Analysis, Policy and Action” was released at the closing ceremony of the forum.

The 9th WAPE Forum “Growth, Development and Social Justice” will be held at Vietnamese Academy of Social Sciences, Hanoi, Vietnam on May 23-25, 2014.

Topics to propose

You are welcome to propose topics on the theme “Growth, Development and Social Justice” and all other topics related to Marxist political economy before June 30, 2013. Please email your proposals to wapemember@gmail.com.

How to apply to attend the 9th WAPE Forum

Please register at www.wapeweb.org with your personal information, upload one of your photos, and submit your full curriculum vitae and a paper abstract of 500 words in English. Once your abstract is accepted, please pay your registration fee online. When your payment is confirmed, please submit your full paper. You will then receive an official invitation. You also have the option to apply to attend the forum without a paper.

Both individual papers and complete panels on the theme and proposed topics are welcome.

  • Important dates

    Deadline for abstract: October 31, 2013;

    Notice of acceptance: November 30, 2013;

    Deadline for full paper: March 31, 2014.

    Full papers submitted after March 31, 2014 will not be included in the conference proceedings.

All accepted papers will be considered for publication in World Review of Political Economy.

  • Registration fee

    US$160 for online payment before March 31, 2014;

    US$220 for online payment after March 31, 2014 or onsite payment on May 23-25, 2014.

  • Official Language: English
  • Schedule
  1. On site registration on May 22 through May 23, 2014.
  2. WAPE Council meeting/WRPE Editorial meeting on May 23, 2014.
  3. Official program on May 24 through May 25, 2014.

 What is the benefit of joining WAPE?

While applying to attend the 9th WAPE forum, you have the option to join WAPE. It is highly recommended that you choose to join WAPE. Please find below the details on WAPE membership.

  • General Membership

WAPE has decided to develop itself as a membership organization in order to facilitate the exchange of knowledge, new thought and research across the divide of language and geography, and offer its members access to certain benefits. These include:

• Free digital copies of the organization’s peer reviewed academic journal, World Review of Political Economy (WRPE), which is published four times a year.

• Publishing of members’ selected articles on our websites.

• Translation of selected books and articles into Chinese and publishing them in China.

• Invitations to attend a variety of conferences in China.

• Scholars who are members may be invited to China on a lecture tour.

• Members will be invited to join panels, which WAPE will organize for various international conferences held in different countries.

The general membership fee of WAPE is only US$30 per year, and the membership fee including a hard copy of WRPE is US$100 per year. Membership taken out in 2013 has the added benefit of members receiving eight digital issues of WRPE Volumes 3 and 4.

Marxian economists from all over the world are welcome to attend the forum whether or not they will present a paper. The WAPE Forums aim to encourage cooperation among Marxian economists and to enlarge and strengthen the influence of Marxian economics in the world.

  • WAPE. The World Association for Political Economy, registered in Hong Kong, China, is an international academic organization founded in 2006 by Marxian economists and related groups around the world. The mission of WAPE is to utilize modern Marxian economics to analyze and study the world economy, reveal its laws of development, and offer policies to promote economic and social progress on the national and global level. The last six WAPE forums were successively held in Shanghai, Shimane(Japan), Beijing, Paris, Suzhou(China), Amherst(USA), and Mexico City (Mexico), Florianopolis (Brazil) during 2006-2013. Participants in past WAPE forums have come from over 50 countries in Asia, Australia, Africa, Europe, and North and South America.
  • WRPE. The World Review of Political Economy is a peer-reviewed quarterly journal of Marxian Political Economy sponsored by WAPE and published by Pluto Journals. For more information including types of submissions that will be considered, please go to www.wapeweb.org.
  • WAPE Awards. The Distinguished Achievement Award of World Political Economy of the 21st Century, established by WAPE, has been granted annually since 2009 to recognize an outstanding book or article in political economy. It is intended to promote research in modern political economy around the world by granting the award to economists who have made important innovations in the theory or methodology of political economy since the year of 2001. The Marxian Economics Award, established by WAPE in 2011, is given to recognize an outstanding lifetime record of achievement in political economy. Its purpose is to promote the development of the research of Marxist economics around the world by granting the award to economists of different countries in the world who have made important innovations in the research of theories, methodology and application of Marxian economics. The 2014 WAPE Awards will be granted at the opening ceremony of the Ninth WAPE Forum. Nominations and applications can be sent to wapemember@gmail.com.

