NEWSLETTER  OCTOBER  2006 

 

 

La  version française de la “newsletter” est disponible auprès de Catherine Portier, cportier@cict.fr.

The news below represents a small sample of the activities of the IDEI researchers. If you would like more information, see the IDEI Website at http://www.idei.fr/, or contact Catherine Portier, cportier@cict.fr.

 

Dear Friends of IDEI,

 

These are very exciting times in Toulouse. The French government has announced on October 4, the 13 "RTRA" projects which have been selected to become the "standard-bearers of French research". We are very proud that the TSE  (Toulouse Sciences Economiques/Toulouse School of Economics) project has been included in the list, alongside the project of our Parisian colleagues. Toulouse is the only town outside of Paris with two projects selected, confirming its preeminence as center of technology and science.

 

With this  formal recognition come increased funding, both directly from the French government and indirectly through the creation of a foundation. We plan to use these ressources primarily for recruiting, and to consolidate Toulouse place among the leading European centers.

 

All the economists in Toulouse are very proud and excited about this new adventure. The support of so many friends, when we were preparing the project and in the longer run, has been crucial for this success. We are very thankful, and we will keep on calling on you!

 

Jacques Crémer

Director of IDEI

   

THE News (FROM JULY to SEPTEMBER)

 

CONFERENCES

Two conferences were held at IDEI during these last three months.

·         The Eighth Toulouse Seminar in Macroeconomics, organized by Patrick Fève and Franck Portier, Banque de France, Toulouse,  September 15-16, 2006.

·         The Thirteenth IDEI Annual Conference and the presentation of the Jean-Jacques Laffont Prize 2006 to Daniel L. McFadden, Salle des Illustres, City Hall, Toulouse, October 3, 2006.

 

Most of the IDEI events are open. If you would like to attend one of them, or just wish to have more information, visit http://www.idei.fr or send an email to Catherine Portier at cportier@cict.fr

 

EVENTS

  • Christian Gollier participated in a roundtable on Insuring the Uninsurable Risk at the Insurance Summit in New York on September 15.
  • Jean-Paul Azam participated in the scientific committee of the Fondation pour l’Agriculture et la Ruralité dans le Monde at the Crédit Agricole in Paris on Septembre 27.
  • Bruno Biais presented « Liquidity and the Price Discovery in the European Corporate Bond Market » at the Bond Markets Conference in Istanbul on July 7.
  • Marc Ivaldi presented « Restructuring Railways in Theory and Practice » at the Hermès Workshop on Regulation and Competition Policy in Torino on July 2-3.
  • Jean-Charles Rochet presented “The Pricing of Academic Journals: a Two-Sided Market Approach” at University of Vancouver, Canada, on July 28.
  • Jacques Crémer presented “Codes: Langage and Communication” at the EEA-ESEM Conference in Vienna on August 24-28.
  • Bruno Jullien presented « Pharmaceutical Innovation, Reference Pricing and Therapeutic Classes » at the Sixth European Conference on Health Economics in Budapest on July 6-9.
  • Thomas Mariotti presented « Agency Costs, Security Design and Asset Pricing » at the ESEM-EEA Conference in Vienna on August 24-28.

 

 

VISITS

 

  • René Garcia, University of Montréal, is visiting professor at IDEI until December 2006.

 

AWARDS

·         Bruno Biais is editor of the Review of Economic Studies.

 

MEDIA

 

           « La chasse aux ententes frauduleuses est ouverte», by Patrick Rey, Le Monde de l’Economie, July 4, 2006.

           « Normes et propriété intellectuelle : la vue d’un économiste », by Jean Tirole, la lettre de l’ARCEP, July-August 2006.

           « Universités : leçons d’un classement », by Bernard Belloc, Les Echos, September 2006.

           « Comment sauver nos universités du désastre ? », by Thierry Fabre, Capital, October 2006.

           « Aerospace Valley et l’IDEI récompensés », by G. B., La Dépêche, October 6, 2006.

 

FUTURE EVENTS

 

·         January, 15-16 2007.............................................. Conference on the Energy Markets.

·         January, 16-18 2007.............................................. The Fourth Toulouse Lectures in Economics sponsored both by Princeton University Press and the City of Toulouse, will be presented by Susan Athey, Professor at Harvard and Stanford. The Lectures will carry on Dynamic Contracts and Games with Hidden Information”.

·         January, 19-20 2007.............................................. Fourth Bi-Annual Conference on the Economics of the Software and Internet Industries. 

WORKING PAPERS

 

Copies of all working papers can be found on the web site of the IDEI.

 

MORE APPLIED PAPERS

 

·         “Delivery Offices Cost Frontiers: A Robust Non Parametric Approach with Exogenous Variables”, IDEI WP n°406, July, by Cathy Cazals, Paul Dudley, Jean-Pierre Florens, S. Patel and Frank Rodriguez.

 

·         “Price Controls in the Postal Sector: A Welfare Analysis of Alternative Control Structures”, IDEI WP n°407, May, by Helmuth Cremer, Philippe de Donder, Paul Dudley and Frank Rodriguez.

 

·         “Dynamic Security Design: Convergence to Continuous Time and Asset Pricing Implications”, IDEI WP n°312, revised version in September, by Bruno Biais, Thomas Mariotti, Guillaume Plantin and Jean-Charles Rochet.

 

·         “Ordering the Extraction of Polluting Nonrenewable Resources”, IDEI WP n°403, September, by Ujjayant Chakravorty, Michel Moreaux and M. Tidball.

 

·         “The Market of Academic Journals: Empirical Evidence from Data and French Libraries”, IDEI WP n°416, September, by Pierre Dubois, A. Hernandez-Perez and Marc Ivaldi.

 

·         “The Optimal Sequestration Policy with a Ceiling on the Stock of Carbon in the Atmosphere”, IDEI WP n°401, revised version in September, by Gilles Lafforgue, Bertrand Magné and Michel Moreaux.

 

MORE TECHNICAL PAPERS

  • “Mixed Oligopoly Equilibria when Firms’ Objectives are Endogenous”, IDEI WP n°414, September, by Philippe De Donder and John Roemer.

 

 

MEET THE RESEARCHERS of IDEI :

PHILIPPE DE DONDER

 

As a researcher at CNRS, what explains your interest for economics and, in particular, public economics?

 

 

I found out economics by chance when I was studying computer sciences. I have been immediately attracted by the use of specific methodological instruments in order to evaluate economic problems. I have always been interested in the organisation of the society but social sciences approaches to these questions did not convince me except economics. In economics, the use of mathematical tools in order to evaluate and interpret economic facts is a more efficient approach according to me.

 

What motivates you in economics today?

 

 

Studying the interactions between political phenomena such as lobbying and voting, and economic choices motivates me. Moreover, this topic has become very important in economics over the last few years. I have worked in Belgium, France and the United States but I have rarely met a kindly planner! On the contrary, collective choices are very often founded on majority voting procedures. Studying these collective choices permits to understand better the questions related to taxation, social versus private insurance, education and so on.  

       

 

 

 

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