The 14th International Conference on Panel Data (Panel Data 2007) will be held on July 16th – 18th, 2007 at Xiamen University, which will be the first time in its whole history for this highly authoritative conference to be held in Asia. As the host, the Wang Yanan Institute for Studies in Economics (WISE) has been going all out to make comprehensive preparations for the conference.
In November 2006, the official website for Panel Data 2007 has been launched and paper submission has been accepted since then. As at the due day, the committee has received 150 highly competitive papers, 75% of which come abroad, such as papers from the United States, United Kingdom, France, Australia, Canada, Belgium, Spain, Italy, Pakistan, Singapore, Greece, Turkey, New Zealand, India, Hong Kong and Taiwan. From mid-April to May 2007, the Advisory Committee and the Scientific Committee of Panel Data 2007 have been concentrating on the paper selection and reviewing, and a series of top-ranking papers have been finally scheduled to be presented at the conference. Furthermore, a group of international renowned scholars have been invited to deliver lectures at the conference, which includes Prof. Jerry Hausman, 1985 John Bates Clark Medal Winner and Professor of Economics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT); Prof. Cheng Hsiao, Co-editor of the Journal of Econometrics and Professor of Economics at University of Southern California; Prof. Whitney Newey, Co-editor of the Econometrica and Professor of Economics at the MIT; Prof. M. Hashem Pesaran, Co-editor of the Journal of Applied Econometrics and Professor of Economics at University of Cambridge; Prof. Peter Phillips, Editor of the Econometric Theory and Professor of Economics at Yale University, and Prof. Tongsan Wang, Chairman of the Chinese Association of Quantitative Economics and the President of the Institute of Quantitative & Technical Economics, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.
On June 5th, the preliminary program of the Panel Data 2007 has been scheduled. The conference will be comprised by 4 Keynote Sessions and 7 Parallel Sessions, and each Parallel Session will consist of 2 – 4 sub-venues which concern with different branches of the Panel Data, such as unit root & forecasting, cross-sectional dependence, diagnostic testing & bootstrap, robust econometrics, efficient estimation & inference and so on. Besides, the organizing committee has specially set up Chinese sessions for local experts to discuss the relative topics in China Economy.
In the last two years, WISE has acquired a great deal of experience by successfully hosting a series of international leading academic conferences, such as the 2006 International Symposium on Econometric Theory and Application. Those experience in turn help a lot in this time preparation for the Panel Data 2007. The faculties of WISE, particularly, have fully utilized their oversea study experiences and knowledge about academic conferences in the procedure of the preparation and have actively involved in organization of the conference.
To make sure the conference proceed in order, the organizing committee has also set in operation several workgroups, which are responsible for conference affairs, reception, publicity and financial management respectively. These workgroups will definitely contribute to the logistical support for the conference. Moreover, 56 MSc and PhD students from WISE have volunteered for the conference. They now work on shift from Monday to Sunday at WISE economic building and have gained reputation for their conscientiousness.
By far, the preparations for Panel Data 2007 are smoothly under way.