 The WAPE Secretariat

June 10, 2013

John Riley awarded Distinguished Fellow of NZAE

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John Riley is an outstanding academic economist and his journey to this illustrious career started here in New Zealand.   He grew up in Christchurch and spent his early life in the Canterbury, Otago and Lake Hawea areas with frequent trips to Wellington on the overnight ferry.  Educationally he honed his mathematical skills at Christ’s College under the tutelage of Alan Ramsey.  He then went on to the University of Canterbury’s Mathematics Department where he completed a B.Sc. (Hons). As an undergraduate he competed for Canterbury in both swimming and basketball. He was also leader of the notorious (and long since banned) haka party in Capping week.

Unsure what to do next he was persuaded by Bert Brownlie to switch to economics (a part of the famous Knights move) and earned an M. Com in economics in 1969 (class of 1968).  While in the Economics Dept. at Canterbury the opportunities and challenges available in economics were reinforced by visitors such as Stiglitz, Debreu and Koopmans. From here John went on to complete his doctorate at MIT where his thesis advisors were Robert Solow and Peter Diamond .

In 1973 he joined the UCLA economics department. His most influential colleague at UCLA was his co-author Jack Hirshleifer (“Analytics of Uncertainty and Information” CUP 1992).  This book is still widely used as an entry level text in this field and a second edition (co-authored by Sushil Bikhchandani) is due to be released later this year. John is best known for his research on markets with asymmetric information. He was heavily involved in the early development of the theories of signalling and of auctions.  Had he followed advice from Mirrlees early in his work on signalling he would have never written his much cited Econometica paper “Informational Equilbrium”. However, it is a signal of the man, that he took this advice to stop working in this area as an inspiration to not only continue but to solve the problem – even if it took the rest of his life.  Fortunately it didn’t take that long!

In 1978 John began working with Jack Hirshleifer on the “war of attrition” and published two papers in the Journal of Theoretical Sociobiology. This led him to start comparing revenue in auction and other “winner-take-all” environments. Eventually the number of mechanisms for which there was revenue equivalence led him to the conclusion that there must be some unifying principle explaining these results.

His most  cited paper on auctions (with William Samuelson) includes the first proof of the celebrated “revenue equivalence theorem”.  He also collaborated extensively with Eric Maskin on auction theory.  John has recently completed a graduate textbook “Essential Microeconomics” (2012). He is currently Distinguished Professor of Economics and very recently completed a third term as Chair of the Economics Department at UCLA.

However these roles do little to capture the depth and diversity of John’s work.  He has more than fifty peer reviewed articles including multiple articles in all of the top journals – AER, JPE, QJE, JEL, Ecnometrica, Journal of Public Economics, Journal of Economic Theory and Games and Economic Behaviour.  In fact, according to REPEC John is among the top 5% of authors internationally according to virtually every criteria that they report on such as:  Average Rank Score; Number of Distinct Works, Weighted by Simple Impact Factor; Number of Distinct Works, Weighted by Recursive Impact Factor … Number of Citations; Number of Citations, Weighted or Discounted by Citation Age, impact factor, number of authors and others. Remarkably his annual google scholar citations show no sign of decreasing. Indeed they reached a life-time high of 712 in 2012.

Although being a world leader in the area of auctions and mechanism design John has not lost sight of his kiwi roots.  He has continued to come back to New Zealand annually and to stay in touch with his mentors at the University of Canterbury.  He tells us his biggest return to NZ for his wonderful start is his daughter who has over 70 caps playing representative football for NZ.  However, the Association believes his contribution is much more direct than this and in recognition of both the quantity and quality of his own ground breaking work we honour him with this award of Distinguished Fellow.

Alan Bollard elected NZAE Life Member

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It is with great pleasure that the Association honours Alan Bollard with the award of Life Membership of the New Zealand Association of Economists.

