PROFESSOR KENNETH ROBERT PEARSON

Work Address:
Centre of Policy Studies
Faculty of Business and Economics
Monash University
Clayton Victoria 3800 Australia

Telephone:
(03) 9905 5484 (within Australia)
+61 3 9905 5484 (International)

Telephone:
(03) 9850 8848 and
(03) 9850 3991 (within Australia)
+613 9850 8848 and
+613 9850 3991 (International)

Academic Record:
First Class Honours B.A. in Mathematics
University of Adelaide, 1960-1963

Present Position:
Professorial Fellow and Associate Director
Centre of Policy Studies and Impact Project
Monash University
Clayton Victoria 3800
(appointed January 1999)

(I have been Associate Director of the Centre of
Policy Studies/Impact Project since 1988.)

Past Positions:
Reader and Associate Professor in Mathematics
La Trobe University
(January 1990 to December 1998)

Senior Lecturer in Mathematics
La Trobe University
(January 1970 to December 1989)

Assistant Professor of Mathematics
Pennsylvania State University
(July 1967 to December 1969)

Secondments:
Visiting Reader and Associate Director
Centre of Policy Studies and Impact Project
Monash University
(full-time secondment, 1 December 1991
to 31 December 1998)

Impact Research Centre, University of Melbourne
(half-time secondment, 1 July 1990 to 30 June 1991)

Visiting Senior Research Fellow in Economics
University of Melbourne
(1 December 1985 to 13 February 1987)
(on secondment from La Trobe University)

Sabbatical Leave:
1. (September 1987 to August 1988)
Overseas from mid-March to mid-May 1988.
I visited 9 US and Canadian universities and
organisations and delivered a paper to the Second
International Economic Modelling Conference in
London.

For rest of this year I was a Visiting Senior
Research Fellow, Department of Economics,
University of Melbourne.

2. School of Mathematics
University of Leeds, England
(October 1980 to June 1981)

3. Mathematics Department
Bedford College
University of London, England
(December 1974 to December 1975).

Since early 1983, my research work has been concerned with the development of general- purpose, portable, user-friendly software for the solution of large economic models. The GEMPACK software system, which is currently in use at about 300 organisations in Australia and overseas, is the main result of this work. I have supervised the design of the system and have written much of the software which incorporates up-to-date mathematical techniques for the implementation and accurate solution of large economic models. The software, early versions of which have been in use since 1984, can be used to model a wide range of economic behaviour, including forward-looking behaviour. It can be ported to different computer systems with very few, if any, changes; it is currently operating on Windows PCs running Windows 95, 98, NT or 2000; various Unix machines; and DEC VAX and Alpha machines running VMS. GEMPACK is distributed by the Centre of Policy Studies and Impact Project.

An overview of a recent version (Release 5.1, April 1994) is given in a 1996 paper in Computational Economics (see Paper number 37 in the attached publications). The current version (Release 6.0, October 1998) includes several Windows programs. The software in this version contains over 20 main programs and several hundred subroutines. The software is fully documented for users in the GEMPACK documents, notably documents GPD-1, GPD-2, GPD-3, GPD-4 and GPD-8 totalling approximately 600 pages (see the attached references).

With this software, models can be implemented and solved without the need for any model-specific or one-off code. The implementation of new large models, even of the size and complexity of ORANI, can now be achieved in a matter of weeks (compared to the 48 or so person-months required for ORANI's original implementation). The achievement of this sort of reduction in the research investment required to implement new models or modify existing models was one of the major aims in the initial development of GEMPACK. A list of models implemented and solved using GEMPACK is attached.

My research program involves continuing to develop and enhance the software and documentation. For example, a new release (Release 7.0) is expected late in 2000. This will include a number of new features, including completely reorganised documentation, implementation of a new decomposition technique (see Paper number 43) and new software AnalyseGE which assists modellers in the analysis of their simulation results (see Paper number 45).

I am in frequent email and telephone contact with many tens of general equilibrium modellers in Australia and overseas, responding to queries about modelling and software issues and advising and assisting with model implementation, solution and verification.

The number of organisations using GEMPACK continues to increase. At the end of 1994, there were about 70 sites with a source-code licence (about 35 of which were outside Australia) and about 20 with an executable-image licence. At the end of 1997, there were about 120 sites with a source-code licence (about 80 of which are outside Australia) and about 90 sites with an exectuable-image licence (of which about 75 are outside Australia). By late 2000, these numbers have increased by approximately a further 20%. A list of organisations with GEMPACK licences as at December 1997 is attached.

An independent evaluation of CoPS/Impact for the Commonwealth government in 1994 reported that almost all intensive users of GEMPACK surveyed ranked it as 5 out of 5.

Major Research Grants:
ARGS grants for project, "Multi-country models",
(with B. Parmenter, R. Rimmer and G.A. Meagher).
1984-1986: $80,493.

ARC grant for project "Automating an important step in constructing large computable economic models" (with A.A. Powell) for 1991-92.
1991: $52,100; 1992: $20,948; total $73,048.

Monash Development Fund grant for project "Further automation of software for solution of very large, dynamic economic models" (with A.A. Powell for 1993-94.
1993: $40,000; 1994: $18,500; total $58,500.

Teaching Experience:
1. The full range of undergraduate algebra courses at Adelaide, Pennsylvania State and La Trobe Universities. Graduate algebra and ring theory at Pennsylvania State and La Trobe. Numerical analysis and discrete mathematics courses at La Trobe.

2. I have supervised mathematics masters and doctoral students at Pennsylvania State and La Trobe. I have been an associate supervisor for economics doctoral students at La Trobe University.

3. I have been active in teaching and organising intensive one-week and two-week general equilibrium modelling courses over the past 8-9 years. This includes teaching at all the GTAP Short and Advanced courses (12 since 1992, run by the Center for Global Trade Analysis, Purdue University) and organising and teaching the twice-yearly GE courses held at Monash University (approx 10 since 1994).

This was awarded by the Center for Global Trade Analysis, Purdue University. Citation was "Development of GTAP software; Teaching of GTAP short courses".

Conference Organisation:
I was chair of the organising committee for the Third Annual Conference on Global Economic Analysis held from June 27-30, 2000 at Monash University (Mt Eliza). This conference was held in conjunction with the Center for Global Trade Analysis, Purdue University. The conference attracted over 100 participants including over 75 from overseas. About 65 papers were presented. Details are available on the web at address
http://www.monash.edu.au/policy/conf2000.htm

Major Offices Held:
Chairman, Pure Mathematics Department,
La Trobe University, 1982-1984.