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Activity day:2012-08-01
Published At：2012-08-01
Views:251
2017-02-12 updated
Academia Sinica Lecture
Lecture A
Title: “Financial Crises: Why They Occur and What to Do about Them”
Time: 15:00 – 16:30
Date: Tuesday, June 11, 2012
Venue: International Conference Hall, 3F, Humanities and Social Sciences Building, Academia Sinica, No.128, Sec.2, Academia Road, Nangang District, Taipei City
Speaker: Dr. Eric Maskin, Professor of Economics, Harvard University
Moderator: Dr. Chi-Huey Wong, President, Academia Sinica
Lecture B
Title: “Elections and Strategic Voting: Condorcet and Borda”
Time: 9:10 – 10:10
Date: Wednesday, June 12, 2012
Venue: International Conference Hall, 3F, Humanities and Social Sciences Building, Academia Sinica, No.128, Sec.2, Academia Road, Nangang District, Taipei City
Speaker: Dr. Eric Maskin, Professor of Economics, Harvard University
Moderator: Dr. Ping Wang, Seigle Family Professor of Economics, Washington University in St Louis (Academician, Academia Sinica)
Online registration: http://iao.sinica.edu.tw/ASL/index.html
Abstract:
The recent financial crisis is only the latest one in a long sequence. The history of financial crises goes back to centuries, with the most famous one being the 1711 South See Bubble. Probably financial crisis will continue to occur in the future. With each crisis being somewhat different from its predecessors, it may not be desirable to try to prevent all crises. However, we can do much better at limiting crises. In the lecture professor Maskin will discuss the reasons behind financial crises from the perspective of economic theory. In particular he will address issues: (1) Why does credit market have repeated crises and other markets do not? (2) Why does credit market require substantial ex post intervention and others do not? (3) What can be done ex ante to prevent or limit crises?
Dr. Eric Maskin, one of the three 2007 Nobel Laureates in Economics, will deliver two lectures at Academia Sinica on June 11 and 12. The lectures are entitled “Financial Crises: Why They Occur and What to Do about Them” and “Elections and Strategic Voting: Condorcet and Borda.” Members of the media and the public are welcome to attend these lectures.
Dr. Maskin is currently professor of Economics at Harvard University. He was awarded the Nobel Prize, jointly with Leonid Hurwicz and Roger B. Myerson, for laying the foundations of mechanism design theory, which concerns the design of institutional arrangements, rules and procedures for economic activity and collective decision-making. Mechanism design theory provides general methods for designing rules, which result in resource allocation that meet a given social goal, despite the fact that individuals act in their own interest. The theory of mechanism design currently plays a major role in many areas of economics and in parts of political science, and has led to many fruitful applications. Its domain of application has expanded in recent years, due to globalization and growing internet trade, phenomena that impose new demands on old institutions.
In addition, Dr Maskin did pioneering work on implementation theory. It is the part of the theory of mechanism design which deals with the problem arising from the potential co-existence of inferior equilibria along with the desired ones. It solves the problem by designing a mechanism such that the equilibrium outcomes satisfy a criterion of social optimality embodied in a social choice rule. In addition, he has made numerous other important contributions, both to the pure theory of mechanism design and to its application to areas such as auctions, monopoly and social choice.
Professor Maskin was born in New York City on December 12, 1950, and grew up in Alpine, New Jersey, located 24 km northwest of Midtown Manhattan. He graduated from Tenafly High School in Tenafly, New Jersey in 1968, and attended Harvard University where he received his A.B. in mathematics and Ph.D. in applied mathematics. While at Tenafly High, he was lucky to have some dedicated teachers, especially Francis Piersa, who inspired his interest in mathematics. Because his math teacher in Tenafly High, he came a math major at Harvard College, where he studied algebra with Pierre Samuel and Richard Brauer and analysis with George Mackey and Lars Ahlfors. Almost by accident, he wandered into a course on "information economics" taught by Professor Kenneth Arrow, later his Ph.D. advisor. The course covered topics in frontier of economic theory, but a major part of it was devoted to Leonid Hurwicz's work in mechanism design. This work was a revelation to him: it had the precision, rigor, and sometimes the beauty of pure mathematics and also addressed problems of real social importance − an irresistible combination. In fact, he ended up essentially doing an economics Ph.D. The degree was nominally in applied mathematics.
Prof. Eric Maskin thinks it was exceptionally lucky for him to have discovered economics in the first place, to have entered the field at a time when mechanism design was just beginning to bloom, and, most crucially, to have had a succession of remarkable teachers, students, colleagues, and friends in the profession. Finally, in a world where so many people dislike their jobs, he feels lucky to be spending his days working hard at something he loves. Maskin's former students were unanimous in their admiration of their professor's breadth of knowledge, kindness and dedication to teaching. Maskin's students also lauded him for his clarity, teaching skills and ability to make complex math problems understandable.
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