Alan graduated with Bachelors, Masters and PhD degrees in economics from the University of Auckland in the 1970s. After working in London, he returned to New Zealand to join the New Zealand Institute of Economic Research in 1984. He held the role of NZIER Director from 1987 to 1994, working to restore its financial position while continuing to ensure that the Institute conducted high quality economic research relevant to New Zealand.

Alan then took on three successive high profile public sector positions: Commerce Commission Chairman (1994-1998), Treasury Secretary (1998-2002) and Reserve Bank of New Zealand Governor (2002-2012). Few, if any, New Zealanders have served in such a range of high profile public sector economic leadership roles.

In each of these roles, Alan was a champion for the application of economics in general, and for the activities of the New Zealand Association of Economists in particular. He served as an NZAE Council member for three years from 1995, including serving as NZAE President in 1997. He has also been an active supporter of Association events in many other ways. While at the Treasury and the Reserve Bank, he encouraged economists at those institutions to present papers and to attend the Association’s annual conferences, and ensured provision of financial support to assist the attendance of high quality keynote speakers for the conferences. Particularly noteworthy
was his role in Chairing the International Advisory Board for the the 2008 NZAE/ESAM Conference in honour of AW Phillips; his speech on the life of AW Phillips was a conference highlight for many.

While at the NZIER, Alan was instrumental in having one of Bill Phillips’ MONIAC machines repatriated to New Zealand and restored to working order. He has promoted economics education in a number of ways, including through the Young Enterprise Trust and through the establishment of the Reserve Bank museum, which currently hosts the MONIAC. These education initiatives continue to bear fruit within New Zealand now that Alan has moved offshore to take the position of Executive Director of the APEC Secretariat in Singapore.

Alan’s contributions to New Zealand public policy have been recognised through honorary doctorates from the University of Auckland and from Massey University, and through being named a Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit in 2013.

The Association honours Alan for his contribution to the Association and to New Zealand economic policy, economic research and the economics profession, and has pleasure in awarding him life membership of the Association.

April 2013 AI (#46) updates on University of Auckland research

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The April 2013 issue of Asymmetric Information is now available online here.

Issue No. 46 April 2013 contents:

  • Editorial
  • An Interview with Sir Roderick Deane
  • From the 2B RED File
  • ‘Frames’
  • Fine Lines
  • Blogwatch
  • (Motu) Exchange Rate Pass-Through
  • NZIER Economics Award
  • The Government Economics Network (GEN)
  • The Five Minute Interview
  • The AR Bergstrom Prize
  • Research in Progress
  • NZEP
  • NZAE Information

March 2013 NZEP considers NZ’s international imbalances

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The contents of New Zealand Economic Papers, Volume 47, Issue 1, March 2013 (available online or by subscription):

  • New Zealand’s macroeconomic imbalances – causes and remedies: Guest editors’ introduction
  • New Zealand’s international competitiveness challenges and the Woody Allen syndrome
  • New Zealand’s risk premium
  • Making fiscal policy more stabilising in the next upturn: Challenges and policy options
  • Systemic risk measurement and macroprudential policy: Implications for New Zealand and beyond
  • The A R Bergstrom Prize in Econometrics: 2012

December 2012 NZEP Special Issue focuses on Quality of Life Research in Economics

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The contents of New Zealand Economic Papers, Volume 46, Issue 3, December 2012 (available online or by subscription):

  • Quality of Life Research in Economics
  • Valuing Australia’s protected areas: A life satisfaction approach
  • A living standards approach to public policy making
  • An empirical investigation into the determinants of life satisfaction in New Zealand
  • Fractionalization and well-being: Evidence from a new South African data set
  • Well-being of women in New Zealand: The changing landscape
  • Microfinance in developed economies: A case study of the NILS programme in Australia and New Zealand
  • Telecommunications investment and economic growth in ASEAN5: An assessment from UECM
  • Citation for the award of Distinguished Fellow of the New Zealand Association of Economists: Stephen Turnovsky
  • Citation for the award of Distinguished Fellow of the New Zealand Association of Economists: Leslie Young
  • NZEP Editorial Board 2012

10th A R Bergstrom Prize in Econometrics to Isabelle Sin

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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.