I M M A Q The Highlights of IMMAQ Activities in

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1 IMMAQ The Highlights of IMMAQ Activities in

2 This short report highlights the activities of the Institute of Multidisciplinary Research for Modelling and Quantitative Analysis (IMMAQ), at the Université catholique de Louvain. Detailed accounts of these activities can be found in the different annual reports produced by each IMMAQ entity. content Foreword Entities and missions Fields of expertise Facts and figures Scientific Events IMMAQ events: Lecture Series and Internal Workshops Seminar series organized at IMMAQ Conferences held at IMMAQ Prizes and Honors

3 Foreword The IMMAQ research institute was founded in 2009 as a research unit which combines fundamental and applied research, relevant in order to target and answer questions as they arise in the public and in the private sector of society at a regional, national and international scale. More than 200 researchers and consultants, of about 15 different nationalities, contribute to the productivity of the institute. Its common denominator is the use of a coherent set of tools and methods for quantitative modelling and analysis in such diverse fields as actuarial sciences, economics and econometrics, geography, mathematical finance, game theory, discrete optimisation and operational research, statistics and biostatistics. Research at IMMAQ has a large international dissemination and its reputation is well established at the international level. In this regard, it has been a great satisfaction for us that the two major fields of research at IMMAQ, namely economics and econometrics, on the one hand, and statistics and operational research, on the other hand, have been highly ranked on a world scale (respectively at rank 37 and 29) by the 2013 QS World University Ranking. These ranks are the highest obtained by UCL in the QS ranking. Entities and missions As such IMMAQ gathers researchers from three different research entities and a consulting platform: CORE (Center for Operations Research and Econometrics), IRES (Institute for Economic and Social Research), ISBA (Institute of Statistics, Biostatistics and Actuarial Sciences) and SMCS: platform for statistical consulting and continuing education (Statistical Methodology and Computing Service). IMMAQ research entities share similar missions: Produce high-level research, to be published in internationally highly rated peer-reviewed journals; Diffuse research output worldwide through publications, seminars and conferences; Stimulate interaction between existing research groups through joint projects, seminars and conferences, and internal joint research activities; Strengthen our national and international network of research collaborations; Supervise well-trained Ph.D. students and post-doctoral researchers; Provide a high level support and common guidelines for establishing project and grant applications, locally and via national and international networks, in order to attract both public and private financial support.

4 Through the consulting platform SMCS, IMMAQ also provides statistical and computing services to all disciplines in the three sectors of UCL (science and technology, medical sciences, and humanities). However, institutional service to the society is not restricted to the SMCS as IRES also runs a very successful Service of Economic Analysis that produces quarterly economic forecasts for Belgium, publishes the review Regards Economiques, which is a non-technical policy-oriented review intended for a non-academic audience, and organizes the Forum de Politique Economique. Ongoing collaborations among the three IMMAQ research entities include the joint organization of conferences and seminars - as for instance the IMMAQ Trade and Economic Geography Seminar and the Economics Reading Group which are jointly organized by CORE and IRES, but also participations in several joint research projects - as for instance the new ARC project on Stochastic Modelling of Dependence: Systems under Stress and the GDF-Suez Chair on Energy Economics and Management of Energy Risk in which CORE and ISBA are associated. New collaborations were set up in with, in particular, the joint CORE-IRES submission to the 2012 BRAIN.be funding. An internal IMMAQ workshop was also launched in In addition: about 175 seminars were given in 14 different Seminar Series; 33 conferences/workshops were organized, among which 11 held at IMMAQ; and more than 130 visitors were welcomed. This was made possible by the following number of people working at the Institute: 56 academics; 101 doctoral researchers and research assistants; 23 postdocs; and more than 90 associated researchers. Scientific Events Fields of expertise Before entering into some statistics at the level of the Institute, here are a few examples of where some of our activities have been concentrated recently: the analysis of important economic issues such as unemployment, migration, poverty and social inequalities, technology and growth, the study of newly emerging energy markets and risks, the modeling and control of financial and actuarial risks, the reform of the pension system, the analysis of environmental questions, and the statistical modeling and analysis of complex biological systems. Facts and figures In , research at IMMAQ was very prolific. During the academic year , IMMAQ researchers contributed to: 220 publications in academic journals, 175 discussion papers and 60 articles in newspapers or reports; 18 Ph.D. thesis; 36 courses in continuing education and 440 consultancy services (SMCS); and 56 research contracts. IMMAQ events: Lecture Series and Internal Workshops The IMMAQ Lectures are lectures on a topic of research common to the three research entities of IMMAQ. Highly renowned international speakers are invited to deliver a non-technical presentation in front of the whole scientific community. Each presentation is followed by a reception, so as to stimulate interactions between researchers from different working groups within the Institute. The topic of the last IMMAQ Lecture Series was Education. IMMAQ Lecture Series on Education, Social Interactions and Education Policies by Eric MAURIN, Paris School of Economics (France), December 6, Abstract: The Social environment of students has long been viewed as a key determinant of schooling decisions and educational achievement. It is, however, very difficult to provide robust empirical evidence on the influence of the different dimensions of the social context (neighbors, peers, school staff ) on students outcomes and behaviors. This lecture provides a discussion of the methodological issues involved by the identification of such contextual effects as well as a presentation of some recent experimental evidence. It also discusses potential implications for education implications for education policies trying to promote more integrated schools or targeted at specific subgroups of disadvantaged students.

