EY and ORTEC Consulting partner of World Cup of Econometrics
Tomorrow the ‘World Cup of Econometrics’ again kicks off in the Netherlands. The best econometric students from 30 (international) universities will travel to Amsterdam for the three day competition. ORTEC Consulting and EY serve as key partners of the event.
Every year, since 1999, the Dutch student association VSAE* and the University of Amsterdam have organised ‘The Econometric Game’ – seen by many as the unofficial World Cup of Econometrics. During the three day event the participants, in teams of two PhD and two masters students, will tackle large current and pressing social issues, with the help of dataset, econometric methods and academic literature. Which social problem will be the theme of this year’s event is disclosed at the start of the event, so as to create a level playing field for all participants. In previous years the themes have, among others, included the sustainability of pensions schemes and poverty in developing countries.
More than 120 students from international universities, including from tier one universities like Cambridge, Harvard and Oxford, will take part in the 2016 edition of The Econometric Game. The UK is being represented by teams from, among others, the University of Bristol, University of Exeter, University of Southampton, the London School of Economics and Leicester University.
The best teams will take part in the final on the third day (April 8), following which, the winning team – selected by an independent jury of professors – takes home the title of ‘World Champion of Econometrics’.
For the second consecutive year EY and ORTEC will be partners to the event. The support of these organisation is, in their own words, in part to push for the incorporation of big data, analytics and business intelligence as important developments for fixing social qualms. Much has been written about the potential for big data in recent years. McKinsey & Company estimates the economic value added of the phenomenon runs into the tens of billions per sector, while Capgemini Consulting recently described big data as the fourth factor of production; as fundamental as land, labour and capital. The importance is being reflected by boardroom sentiment – 83% of directors believes that the use of big data could provide a competitive advantage.
Michael van Duijn, CEO of ORTEC Consulting, says about the partnership: “We live in a society in which data is increasingly important not only for companies, but also as a means to solve major social issues. The participants in the Econometrics Game demonstrate that you can do this purely on the basis of a dataset.” In the future van Duijn expects continued acceleration in the landscape: “Big data and analytics are developing fast; where we are today is just at the beginning."
* VSAE stands for Association for Actuarial Students, Econometrics and Operations Research (VSAE). The student association is affiliated with the University of Amsterdam.
