Keynote Lectures
Jean Tirole
Moving Up a Demand Curve:
Repeated Relationships with Positive Selection
Repeated Relationships with Positive Selection
Click here to watch Jean Tirole's keynote lecture again.
Biography:
“As one of the world’s leading economists, Tirole has been influential in the theoretical and practical application of game theory and information theory to industrial organization and regulation . His research interests also include finance, macroeconomics, international finance and economics and psychology. Tirole also serves as chairman of the executive committee of the Institute for Advanced Study in Toulouse (IAST), which he helped found in 2011. He is an annual visiting professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in the department of economics, where he was a professor for eight years before moving to Toulouse in 1992. He is the laureate of the 2014 Nemmers prize in economics and received the Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel in the same year.” (TSE) |
Abstract:
In a number of interesting environments, dynamic screening involves positive selection: in contrast with Coasian dynamics, only the most motivated remain over time. This work provides conditions under which the principal’s commitment solution is time consistent and uses this result to derive testable predictions under permanent or transient shocks. It also identifies environments in which time consistency does not hold despite positive selection, and yet simple equilibrium characterizations can be obtained.
In a number of interesting environments, dynamic screening involves positive selection: in contrast with Coasian dynamics, only the most motivated remain over time. This work provides conditions under which the principal’s commitment solution is time consistent and uses this result to derive testable predictions under permanent or transient shocks. It also identifies environments in which time consistency does not hold despite positive selection, and yet simple equilibrium characterizations can be obtained.
Rachel Griffith
Gluttony and Sloth:
Long-run Changes in Bodyweight, Diet and Labour Market Activity
Long-run Changes in Bodyweight, Diet and Labour Market Activity
Click here to watch the slides of Rachel Griffith's presentation.
Biography:
“Rachel is Professor of Economics at the University of Manchester, a Deputy Research Director of the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS), a Fellow of the British Academy, and an Editor of the Economic Journal. She was elected President of the European Economic Association (EEA), to serve in 2015. She is Deputy Chair of the Economics sub-Panel of the REF. She sits on the Executive Committee of the Royal Economic Society and is a Research Fellow of CEPR. She currently holds an ERC Advanced Grant on the "Microeconomic Analysis of Prices, Food and Nutrition" and is a co-Investigator on the ESRC "Centre for the Microeonomic Analysis of Public Policy" at the Institute for Fiscal Studies.” (University of Manchester) |
Abstract:
There have been large increases in bodyweight in most developed countries. The policy and the academic literature have largely focused on increased calorie consumption as the cause. However, household survey data from the UK and US suggests that most people have not increased calorie consumption, despite an increase in some high calorie categories like fast food, snacks and drinks. We show that changes in labour market activities and changes in other uses of time have meant that activities have become less strenuous. We study the relation between labour market activities, other uses of time, diet and weight gain over thirty years using household level data from the UK.
There have been large increases in bodyweight in most developed countries. The policy and the academic literature have largely focused on increased calorie consumption as the cause. However, household survey data from the UK and US suggests that most people have not increased calorie consumption, despite an increase in some high calorie categories like fast food, snacks and drinks. We show that changes in labour market activities and changes in other uses of time have meant that activities have become less strenuous. We study the relation between labour market activities, other uses of time, diet and weight gain over thirty years using household level data from the UK.
thorsten beck
When Arm’s Length Is Too Far.
Relationship Banking over the Credit Cycle
Relationship Banking over the Credit Cycle
Biography:
"Thorsten Beck is professor of banking and finance at Cass Business School in London. He is also a research fellow of the Centre for Economic Policy Research (CEPR) and the CESifo. His research, academic publications and operational work have focused on two major questions: What is the relationship between finance and economic development? What policies are needed to build a sound and effective financial system? Recently, he has concentrated on access to financial services, including SME finance, as well as on the design of regulatory and bank resolution frameworks. In addition to numerous academic publications in leading economics and finance journals, he has co-authored several policy reports on access to finance, financial systems in Africa and cross-border banking. His country experience, both in operational and research work, includes Bangladesh, Bolivia, Brazil, China, Colombia, Egypt, Mexico, Russia and several countries in Sub-Saharan Africa." (http://www.thorstenbeck.com) |
Abstract:
Using a novel way to identify relationship and transaction banks, we study how banks’ lending techniques affect credit constraints of small and medium-sized enterprises across emerging Europe. We link the lending techniques that banks use in the direct vicinity of firms to these firms’ credit constraints at two contrasting points of the credit cycle. We show that relationship lending alleviates credit constraints during a cyclical downturn but not during a boom period. The positive impact of relationship lending in a downturn is strongest for smaller and more opaque firms and in regions where the downturn is more severe. Additional evidence suggests that the reduction in credit constraints due to relationship lending helps to mitigate the adverse impact of an economic downturn on local firm growth and does not constitute evergreening of underperforming loans (JEL codes: F36; G21; L26; O12; 016).
Keywords: Relationship banking, credit constraints, credit cycle.
Using a novel way to identify relationship and transaction banks, we study how banks’ lending techniques affect credit constraints of small and medium-sized enterprises across emerging Europe. We link the lending techniques that banks use in the direct vicinity of firms to these firms’ credit constraints at two contrasting points of the credit cycle. We show that relationship lending alleviates credit constraints during a cyclical downturn but not during a boom period. The positive impact of relationship lending in a downturn is strongest for smaller and more opaque firms and in regions where the downturn is more severe. Additional evidence suggests that the reduction in credit constraints due to relationship lending helps to mitigate the adverse impact of an economic downturn on local firm growth and does not constitute evergreening of underperforming loans (JEL codes: F36; G21; L26; O12; 016).
Keywords: Relationship banking, credit constraints, credit cycle.
Paul Klemperer
'Demand types': Applications to Equilibrium Existence, Matching, and Mechanism Design
Biography:
Paul Klemperer co-invented the concept of "strategic complements"; developed the theory of consumer switching costs, and the "supply function" analysis of electricity markets; and has showed how to apply intuitions and techniques from auction theory in a range of other economic contexts, from finance to political economy. He has advised numerous governments, including devising the UK government's "3G" mobile-phone license auction that raised £22.5 billion, and assisting the US Treasury in the recent financial crisis. Please click here for a video published by a British newspaper describing how Paul Klemperer invented an auction to help the Bank of England as the financial crisis took hold in 2007; the then-Governor described the auction as "a marvellous application of theoretical economics to a practical problem of vital importance" (http://www.paulklemperer.org) |
Abstract:
The talk will be heavily based on Baldwin and Klemperer (2012, 2015) which obtains insights for mechanism design and stable matching, and new results about when equilibrium exists if goods are indivisible, via "demand types" – a new way of describing preferences. Prof. Dr. Paul KlempererI will also discuss how "demand types" help develop the product-mix auction, invented for and used by the Bank of England in the financial crisis – a user-friendly mechanism that finds competitive-equilibrium prices and allocations given bidders’ and bid-takers’ preferences as expressed by their bids.
The talk will be heavily based on Baldwin and Klemperer (2012, 2015) which obtains insights for mechanism design and stable matching, and new results about when equilibrium exists if goods are indivisible, via "demand types" – a new way of describing preferences. Prof. Dr. Paul KlempererI will also discuss how "demand types" help develop the product-mix auction, invented for and used by the Bank of England in the financial crisis – a user-friendly mechanism that finds competitive-equilibrium prices and allocations given bidders’ and bid-takers’ preferences as expressed by their bids.