In 1958, AWH (Bill) Phillips, a New Zealander, published what was to become one of the most widely cited articles ever written in economics. His paper in Economicawas the foundation of what every economist came to call the “Phillips Curve”. The New Zealand Association of Economists (NZAE) felt that the year 2008, the 50th anniversary of this paper, would be an appropriate time to celebrate the life and work of the late Bill Phillips.

But Bill Phillips’ career embraced much more than just the curve that came to carry his name. His work embraced economic modelling including the famous MONIAC machine, stabilisation policy, econometrics, economic dynamics and economic development, with a particular interest in China.

Given this breadth, the NZAE has combined with the Econometric Society (Australasian region) to bring you ESAM08 Markets and Models: Policy Frontiers in the AWH Phillips Tradition in Wellington, New Zealand, July 9-11, 2008.

The conference will appeal to a wide variety of academics and policy practitioners across the spectrum of applied and theoretical economics and econometrics. The programme will consist of keynote addresses by distinguished scholars, including the AWH Phillips Lecture and special lectures and sessions to celebrate his contributions to economics, the Colin Clark Lecture and the EJ Hannan Lecture usual at ESAM conferences, as well as other special ESAM lectures and contributed paper sessions. Papers are invited in the broad areas of econometrics, microeconomics, and macroeconomics.

We are delighted to advise that, in acknowledgement of Phillips’ connection to the journal, the editors of Economica have reserved an edition for the publication of selected papers from the conference.

We are very grateful to all our sponsors for their generous support of this important conference.

I extend a very warm welcome to you on behalf of the International Advisory Board for this event. We hope you will plan to participate in what will be one of the most significant events on the economics calendar for 2008. This website will carry all the information you need for submitting your paper, registering for the conference and planning your trip to an outstanding event to hear world class speakers and visit New Zealand’s exciting capital city.

Alan Bollard
Chair of the International Advisory Board and
Governor of the Reserve Bank of New Zealand.