Nobel Laureate in Economics and Professor at the Institute for Advanced Study (Princeton, New Jersey) Eric Maskin speaks on election and voting, and on bilateral contracts at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology this week. Prof Maskin has signed on as a visiting member of the Institute for Advanced Study of HKUST and will visit the University on a regular basis to teach and interact with faculty and students.
The Albert O Hirschman Professor of Social Science at the Institute for Advanced Study of Princeton, New Jersey, specializes in economic theory which has exerted a strong influence on many areas of economics, political science and law. For his contributions in laying the foundations of mechanism design theory, he was awarded the 2007 Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences. Prof Maskin has also made important contributions to many other areas of economics including the theory of income inequality, repeated games, the study of intellectual property rights, political economy and the theory of voting.
On Wednesday 17 March, Prof Maskin shared his insights on Elections and Strategic Voting: Condorcet and Borda with faculty and students today at the university. He compared and contrasted simple majority rule (the Condorcet method) and rank-order voting (the Borda method) to explore which was more vulnerable to strategic voting during elections.
On Friday 19 March, he will be speaking on the inefficiencies about bilateral contracts in terms of the destruction of money, the good traded, values for the buyer and for the seller – and giving elaborations regarding why some of these can lead to improvement in welfare.
“We are most honored and excited this week to have yet another Nobel Laureate, Prof Eric Maskin speak at two research seminars at the Institute for Advanced Study (IAS) of the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology. With outstanding achievement in academic research and in nurturing future generations of academicians, Prof Maskin brings with him a wealth of top-notch experience and knowledge to inspire the HKUST community. HKUST will continue to invite world-class academicians of the same caliber as Prof Maskin to offer inspirations to the academic community in Hong Kong and in the region,” said Prof Tony Chan, President of the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology.
Apart from giving lectures, Prof Maskin is meeting with professors of various disciplines, undergraduate and postgraduate students at HKUST during his week-long visit. He has also given a “mini-seminar” to a selected group of secondary school students.
Prof Maskin has been elected Fellow of the Econometric Society, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the European Economic Association, Corresponding Fellow of the British Academy and Honorary Fellow of St John’s College, Cambridge. He is also an Honorary Professor at Wuhan and Tsinghua Universities.
The Institute for Advanced Study of HKUST aims to foster collaboration across disciplines and institutions to foster innovation and scientific breakthroughs in Hong Kong and the Greater China region. Since its inauguration, it has organized over 100 distinguished lectures, seminars and workshops with internationally-acclaimed speakers including chemist Harold Kroto, economist James Mirrlees, physicists C N Yang, David Gross and Douglas Osheroff and many others. To date 10 world-renowned scholars have joined the Institute as Visiting Members.
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Ross Lai
Tel: 2358 6306 / 9103 2928
Email: rosslai@ust.hk
