from the recently finished joint Econ/Business/IT conference of the UP School of Econ, and Alfred Uni College of Bussiness.
I particularly enjoyed the presentations that dealt with measuring financial volatility, price assymetry in the gasoline market, rural poverty, the 1986 & 1997 Tax Reforms in the Philippines, Guanxi & competition policy, and the effect of migration on income inequality.
I found dull the presentations on the FATF (Financial Action Task Force), the effect of university research on industrial innovation, and Enterprise resource planning.
I.E. the econ stuff was pretty good, the business stuff was boring. What was pretty impressive though was that some of the stuff that was quite substantial was the work of undergrad students (gasoline market, migration topics).
Insight: there are no big debates in econ conferences, for the most part. People listen politely, bring up a few methodological questions, question a few premises, and then proceed to some tasty lunch (today was scrumptious. AGAIN). Though I guess the non-debate element shouldn't be too surprising because this conference was more a friendly gathering beyond anything, and the focus of a lot of these papers was explanatory rather than policy prescription.
The only debate-y topic if ever would have been Dr. Diokno's talk on tax reform, but as of late, that's been so debated on and in the media, that people probably are fatigued to argue the same things again (That + the minimal presence of red elements in the audience). He was preaching to the choir, anyway. It was a UP School of Econ/ Alfred University / Ateneo Uni / National Economic Development Authority (NEDA) crowd.
I love the way he doesn't mince words (yet remains civil) on his PPT presentation of some of the proposals that have come about in the fiscal debate. E.g. something along the lines of, 'fortunately, such a proposal was never implemented because it was stupid and useless."
Now as pinoy hosts were supposed to take out a few of these american college students / kids / mba students tomorrow. I'm not directly in charge of this, but some friends have asked for some help. I think one should just dump them in the middle of Megamall and have them fend for themselves and enjoy.
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E.g. something along the lines of, 'fortunately, such a proposal was never implemented because it was stupid and useless."That must have been priceless. :D
He's much more rabid in class, where he (presumably) cannot be quoted. :)
I think one should just dump them in the middle of Megamall and have them fend for themselves and enjoy. Or you could dump them along Roxas Boulevard and tell them to find their way home. That should be an adventure.
wysgal: it would be. but i'd never do that. id actually do the Mega thing. they'd be lost and freaked in Roxas
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