On Wednesday, 8 November 2023, Nobel Prize Laureate and Professor at Stanford University Guido Imbens received an honorary doctorate on the recommendation of Erasmus School of Economics. Guido studied at Erasmus School of Economics in the early eighties and finished his studies in the UK and Brown University. He was a member of the student association Rotterdamsch Studenten Gezelschap (RSG) and is an avid chess player.
On Wednesday, 8 November 2023, Nobel Prize Laureate and Professor at Stanford University Guido Imbens received an honorary doctorate on the recommendation of Erasmus School of Economics. Guido studied at Erasmus School of Economics in the early eighties and finished his studies in the UK and Brown University. He was a member of the student association Rotterdamsch Studenten Gezelschap (RSG) and is an adamate chess player.
The day before Guido held the key lecture on a Policy Afternoon presided by Professor Anne Gielen en Dinand Webbink and their students at the Excelsior football club. The topic was how academic economists help policy makers in general, and in particular in the area of education. He talked about the strong demand for credible methods for analyzing data of relevant experiments.
Guido began however with how he was motivated to study econometrics amongst others by the book “Econometrics” by Jan Tinbergen, that his economics teacher lent him. In the main hall in the now called Theil building during his studies and even now is the Moniac machine (which stands for “Monetary national income analogue computer”), built in the 1950’s by Bill Phillips. It was remarkably accurate, although at the time it was already sprouting some leaks (which may in fact capture some realistic features of the economy!).
Erasmus School of Economics is happy and honoured our fellow student Guido Imbens came back to our Campus and that he shared his memories with our community in Rotterdam. For more information, please see the following article
Impression of the Policy Afternoon
