Annual Report 2004: Econometric Institute

The year 2004 has been a year of extremes. The Erasmus School of Economics faced large deficits, and also the Econometric Institute had its share. For the first time in many years, temporary contracts could not be continued. Even some full time positions were cancelled or their requirements were changed. The new focus of the School (starting from 2005 onwards) dismissed a strong emphasis on mathematics and statistics as research areas, and it embraced areas as finance, marketing and economics in general. Much to our relief, it turned out that the focus of our Institute had already been diversified to these areas, so for many of us only few changes were required. On the other hand, our Institute kept its high level of teaching, culminating in being awarded the best programme in the country, and also many of its members kept their substantial research achievements at the usual top level. We had many visitors, reports and publications, and our conference participation was high. We also saw our first successful entries in the leading business and management journals, while maintaining a high level of contributions to the core journals in management science and econometrics. The year 2004 has been tough, for all of us, but without any doubt, I can say that we made it through. We have seen that even in hard times, the members of our Institute stand together, and there are many reasons to believe that we will continue to do so.