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Annual reports 1998I am very pleased with the renewed enthusiasm being shown for the conferences and other work of the IIOA. During the coming year, we all should make an effort to inform young scholars and professionals about the organization and how they can be a part of it. We are trying three major thrusts in this recruitment effort. First, we plan to have input-output conferences every two years (this was decided at the 11th International Input-Output Conference in New Delhi). In addition, we will hold subconferences where feasible, as dicussed at the 12th International Input-Output Conference in New York City. This will require that someone take the initiative to organize such a conference. The first of these will be held in Tanzania, organized by Reiner Stäglin. If any member wishes to organize a conference in their region, please let me know. These subconferences must be self-financing. Second, we are trying to recruit more institutional members to join the organization. Professors Shimizu and Kuroda have agreed to help locate institutional members in southeast Asia, and I am communicating with agencies and consulting firms in the United States. If any of the IIOA members know of particular organization that should be part of the IIOA, please let me know, and I can send them a letter of invitation. The annual fee for institutional members is US $ 1 000, and three of their group can be designated as members of IIOA, thus receiving the journal. Third, we are hoping that many young scholars and professionals will join the IIOA. I have been successful in talking with several at conferences and other international meetings. We are also hoping to attract some through the web site for the Macerata conference (13th International Input-Output Conference). I welcome suggestions for ideas for other ways to expand the type of activities we sponsor and to develop new ways of interchanging our ideas outside the international conferences. As all members probably know, Professor Wassily W. Leontief, our Honorary President died February 5, 1999. The fall issue of Economic Systems Research will contain an obituary. Looking forward to seeing all of you in Macerata in August of the year 2000. Karen
R. Polenske With regard to membership, 1998 was a very successful year. Due to the success of the New York Conference, the number of individual members to the Association increased by more than 10% to 288. The number of institutional members remained stable at 16 despite the loss of 3 such members in 1998, as 3 new institutional members signed up. Membership (as of 17 April 1999) Individual members Individual members 288 Individual members nominated by institutional members 50 Total 338 Institutional members Institutional members 16 Plus one contributing institutional member The work of the Secretariat - in close cooperation with the treasurer - comprised as usual the following activities: (a) Membership administration, (b) Recording of payments of Membership Fees, including dispatching reminders, (c) Responding to letters from members and others, (d) Communicating with Carfax Publishing Company (subscription of members, address changes), (e) Communicating with the Editor of the journal Economic Systems Research. The Secretariat was also involved in the preparation and organization of the 12th International Conference on Input-Output Techniques, 18 - 22 May 1998, New York, as well in the preparation of the 13th International Conference on Input-Output Techniques, 21 - 25 August 2000, Macerata, Italy. The 1998 annual business meeting of the "Gesellschaft für Input-Output-Analyse" (as requested by Austrian law) was held on 27 May 1998. The 1999 annual business meeting will be held on 19 May 1999, 5.00 p.m., at the Institute of Econometrics and Operations Research of the Technical University of Vienna, Argentinierstraße 8, A-1040 Vienna. This meeting will be held in German language and all members of the Association can attend.
The Council held two meetings at the New York conference (17 and 20 May 1998). The result of these meetings can be summarized as follows:
A meeting of members was held on 21 May 1998 during the New York conference. The members were informed about the results of the Council meetings and the planned activities of the IIOA. In addition, Prof. Toshiaki Hasegawa informed the members about the current situation of the Leontief Library and the design of the related Input-Output Center at Chuo University, Japan. He also outlined the planned roles of the Leontief International Input-Output Center.
