Nobel prize winner to visit Wellington

Nobel prize winner to visit Wellington

Professor Clive Granger, co-winner of this year's Nobel Prize for Economics, is to speak at a conference, co-hosted by Victoria University, later this week.

Professor Granger, from the University of California at San Diego, will speak at the 12th meeting of the New Zealand Econometrics Study Group. The meeting, to be opened by Reserve Bank Governor Dr Alan Bollard, will be held at the Reserve Bank on Friday October 17 and Victoria University's School of Law on Saturday October 18.

It was announced last week that Professor Granger had won the prize with Professor Robert Engle from New York University. The two academics will share the $US1.3 million prize which was instituted in 1968 by the Bank of Sweden.

Professor Granger won the prize for his significant discovery of methods of analysing economic time series with common trends.

Dr Stephen Burnell, Head of the School of Economics and Finance, said it was an honour to have Professor Granger speak at the University.

"Time series – where economists use data over time to test theories and estimate relationships – are vital to our research. The work of Professor Granger in devising new statistical methods for analysing random fluctuations have been revolutionary. In financial markets, volatility is particularly significant because the value of shares and other financial instruments depends on their risk."

The meeting of the Econometrics Study Group is sponsored by the Reserve Bank, Statistics Research Associates Ltd and Victoria's School of Economics and Finance.

For more information, contact Professor Viv Hall on 04 463 5081

Conference programme: http://www.vuw.ac.nz/nzesg/nzesg2003/program.html

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