Economics nomination honour for Aidan Vining

Aidan Vining, a professor of business and government relations at SFU’s Beedie School of Business, was selected as one of two finalists for the 2010 Kenneth J. Arrow Prize for Senior Economists this past May.

His paper, “An Assessment of Important Issues Concerning the Application of Benefit-Cost Analysis to Social Policy,” was co-authored with David Weimer, a professor of public affairs and political science at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Annually, the Berkeley Electronic Press (bepress) honours the very best work published in its economics journals. The Arrow Prize is the highest honor bepress bestows, and the nomination puts the researchers in an elite group of scholars.

Professor Vining is the Centre for North American Business Studies (CNABS) Professor of Business and Government Relations at Simon Fraser University. He has been at SFU’s business school since 1984. He has also held a number of administrative positions, including Academic Director of the Executive MBA.

He researches in the areas of public policy, policy analysis and business strategy. His current public policy research focuses primarily on privatization, corporatization, contracting-out and public-private partnerships. His recent research in business has focused on high-tech clusters and the role of internal markets.

The Arrow Prizes for Junior and Senior Economists are named in honor of Kenneth J. Arrow, who won the Nobel Prize in 1972 for his pioneering contributions to general equilibrium theory and welfare theory. Begun in 2003, the Arrow Prizes recognize papers published each year in bepress economics journals that make an outstanding contribution to the field.

A condensed version of Vining and Weimer’s research can be viewed at the La Follette Policy Report.