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Business and Economics hosts Nobel Laureate

10 May 2006

Nobel Laureate Professor James Mirrlees has presented a lecture on behalf of the Department of Economics at Monash's Clayton campus.

The lecture, organised by the department's Professor Yew-Kwang Ng and Dr Guang-Zhen Sun, was attended by more than 80 students and academics. 

Professor Mirrlees, a Professor of Political Economy and Fellow of Trinity College at the University of Cambridge, was joint winner of the Nobel Prize for Economics with Professor William Vickrey in 1996 for his contributions to the economic theory of incentives under asymmetric information.

He is well known internationally for his work on social cost benefit analysis and has researched many areas of economics -- including optimal taxation, public expenditure, economic growth models, welfare economics, income distribution, international trade and development issues. 

In his lecture, Professor Mirrlees discussed his optimal mechanism design for an alternative income taxation system that maximises the welfare of society by allowing individuals to choose their own taxation schedule.

"This decision would be made before incomes are earned, and tax schedules would take into account a number of factors," Professor Mirrlees said.

"However, it is not yet clear whether it is always desirable to give individuals more than one option, because their decision-making processes may be irrational," he said.

Professor Ng said it was wonderful that Monash students and academics had the opportunity to meet one of the world's leading economic theorists.

"Professor Mirrlees has influenced the design of global public policy and made significant advances in the scope of economic theory," he said.

"Considering alternative options for income taxation, as far as I know, is novel and we are very pleased Professor Mirrlees was willing to share his research with us."

Following the lecture, Professor Mirrlees met with academics from the Economics department's Centre for Increasing Returns and Economic Organisation to discuss opportunities for collaborative research projects.