Energy, the environment and a Nobel prize-winner

21 November 2005

Nobel Prize winner in Economics (2002), Professor Vernon Smith, was one of the key speakers at the inaugural conference of the Centre for Energy and Environmental Markets (CEEM), a cross-faculty Centre based at UNSW.

"Professor Smith is the pioneer of the field of experimental economics," said Associate Professor Tony Owen, of the School of Economics in the Faculty of Commerce and Economics, one of the organisers of last week's conference (18 November). "He was amongst the first to carry out tests in the lab of new alternative market designs, which throw light on whether they will be economically viable.

"This is particularly relevant as our society becomes more reliant on energy, in an increasingly deregulated environment, as well as becoming more reliant on market-based approaches to managing impacts on the environment."

Professor Smith and his colleague at George Mason University in the US, Dr David Porter, gave an address about experimental economics and the evolving energy markets in the United States.

Other presentations at the conference included:

For further information about the conference, go to the website