ACE 2019 was held in Melbourne at the Pullman on the Park Hotel on July 15-16.  350 attendees heard keynote presentations from Professor Sir Tim Besley (LSE) and Professor Wendy Carlin (UCL), as well as a stimulating session on the role of economics in public policy by three of Australia’s leading public sector economists.

A new, and well-received, innovation was a set of six special panel sessions that brought together speakers from government, business and academia to discuss topics including wages growth, diversity, communicating economic ideas and the future of neoliberalism.  The almost 100 contributed papers spanned topics from gender and the labour market to financial econometrics to the economic history of the Middle East.

The conference dinner, at the Melbourne Cricket Ground, was an opportunity to meet old and new friends and to acknowledge this year’s ESA award winners (and to gaze out on the hallowed turf of Australia’s number one sports stadium).

The conference finished with two Young Economists events – an excellent Young Economist’s address on housing in Australia by Professor Rachel Ong (Curtin), and a standing-room only debate on Millennials in the workforce: lazy and entitled or unfair stereotype.

Welcome to ACE 2019.  The Victorian Branch is pleased to be hosting the conference in Melbourne and we hope to see you there in July at Pullman Melbourne on the Park. The Organising Committee is working hard to organise a conference that will be stimulating, educational and fun.  In the coming days we’ll have announcements about our keynote speakers, special sessions and social events.  Please keep a watch on the website for updates and keep look out for the conference emails coming direct to your desk.  If you do not already receive emails from ESA please register your interest here to be sure to receive the latest conference information.

Jeff Borland

Convenor

Jeff Borland

ACE 2019 Convenor