President’s Message on the 2018 ASSA/KAEA Meetings in Philadelphia
Dear KAEA Members,
On behalf of the KAEA Executive Committee members, I would like to thank all of you for your contributions and care for our Association. Our Association has grown remarkably during the past 33 years owing to your contributions and the excellent leadership and vision of our previous leaders, for whom we remain grateful.
Soon, we will have our annual meeting at the 2018 ASSA Meetings in Philadelphia. We would like to welcome you to the meeting. As done in previous years, we have prepared many excellent programs. We hope that you will enjoy the Meetings and we, EC members, would like to encourage participating actively in our own programs. Indeed, we can be proud of our excellent programs and want to thank all our members who spent valuable time to prepare the programs.
Here are some highlights that deserve you attention.
First, many people at the ASAA meetings would be surprised to see that all of our three KAEA-AEA sessions are filled with top researchers, as done in previous years.
The Micro session organized by Dr. BC. Kim includes Dr. Susan Athey from Stanford University, who is the first female winner of the John Bates Clark Medal, Dr. Yeon-Koo Che from Columbia University, who is our former Presider of the KAEA, Dr. Steven Tadelis from UC Berkeley, and Doh-Shin Jeon from Toulouse School.
The Macro session consists of top macro economists, Dr. Mark Huggett at Georgetown University, Dr. José-Víctor Ríos-Rull from University of Pennsylvania, Dr. Rasmus Lentz from University of Wisconsin, and Dr. Hwagyun Hagen Kim from Texas A&M. Dr. Yoosoon Chang kindly organized this session, and asked our young female economists to discuss the papers at this prestige session, as part of our effort to promote the Korea Women Economists Network (KWEN).
The Econometrics session is also excellent. Dr. Bruce Hansen at University of Wisconsin, Dr. Myung Hwan Seo, Seoul National University, Dr. Jushan Bai from Columbia University, Dr. Ruey Tasy at University of Chicago, and Dr. Seung C. Ahn, at Arizona State University, will present their working papers.
All of these sessions will take place on January 6th (Saturday) at the Marriott Philadelphia Downtown (headquarter hotel). Please plan to attend these sessions. The AEA counts the number of attendants. Your attendance will help greatly our efforts to increase the number of KAEA sessions in the future.
Second, for the first time, we have worked closely with the National Research Council for Economics, Humanities and Social Sciences (NRC; 경제인문사회연구회), who oversees the operations of 26 major economic research institutions in Korea, including KDI, KIET and others. In particular, the NRC has agreed to organize two important events with us and support financially our events as well.
[1] Open Job Fair (국책연구기관 공동 채용설명회)
KAEA and NRC will host an Open Job Fair for job candidates who might be looking for a position at research institutions in Korea. A representative from each institution who is in charge of hiring will explain about their institution, merits, hiring procedures, and answer questions. If you consider applying for a position in the research institutions in Korea, you will benefit greatly from attending this event; see the attached file for more details.
After this event, a dinner gathering is planned at Sang Kee Chinatown (238 N 9th St, Philadelphia, PA 19107) from 6:30 PM, along with some of representatives of the research institutes and our senior mentor members.
[2] NRC-KAEA-KEA Panel Discussion (Policy Forum, 한국 경제 정책 현안 패널 토의)
The KAEA will hold a panel discussion session (policy forum) jointly with the NRC, and the Korea Economic Association (KEA), our longtime partner, will be a part of three organizing institutions. It will be held on January 7th (Sunday) at Marriott Philadelphia Downtown (headquarter hotel) (Grand Ballroom Salon K) from 8:30 to 11:20 AM. Breakfast will be provided for participants from 7:30 AM. There are two subjects and our KAEA members will provide overviews of the literature and the issues before panel discussions. Please plan to attend this policy session.
Session I: Income-led Growth & Growth through Innovation (Dr. Sang-Hyop Lee, University of Hawaii)
Session II: The Korea-US Free Trade Agreement (Dr. Seung Hun Lee, Georgia Tech, Dr. Hyeongwoo Kim, Auburn University)
Third, our Association wishes to pay for part of the travel expenses of the candidates who are expected to graduate soon and are on the job market this year. Job candidates may fill out the form at the Job Fair (explained in the above); we can mail a check after the convention. The amount has not been determined, but it is our sincere desire to help in various forms, if possible, our young members who seek jobs. For more details, please contact Dr. In Hyuck “Steve” Ha, our Vice President.
Fourth, the KAEA continues to work hard to provide an opportunity for our members to present their working papers at the AEA meetings. As such, in addition to three KAEA-AEA sessions, we have expanded our workshops this time and prepared for three sessions. The first workshop will be held on Friday, January 5, from 4 PM to 6 PM at the Marriott Philadelphia Downtown, Meeting Room 501. Mostly the discussants of the Macro session, who are the young members of the KWEN, will be the presenters of this workshop. Dr. Koo-il Kim organized the second and third workshops, which will be given on Sunday, January 7, from 12:30 PM to 3 PM at the same place.
Fifth, and perhaps, most important, our annual Maekyung (MK) Forum and Annual Business Meeting will take place at 5 pm on January 6th (Saturday) in the Marriott Philadelphia Downtown. The speaker is Dr. John List from the University of Chicago. As you may know, he is considered one of the promising candidates for a future Nobel Prize.
Sixth, KAEA Business Meeting will be in the same room right after the MK Forum from 6 PM to 7:00 PM. In particular, we will have the opportunity to honor our senior leaders who had a vision and created our Association about 33 years ago. Awardees for the MK Economist Award and KAEA Young Economists Award will be also announced.
Seventh, our annual dinner banquet will follow at the Ocean Harbor Restaurant from 7:30 PM. All KAEA members including KAEA institutional members are welcome to attend this annual gathering and exquisite dinner banquet.
We look forward to seeing you ALL in Philadelphia in January 2018.
Sincerely,
Junsoo Lee
President, KAEA 2017
Click here for the summary of the KAEA program
Click here for the KAEA-AEA Sessions and Workshop Schedule.
Click here for the Job Fair.