Professor Giuseppe Arbia Delivers Lecture Series on Spatial Econometrics
From September 11-16, Giuseppe Arbia, Professor of Economic Statistics at the Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore in Rome, visited the HSE Faculty of Economic Sciences in Moscow to deliver a series of lectures on Spatial Econometrics.
Professor Arbia’s relationship with HSE goes back several years when he first began collaborating with Professor Olga Demidova, Associate Professor in the Faculty of Economic Sciences (Department of Applied Economics). One of his key interests involves spreading knowledge on spatial econometrics, especially in places like Russia where there are so few researchers who study the topic.
‘Spatial Econometrics is a relatively new field of research with only a few researchers from Russia’, Professor Arbia said. ‘As the president of the world Spatial Econometrics Association I am interested in diffusion of the knowledge on this topic’.
Apart from imparting knowledge on his field of interest, Professor Arbia also takes a keen interest in the process of education, lamenting to a certain extent the decline in critical thinking skills.
‘This is also true for technical subjects like those that I teach – statistics and econometrics’, he says, noting that while advances in technology have made teaching statistics easier, for example by freeing students from the need to focus excessively on mathematical formalism, they have caused students to approach topics in a more mechanical way.
Nevertheless, Professor Arbia noted the positive experience he had at HSE. ‘Classes were very lively and both the students and faculty participating are very interested. Students have a remarkable background and had no problem whatsoever profiting from my classes’.
In addition to delivering lectures, Professor Arbia took time to visit the main sites of Moscow and absorb as much Russian culture as possible. ‘I visited the Pushkin Museum and Tretyakov Gallery and appreciated many of the Russian artists that I didn't know before, such as Korovin, Serov and Levitan’, he said.
As for what he liked in particular, he noted his fondness for Russian food, especially borscht and pelmeni, along with his visits to the Bolshoi Theatre and the tombs of Chekhov and Gogol at Novodevichy Cemetery.
Anna Chernyakhovskaya, specially for HSE News service
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