July 5, 2000
REPORT ON THE OTHER ECONOMICS CONFERENCE
Dear Colleague,
The Other Economics Conference 2000 was a great success. Ninety-three people
attended the Conference to hear one or more of the
sixty-four papers given. All
sessions were well attended and some
were overflowing with people. At the first
plenary, Neil Costello,
Head of the Economics Department at the Open University,
welcomed
the participants to the Conference and to the OU Conference Centre
and
spoke briefly about the heterodox nature of his Department.
Paul Omerod plenary
lecture was well received but not entirely
agreed with by various members of the
audience, as a vigorous
debate (to the delight of all) took place during the
question and
answer period. At the second plenary, Victoria Chick and John
Grahl
debated whether the U.K. should join the European single
currency. The debate
was serious as well as humorous and the
audience enjoyed it greatly. The BBC
taped the debate as well as
interviewed both speakers and many of the conference
participants
as to their views on the single currency. The taped material will
be incorporated into the OU distance learning programme. Finally,
the Conference
dinner was a success largely because of Bernard
Corry's witty but serious after
dinner speech.
At the Conference a meeting was held concerning the future of the
Association
for Heterodox Economics and its annual conference.
After much debate a working
committee was formed which included (if
I can remember all the names):
Andrew Trigg--coordinator e-mail: [log in to unmask]
Paul Downward--treasurer e-mail: [log in to unmask]
Neil Costello e-mail: [log in to unmask]
Alan Freeman e-mail: [log in to unmask]
Wendy Olsen e-mail: [log in to unmask]
Karl Petrick--publicity e-mail: [log in to unmask]
Bruce Philp e-mail: [log in to unmask]
Neil Costello has agreed that the OU Department of Economics will
provide
secretarial support for the Association; thus the
Association will be located at
the OU. Andrew will be making a
further report concerning the future of the
AHE.
The cost of The Other Economics Conference will come to
approximately 2429.00
pounds; and Conference income will be 3934.00 pounds.
Thus the surplus from the
Conference will be around 1505.00 pounds. This
I hope provides a sound
financial basis for the future activities
of the AHE.
Finally, without the support of Andrew Trigg, Julian Wells, Deborah
Knight, Paul
Downward, Alan Freeman and others, the Conference
would not have been the
success it was. I would also like to thank
the Conference of Socialist
Economists, Post Keynesian Economics
Study Group, and the International Working
Group on Value Theory
for their support. Lastly, I would especially like to
thank Neil
Costello and the OU Department of Economics for underwriting the
Conference.
Fred Lee
P.S. For all of you who wanted receipts, they are in the post. If you have not
received your receipt in a week, e-mail me and I will send you another one.
P.P.S.S. If you are a Alan Freeman of my mailing list and receive multiple
copies of the report, I am sorry. However, this will be the last report/letter
I will send like this. I will be giving Andrew Trigg my entire e-mailing list.
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
|