eaepe 2002 conference

["Lee, Frederic" <leefs@xxxxxxxx>]

> Dear Colleague,
>
> This is just a short note to say how enjoyable the EAEPE 2002 Conference in Aix-en-Provence, France was.  Just the physical setting was enjoyable--cafes, narrow streets, being a city, etc.  A big difference from cows, cornfields, and mid-America.  In comparison to previous EAEPE conferences I attended, this was the first one in which there were interesting competing sessions--so I had to make some hard choices.  Consequently, I heard some quite interesting papers:  one on the tyre industry by Virginia Acha in which she provided very good arguments why the concepts of mature industry and product life cycle should be scrapped and never used again.  If you are interested in the paper Virginia's e-mail address is v.l.acha@xxxxxxxxxxxxx  A second paper that caught my attention was on the cognitive-evolutionary basis for the existence of property by Uta-Maria Niederle.  Not sure I agree with everything she said, but her arguments did catch my intellectual imagination--so if anybody would like a copy of her paper, Uta's e-mail address is niederle@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx  And finally, there was a paper by Klaus Nielsen on social capital in which he got Hodgsonized--it was not a pretty sight but highly entertaining for those of use in the audience.  Clearly, the paper was intellectually stimulating--and if you want a copy e-mail Klaus at knielsen@xxxxxxx  The plenary speakers were interesting, particularly Alan Kirman who essentially argued that neoclassical market demand curve has no theoretical foundation--which means that now we can discard neoclassical textbooks and get really serious about evolutionary political economy.  The Conference dinner was splendid--food excellent, setting attractive, and the conversation at least at my table extraordinary irreverent.  Finally, Robert Delorme exercised his French charm to help make the conference go smoothly and all the participants feel welcome.  EAEPE 2003 Conference will be in Maastricht, The Netherlands, organized by that eminently capable economist and organizer Wilfred Dol
attend the conference for it is the most important European heterodox/pluralistic economics conference.  If you are not at Maastricht then you are nowhere or perhaps in Kansas whichever is worse.
>
> Sincerely,
>
> Fred Lee