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Emeritus Professor Alison Booth has been made a Fellow of the Econometric Society, a prestigious international society for the advancement of economic theory in its relation to statistics and mathematics.
Alison joins the ranks of other Fellows such as economists Richard Thaler and John A. List, but she is the first woman in Australia to be made a Fellow and the first economist at ANU to be made a Fellow while at ANU since Trevor Breusch in 1991.
The Econometric Society encourages open discourse on a range of issues through regular scientific meetings held in different regions of the world. It also manages the publication of the top tier journals Econometrica, Quantitative Economics, and Theoretical Economics.
“It never occurred to me in my wildest dreams that I would be elected a Fellow of the Econometric Society, so I was quite astonished when I heard that I had been elected. After I pinched myself, I felt absolutely delighted and greatly honoured,” said Alison, who is from the ANU Research School of Economics.
Throughout her life, Alison’s research interests have woven through different areas, beginning with her PhD that focused on the microeconomics of the trade union behaviour and membership. After that, she spent time working on statistical techniques relating to longitudinal data, to explore how they could shed light on pressing economic issues.
“I later became interested in what one could learn from data gained from experiments in the lab or the field, and that still engages my interest. The applications that fascinate me currently are gender issues, race, discrimination, the role of culture in affecting preferences (like willingness to take risks or be competitive) and economic outcomes, and cross-country differences in these,” said Alison. “I also continue to work on trade unions.”
Much of Alison’s current research explores the effect of gender differences in a variety of contexts, such as the workplace, during education and in competitions.
Despite all this, Alison has also had time to write four novels and short stories that span the areas of Australian history, human rights, civil liberties and other social issues. She has a new novel coming in 2020 that is set in 1890s London and Australia, entitled The Philosopher’s Daughters.
More information on the Econometric Society can be found here. Information about Alison’s research publications and personal website can be found here.
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