Friday, June 21, 2019

Consulting Can be Fun!

Over the years, I've done a modest amount of paid econometrics consulting work - in the U.S., New Zealand, Australia, the U.K., and here in Canada. Each job has been interesting, and rewarding, and I've always learned a great deal form the briefs that I've undertaken.

The other day, a friend asked me, "Which consulting job was the most fun?"

Actually, the answer was easy!

A few years ago I consulted for the Office of the Auditor General of Canada, in Ottawa. I was brought in because I had consulted for Revenue New Zealand on the issue of tax evasion, and I had co-authored a book on the Canadian "underground economy" with Lindsay Tedds.

So what was the consulting work with the Auditor General's office all about? Well, they were conducting an audit of what was then called Revenue Canada (now, the Canadian Revenue Agency). In other words, "the tax man"!

Although the report arising from this audit is a matter of public record, I won't go into it here. 

Suffice to say, what could be more fun that conducting an audit of your country's tax authority?

© 2019, David E. Giles

Thursday, June 20, 2019

2019 Edition of the INOMICS Handbook

I'm sure that all readers will be familiar with INOMICS, and the multitude of resources that they make available to economists.

The INOMICS Handbook, 2019 is now available, and I commend it to you.

This year's edition of the Handbook includes material relating to:
  • The gender bias in the field of economics
  • The soft skills you need to succeed as an economist
  • Climate change and how economics can help solve it
  • What makes a successful economist
  • An exclusive interview with Princeton Professor, Esteban Rossi-Hansberg
  • Winners of the INOMICS Awards 2019
  • Recommended study and career opportunities
© 2019, David E. Giles

Tuesday, June 11, 2019

More Tributes to Clive Granger

As a follow-up to my recent post, "Clive Granger Special Issue", I received an email from Eyüp Çetin (Editor of the European Journal of Pure and Applied Mathematics).

Eyüp kindly pointed out that "......... actually, we published the first special issue dedicated to his memory exactly on 27 May 2010, the first anniversary of his passing at https://www.ejpam.com/index.php/ejpam/issue/view/11 

We think this was the first special issue dedicated to his memory in the world. The Table of Contents may be found here https://www.ejpam.com/index.php/ejpam/issue/view/11/showToc .

Another remarkable point that we also published some personal and institutional tributes and some memorial stories for Sir Granger that never appeared elsewhere before at 

Some institutions such as Royal Statistical Society, Japan Statistical Society and University of Canterbury have sent their tributes to this special volume." 

© 2019, David E. Giles

Friday, June 7, 2019

Clive Granger Special Issue

The recently published Volume 10, No. 1 issue of the European Journal of Pure and Applied Mathematics takes the form of a memorial issue for Clive Granger. You can find the Table of Contents here, and all of the articles can be downloaded freely.

This memorial issue is co-edited by Jennifer Castle and David Hendry. The contributed papers include ones that deal with Forecasting, Cointegration, Nonlinear Time Series, and Model Selection.

This is a fantastic collection of important survey-type papers that simply must read!

© 2019, David E. Giles