You’d never guess from Atsushi Inoue’s long list of accomplishments that he got interested in his specialty, econometrics, because he thought in grad school everything else was too hard.
Econometrics, the means by which economic ideas are tested and measured, brings theoretical, methodological and applied economics into one discipline. “You get a little bit of everything,” he said.
Inoue is a leading expert in time-series econometrics—the study of analyzing and forecasting economic data over a period of time. (Interest rates are a good example of this.) He has examined both methodological problems and the theoretical questions that underpin them.
“[rquote]Whether you use econometrics or develop econometrics, you’re doing science,” Inoue said.[/rquote]
His current interest is in estimating a macroeconomic model using a concept called impulse response to explain how the price and quantity of goods or services produced in an economy react to a change in monetary policy. By comparing the real-world data to his model’s predictions, he’ll be able to determine whether his model is accurate.
Inoue comes to Vanderbilt from Southern Methodist University in Dallas, where he held the Robert H. and Nancy Dedman Endowed Chair in Economics. Prior to that, he was a professor in North Carolina State University’s Department of Agricultural and Resource Economics.
He earned his Ph.D. at the University of Pennsylvania. Recent honors include an appointment as fellow of the Journal of Econometrics in 2012 and the Japanese Economics Association’s Nakahara Prize for Japanese economists under 45 in 2011.
“We are very fortunate that Atsushi has chosen to join the Department of Economics at Vanderbilt,” said Kamal Saggi, chair of the department. “Atsushi has worked on a wide variety of technically challenging problems. His research has been published in some of the best journals in the profession and has had a great deal of impact in the field. His presence will strengthen us considerably in the core area of econometrics, which is the foundation of all empirical work in economics.”
Inoue looks forward to collaborating with his new colleagues. “The intellectual depth and broadness of Vanderbilt is appealing to me,” he said, “and I look forward to working with the people here and contributing to this excellent university.”
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