The history of the Econometric Game
What started out as a cold February Wednesday, would later appear to have been one of the most important days in the history of the Econometric Game and perhaps even for the econometric society in general. On Wednesday February 3rd 1999, the first National Econometric Game took place in Amsterdam . What started out as a relatively small, national event has evolved into a well-respected international event over the last decade. This year, the Dutch capital of Amsterdam will be a proud host of the tenth Econometric Game. Highly prestigious participants, a rising academic profile and challenging econometric cases with real social significance make the Econometric Game a unigue event really worth your while!
From a National to an International Event
In 1999, the VSAE organized the very first Econometric Game. Five Dutch universities sent teams consisting of six econometric students that were challenged to pit their talents and skills to compete against one another in solving a case. The VSAE cooperated with high-standard companies like ING, DNB and PriceWaterhouseCoopers to make an econometric case about financial markets. The case was prepared by prof. dr. J. F. Kievit, dr. J. A. C. Van Ophem and prof. dr. H. P. Boswijk, all members of the University of Amsterdam . A jury of experts evaluated the presented solutions and named the University of Amsterdam the proud first winner of the Econometric Game.
The first foreign university participated in 2001. Joining the five Dutch teams in trying to solve a case regarding the stability of demand for money before and after the unification of Germany , was a team from Belgium . The edition of 2001 is regarded to be the start of an trend of internationlization that is still observable in 2008. The National Econometric Game changed into the European Econometric Game and in the following years, teams from Belgium (Universities of Antwerpen and Gent), France ( University of Lille ) and Denmark ( University of Aarhus ) participated in the Econometric Game. Furthermore, the Econometric Game 2002 was the first to have an international victor: the University of Gent . In the years that followed, numerous other foreign universities participated in the game. For example, the last three Econometric Games were won by the University of Oxford (2006, 2007) and the University of Cambridge (2008). For detailed information about the case study, the participants, winners and (moving) pictures of previous editions of the Econometric Game, please use one of the links below. Unfortunately for our foreign visitors, the 2000 case is in Dutch.
