We were in Rotterdam Monday for our Asset Pricing course, which rivals McGill's Algebra 2 ('99 edition) as the most disastrous course I have ever taken in my entire life. Not in terms of grades (cross fingers) but in terms of organisation and the blatant lack of interest shown by the professor.

But we make the best of it! Pictures of Bernd, him talking to Denny with Ting in the background, Tse-Chun giving a solid TA session under difficult circumstances, David on the move, and finally Kobus.

Jan Tinbergen, who gave his name to the Tinbergen Institute, carried out his research in Rotterdam. Loose translation of the message: "From the sharing, comes the profit" or "From the distribution, comes the gain" or some combination of the two. Inderdaad.

Some pretty unremarkable pictures of the campus: Erasmus University in Rotterdam

2006 INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE OF THE HUMAN DEVELOPMENT AND CAPABILITY ASSOCIATION
29 AUGUST - 1 SEPTEMBER
GRONINGEN, THE NETHERLANDS










Today I registered for this conference and the accompanying summer school. The Human Development and Capability Association is an organisation based around Nobel Prize winning economist Amartya Sen's "capabilities approach". To summarize it in his words:

Development can be seen ... as a process of expanding the real freedoms that people enjoy. Focusing on human freedoms [or capabilities] contrasts with the narrower views of development, such as identifying development with the growth of gross national product, or with the rise in personal incomes, or with industrialization, or with technological advance, or with social modernization.

The conference will focus on the links between the ideas of freedom and justice. Quite a change from the narrow confines of economics. Some of the models we treat are fascinating, but there is an underlying idea of justice that rarely changes: the most just outcome (we would say the outcome that maximizes social welfare), is the one that generates the highest total level of utility summed across all members of society. This begs two questions: First, why do we talk about utility, which is usually seen as a measure of happines or desire satisfaction, instead of substantive freedoms? And second, even if we stick to utility, why is it that only the total amount of utility is counted and not the distribution of utility, say towards or away from the weakest members of society? No easy answer, but it will be nice to get a broader view. The whole thing will be complemented by the summer school's focus on quantitative measurement relating to the capability approach. It will also be nice to visit Groningen for the first time. It's a small university town, and everybody who's been there seems to have something good to say about it.

http://www.philos.rug.nl/hdca2006/index.htm
http://fas.harvard.edu/~freedoms/index.cgi

L'utilisation du diminutif en néerlandais

Je sais que vous attendez avec impatience des précisions sur la langue néerlandaise; commençons avec ceci.

Le diminutif est très souvent utilisé dans la langue parlée, généralement pour signifier quelque chose (eh oui) de petit: un petit bébé pourrait être un ‘babytje', et un petit moment serait un 'momentje'. Selon moi, cela est un peu drôle mais aussi assez normal.

Cependant, le diminutif sert aussi à signaler une certaine familiarité entre les gens. Entre amis, très souvent presque tout peut être en 'tje. Imaginez : Écris-moi un sms'tje, ou appelle-moi sur mon mobieltje!

Le diminutif le plus populaire est entendu dans les bars d'Amsterdam. La question se pose: une petite quoi? La réponse est claire: une petite bière. Eh oui, een biertje!

People get ready, there's a train a comin' ...

I went to Copenhagen during our Easter week off in April, where I stayed with Anna Juulsgaard Breum. We had met when she was studying earlier this year in Amsterdam, and I returned the favour as she stayed with me in Amsterdam a little bit later after Queen's Day. My impression is that Copenhagen is a beautiful city, a little like Amsterdam but a bit more wide open, a bit cleaner and with lovely lakes that lie in it. Our first tourist stop was the Little Mermaid statue, which was swamped by, well, tourists. I hear it has only been decapitated twice! Among other things, we saw the harbour, the Queen's Guard with their furry hats and the short but extremely nice and busy street by the water whose name I can't remember! In the photo you can see all the Danes sitting on the site enjoying the sun, while the tourists are just out of site on the patios enjoying expensive meals and drinks. It also happened to be Queen Daisy's birthday, so the Danish flags were out in full force.

Further below are pictures of Anna, with her friends Camilla and Kristina. Also, Tivoli gardens and delicious layer cake!

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April 30 was Koninginnedag: Queen's Day. It officially marks the Queen mother's birthday, but it serves more as the Dutch National Day. Apparently this year's Koninginnedag was a bit quieter than last year's, with only 300,000 - 400,000 celebrating in the streets of Amsterdam! So lots of visitors and action for a city of 730,000 people.

People walk around different parts of the city drinking alcohol, go to concerts in the different parks, buy food from street vendors and strange things from the children selling their old knick-knacks in the Vondelpark, and perhaps most fun of all pack into their boats and fill the Amsterdam canals. I suppose we did a little bit of everything, except get in a boat! Of course, the colour of choice is orange. My choice of hat is due to my militant nationalist tendancies, and has nothing to do with the fact that none of the caps would fit. I had a great time with Anna, who was visiting from Denmark, Verena, who visited the fortune teller, and friends.

It seems that spring and summer arrived together at the beginning of May. Since then, there has been a week straight of sun and temperatures from the low to the high twenties. Many Amsterdamers headed to the Vondelpark to enjoy the weather, as did I with Anna Juulsgaard Breum.