5 IMMAQ Internal Workshops were initiated in , with the objective of gathering researchers from the three research entities of the Institute who are working on similar topics or on topics that are closely related. The topic of the first internal workshop, held in June 4, 2013, was Endogeneity. Internal IMMAQ Workshop on Endogeneity, June 4, In many empirical statistical studies conducted by IMMAQ researchers, endogeneity problems arise. Endogeneity may come from different sources: omitted variables, reverse causality, measurement error, sample selection, etc. The goal of the workshop is to understand how this problem is tackled from different perspectives in economics and statistics, and it aims at giving the opportunity to share knowledge and thoughts about how to deal with endogeneity problems. Organizing and scientific committee: François MANIQUET (CORE) - William PARIENTE (IRES) Ingrid VAN KEILEGOM (ISBA) Programme: Marion LETURCQ (CORE): Will you civil union me? Taxation and civil unions in France. Jan JOHANNES (ISBA): Nonparametric instrumental regression. William PARIENTE (IRES): Impact of microcredit in rural Morocco: Evidence from a randomized experiment. Morgane LAOUENAN (IRES): Hate at first sight: Racial discrimination and labor market outcomes in the US. Mery FERRANDO (CORE): Cash transfers and school outcomes: the case of Uruguay. Ingrid VAN KEILEGOM (ISBA): Tests of exogeneity in nonparametric nonseparable models. Seminar series organized at IMMAQ 14 seminar series were organized by IMMAQ entities in : Applied Statistics Workshops; Econometrics Seminar Economics Reading Group; Economic Theory Seminar; ECORE, joint CORE-ECARES Seminar; Forum de Politique Economique; IMMAQ Trade and Economic Geography Seminar; IRES Research Seminar; (ISBA) Short Courses; Macroeconomics Lunch Seminar; Mathematical Programming Seminar; Reading Seminar in Operation Research; Statistics Seminar; Welfare Economics Seminar. Conferences held at IMMAQ In , several conferences were organized abroad and at UCL by IMMAQ research members. Among those, 10 international conferences and workshops were held at IMMAQ : September 10-11, Sixth Academia Belgica Francqui Foundation Rome Conference: Political Economy, Social Choice Theory and Decision Theory. Scientific Committee: François MANIQUET. September 14, th PHD Day. Scientific Committee: Ecole doctorale thématique en Statistique et en Sciences Actuarielles (EDT), Johan SEGERS, Catherine LEGRAND, Anne BENOIT, Catherine TIMMERMANS. October 4-5, International Workshop on Economic Development, Natural Resources, Energy, and the Environment. Scientific Committee: Kirill BORISSOV, Thierry BRECHET, Lucas BRETSCHGER, Stéphane LAMBRE CHT, Katheline SCHUBERT. October 22, th Workshop on Logistics and Supply Chain Management. Scientific Committee: Per AGRELL. December 14, PoRESP Workshop: Well-being Measurement and Policy Design when Agents Preferences are Other-regarding. Scientific Committee: François MANIQUET and Georg KIRCHSTEIGER. March 22, One Day Workshop on Cure Models: What if we don t all die?. Scientific Committee: Anouar EL GHOUCH, Cédric HEUCHENNE, Philippe LAMBERT, Catherine LEGRAND, Ingrid VAN KEILEGOM. May 27-30, ECORE Summer School. Scientific Committee: Jean HINDRIKS, Georg KIRCHSTEIGER, François MANIQUET, Jo VAN BIESEBROECK. June 6, Games and Collective Decisions in Memory of Jean-François Mertens. Scientific Committee: Claude D ASPREMONT, Robert AUMANN, Jacques DREZE, Françoise FORGES, François MANIQUET, Abraham NEYMAN, Shmuel ZAMIR. June 24, Francqui Conference: The Design of Economic and Political Institution. Scientific Committee: François MANIQUET.