Preparation of the 13th International Conference on Input-Output Techniques, 21 - 15 August 2000, Macerata, Italy Another task during 1998 was to start the preparations of the Macerata conference. Norbert Rainer (Secretary) and Josef Richter (Treasurer) travelled to Macerata in July 1998 in order to have talks with Maurizio Ciaschini and other officials of the University of Macerata, including the Head of the University and the Dean of Economics Faculty, on the different organizational issues. Also, the conference and accommodation facilities were visited. It was reported that the facilities are well suited to host a conference typically conducted by the IIOA and that the University of Macerata has commited to providing all the support that the IIOA has required during past conferences. The next step was to find an IIOA member who was willing to take on the important position of being chairperson of the Scientific Programme Committee: the Council found Prof. Michael L. Lahr, Center for Urban Policy Research, Rutgers University, USA. Prof. Lahr has started his task by drawing together a Scientific Programme Committee from the Association`s membership and by leading the effort to draft the Call for Papers, the first detailed information to our members about the conference. Norbert
Rainer
Report on the 12th International Conference on Input-Output Techniques, 18 - 22 May 1998, New York The 12th International Conference on Input-Output Techniques was held in New York, U.S.A., 18 - 22 May 1998. It was hosted by the C.V. Starr Center for Applied Economics at New York University. The local organization committee was chaired by Edward N. Wolff. This was the first time that the international input-output conference had taken place in the United States. The programme listed 221 presentations, with contributions from 34 countries. There were four excellent keynote speakers (Professors Leontief, Baumol, Almon and Solow) and eight plenary presentations. There were 30 parallel sessions with 114 submitted papers, and 17 special sessions with another 95 invited contributions. The papers presented at the New York conference covered a wider range of topics than ever before. It was also a pleasure to observe that an increasing number of "non-IO" specialists showed interest in our field and participated in this conference. (The list of papers can be found in ERS 10 - 4, p 372 ff.) In view of the large number of papers, several sesions were running parallel, so that most participants could not attend all the presentations that they had wished to. In order to ensure that participants (and also those who missed the conference) have easy access to the papers that were presented, Prof. Clopper Almon offered to make electronic versions available on the Inforum web page. If you wish to retrieve papers that were presented at the NewYork conference, please visit http://inforumweb.umd.edu and click at the IIOA logo. For the first time, four IIOA travel grants were awarded to young scientists from non-OECD member countries in order to enable them to attend the conference. The Travel Grant Committee nominated Xiaoming Pan (P.R. China), Cid Terosa (Philippines), Victor Venida (Philippines) and Zuo Li (P.R. China). Finally, I would like to thank the organizers of the 17 special sessions and the members of the Scientific Programme Committee. Erik
Ditzenbacher
Regional International Input-Output Conference in Tanzania, Africa As already announced a Regional International Input-Output Conference will be held in Arusha, Tanzania, from 12 - 17 September 1999. The Conference will be organized by the National Bureau of Statistics and supported by the Swedish International Development Agency through Statistics Sweden and the International Input-Output Association. The papers to be presented at this Conference concentrate mainly on development issues. They are grouped into several sessions, among them are "Input-Output Tables, Social Accounting Matrices and National Accounts in African Countries", "Input-Output in Tanzania", "Sectoral, Regional and Environmental Analyis", "Structural and Technological Analysis". Those who are interested in participating in the Aruasha Conference should approach the Conference Secretariat c/o Statistics Sweden, P.O.Box 796, Dar es Salaam, Tanzania (tel and fax +255 51 112352, e-mail kento@raha.com. Reiner
Stäglin
In early 1998, the former editor of Economic Systems Research, Jan Oosterhaven, accepted a new, additional job and decided to resign as editor. At the Twelfth International Conference on Input-Output Techniques in New York, May 1998, I was officially appointed to take over his position for the next five years. Jan Oosterhaven has served as editor over the last five years, i.e. for the volumes 6 - 10 (1994-98). Through a careful editorial policy he has made a precious contribution to expanding the journal's scope. As co-editor (and associate editor in the beginning), I have had the opportunity to learn a lot from him. Once again (a more detailed acknowledgement is included in ESR 11-1, March 1999) I would like to thank Jan Oosterhaven for five inspiring years of collaboration and for all the work he has done for the journal. Paralleling the change of editor, also the editorial board has been updated and further extended. I would like to thank Ambica Ghosh and Valerij Makarov for 10 years of successful cooperation. It is my pleasure to welcome Klaus Conrad, Christian Lager, Kishori Lal, Peter McGregor, Pierre Mohnen, Jan Oosterhaven, Thijs ten Raa and Sherman Robinson as new members of the editorial board. Erik
Ditzenbacher
In 1998 the deficit was lower than expected. Again many members used the opportunity to pay their Membership Fees for two or more years. This fact increased our revenues from Membership Fees considerable and enabled us to reduce the share of banking charges. For several years now the Fee is US $ 60.- for one year and US $ 110.- for two years. A donation of extra US $ 4 000.- for the New York Conference from US institutions was sufficiently substantial to help dampen the deficit. On the expenditure side, costs were also kept to a minimum. We are expecting a small surplus in 1999. The costs for administration will be higher because we are planning to provide a new directory of members. We also will have to modernize our administrative offices (investing in new computer hardware and software) to make them more efficient. Josef
Richter |
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International Input-Output Association (IIOA) • Urbangasse 16/19 • A-1170, Vienna, Austria |
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