Head of economic dept., Prof. Eyal Winter: In light of drastic budget cuts in higher education, it's hard to believe we'll continue to attract world renowned researchers

Jerusalem, June 25, 2008 - Seven winners of the Nobel Prize in economics are to participate in a ten day conference on economic theory that will take place at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem between June 27 and July 8 at the Edmond J. Safra campus at Givat Ram.

The conference, which will pay tribute to Nobel Prize laureate and renowned economist Prof. Kenneth J. Arrow, will take place under the auspices of the Hebrew University's Institute for Advanced Studies, the department of economics, the Center for the Study of Rationality and with support from the Bank of Israel.

According to the head of the Hebrew University's department of economics, Prof. Eyal Winter, "The conference proves that Israel and the Hebrew University are outstanding intellectual centers that are still capable of drawing in seven Nobel Prize laureates. But in light of the drastic cuts in the higher education budget, I have difficulty believing we will be able to bring the world's leading academics to Israel ten years from now."

The Nobel Prize laureates and participants in the conference are: Prof. Kenneth Arrow (Stanford University); Prof. Robert Aumann (Hebrew University); Prof. Robert Lucas (University of Chicago); Prof. Eric Maskin (IAS Princeton); Sir James Mirrlees (Cambridge University); Prof. Roger Myerson (University of Chicago); and Prof. Amartya Sen (Harvard University).

Prof. Kenneth Arrow, winner of the Nobel Prize in economics in 1972, initiated the first conference in economics and ran it for eighteen years. This nineteenth conference will pay tribute to him in honor of his life's work. According to Prof. Winter, "Prof. Arrow has dealt mainly with questions relating to decision-making under conditions of uncertainty, and developing them according to models used for understanding the stock market. He was also the first researcher to deal with economics of environmental quality and understood that environmental questions must be solved by economic models that can act as an incentive to societies, manufacturers and the general public to protect the environment."

Also participating in the conference is Nobel Prize laureate Prof. Roger Myerson, a chronicler of political economics and economics of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

For further information, contact:

Rebecca Zeffert, Dept. of Media Relations, the Hebrew University, tel: 02-588-1641, cell: 054-882-0661

or Orit Sulitzeanu, Hebrew University spokesperson, tel: 02-5882910, cell: 054-882-0016. 

Internet site: http://media.huji.ac.il