6 August 26-28, IWLS 2013: 4th International Workshop on Lot Sizing. Scientific Committee: Mathieu VAN VYVE, Laurence A. WOLSEY, Fahimeh SHAMSAEI, Tanguy KEGELART. Prizes and Honors The Institute congratulates a number of colleagues who have been recently awarded various kinds of honors, prizes, fellowships or grants and more generally, to all those who spent some considerable time on introducing important grant applications. The following list highlights some of the recent honors received by IMMAQ members during the period : Paul BELLEFLAMME obtained one of the six Prices Wermaers 2012 offered by the FNRS. The price rewards the péda-blog. IpdigIT is a blog about Intellectual Property (IP), the digital economy (DIGIT) and Information Technology (IT). It aims at discussing the law and economics of innovation. Paul BELLEFLAMME was awarded the 2013 s Francqui Chair of the Université de Liège. He was invited to give at HEC-Ulg a series of six lectures articulated around the theme Microeconomics 2.0: Understanding the economics of Internet and the digital world. Mathieur PARENTI was awarded the 2013 Aguirre-Basualdo Prize from the Chancellerie des universités de Paris for the best Ph.D. thesis in economics and management. Yves SMEERS has been elected INFORMS (Institute for Operations Research and Management Sciences) fellow INFORMS fellows are examples of outstanding lifetime achievement in operations research and the management sciences. They have demonstrated exceptional accomplishments and made significant contributions to the advancement of OR/MS over a period of time. Laurence WOLSEY was awarded the John von Neuman Theory Prize from INFORMS. This prize is awarded annually to scholars who have made fundamental, sustained contributions to theory in operations research and the management sciences. Everybody who has contributed to this quite impressive output can be warmly congratulated, hoping that such a stimulating productivity will continue to go on in the future. Deepest thanks to our very efficient administrative staff; without their precious work and help all of this would not have been possible. Finally, we thank UCL for its continuing support of IMMAQ and its four entities. Professor Vincent Bodart President of IMMAQ

7 IMMAQ Institute for Multidisciplinary Research in Quantitative Modelling and Analysis Voie du Roman Pays, 34, bte L Center for Operations Research and Econometrics Voie du Roman Pays 34, bte L Institute for Economic and Social Research Collège L.H. Dupriez Place Montesquieu 3, bte L Institute of Statistics, Biostatistics and Actuarial Sciences Voie du Roman Pays 20, bte L Statistical Methodology and Computing Support Technological Platform Voie du Roman Pays 20, bte L

Presentation of Engie Chair

Presentation of Engie Chair About Me Assistant Professor, Engie Chair Center for Operations Research and Econometrics Université catholique de Louvain M.Sc. (2007) and Ph.D. (2011) in Industrial Engineering