On the Competitiveness of European Universities - including an Example taken from the History of Thought of Decision Theory

Transcription

1 Prof. Dr. Dirk Kaiser On the Competitiveness of European Universities - including an Example taken from the History of Thought of Decision Theory Ekonomická fakulta VŠB Technická univerzita Ostrava ZVYŠOVÁNÍ KONKURENCESCHOPNOSTI aneb Nové výzvy pro rozvoj regionů, států a mezinárodních trhů září 2007

2 Do universities face competition? Quality (tradition, knowledge etc.) Competition Price (tuition) Yes! This presentation focuses on the qualitative dimension of academic competition. 2

3 Excellence is not restricted to individual universities. Common intellectual traditions the near of public administration dynamic private industry geographical factors may result in a whole university region of best practice! leadership cooperative behaviour 3

4 University regions of best practice for example: 3. Princeton University Princeton, New Jersey, University of Pennsylvania Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Columbia University New York City, New York, Brown University Providence, Rhode Island, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, Cornell University Ithaca, New York, 1865 the Ivy League 1. Harvard University Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1780 (1636) 2. Yale University New Haven, Connecticut, 1701 But what about Europe? 4

5 Western type universities have developed in late medieval Europe. Montpellier 1289 Medicine Bologna 1119 Roman law Paris (Sorbonne) 1257 Theology Arabs Philosophy (after theology, law and medicine) became the fourth discipline taught at universities. 5

6 (Latin:) Language was not a problem in medieval times and during renaissance. No fundamental differences between eastern and western Europe. Praha (CZE) Univerzita Karlova (1348) 4 nations Latin Europe was a common market for academic knowledge. 6

7 1. In Continental Europe, economics and management are mostly subjects taught in separate faculties that have developed out of the law faculties. In the Anglo- Saxon world, economics and management often go back to the philosophical faculties. 2. The habilitation was introduced in the nineteenth century in Continental Europe as an additional selection criterion for academic staff whereas Anglo-Saxon countries developed a system of junior professor and tenure. Kolmogorov (RUS) Gödel (CZE) Reformation and its impact: Pólya (HUN) Wald (HUN) Neumann (HUN) Schönberg (ROM) Kalecki (POL) Lange (POL) 7

8 Academic Europe in the nineteenth and early twentieth century Caused by the decline of latin, science became multilingual. Transport became much more comfortable. The Economic Journal, Rendiconti del Circolo Matematico di Palermo, Zeitschrift für Betriebswirtschaft, Journal de la Société de Statistique de Paris etc. Years of high theory (Shackle) - not only in economics and management 8

9 Modern decision theory Daniel Bernoulli (1738) John von Neumann (1944) (together with Oskar Morgenstern) Expected Utility Maximization Jakob Bernouli 1713 Abraham Wald (1945) George Pólya (1915) Isaac Jacob Schönberg (1951) Stochastic Dominance Hicks (1935) Marschak (1938) Markowitz (1952) Tobin (1958) Portfolio Theory µ-σ-criterion CAPM 4 century mathematicians from MEE have contributed decisively. 9

10 Their lives show amazing parallels. von Neumann Wald Pólya Schönberg Three times Ivy League: von Neumann (Princeton), Wald (Columbia), Schönberg (Pennsylvania). Pólya went to Stanford. 10

11 Conclusions 4 century mathematicians have contributed greatly to modern decision theory. Their lives are proof that Europe was an enormously rich common market for academic education. They showed an enormous flexibility in academic selforganisation Integration on the university level is a must for future European competitiveness in a global perspective. 11

12 Milan Kundera, 1982: Nesnesitelná lehkost bytí Ostrava, 2007: Nadherná lehkost akademického bytí v Evropĕ Dĕkují pĕkne. 12

13 Research and further preparatory work done by my assistant, Mr. Diplom-Kaufmann (FH) Robert David Ittermann, is gratefully acknowledged. References 1. Baumol, W. J. (1951), The Neumann-Morgenstern Utility Index an Ordinalist View, in: The Journal of Political Economy 59, Bernoulli, D. (1954), Exposition of a New Theory on the Measurement of Risk, in: Econometrica 22, 23-36; originally (1738): Specimen Theoriae Novae de Mensura Sortis, in: Commentarii Academiae Scientiarum Imperialis Petropolitanae 5, Bernoulli, J. (1999), Wahrscheinlichkeitsrechnung (Ars conjectandi). I., II., III. und IV. Theil (1713) mit dem Anhange: Brief an einen Freund über das Ballspiel (Jeu de Paume), translated and edited by R. Haussner, Deutsch, Thun / Frankfurt on Main. 4. Boockmann, H. (1999), Wissen und Widerstand. Geschichte der deutschen Universität, Siedler, Berlin. 5. Decot, R. (2005): Kleine Geschichte der Reformation in Deutschland, Herder, Freiburg / Basle / Vienna. 6. Hamburger, H. (1920), Bemerkungen zu einer Fragestellung des Herrn Pólya, in: Mathematische Zeitschrift 7, Hicks, J. R. (1935), A Suggestion for Simplifying the Theory of Money, in: Economica New Series 2, Kaiser, D. (2005), Academic Management Education in Germany: From Heidelberg to Bologna, from Humboldt to Schmalenbach and where now?, in: Dyczkowski, T. / Kardasz, A. (Eds.), European Master of Corporate Finance Project in the European Area of Higher Education, The Publishing House of the Wroclaw University of Economics, Wroclaw, Kaiser, D. (2006), Finanzintermediation durch Banken und Versicherungen. Die theoretischen Grundlagen der Bankassurance, Gabler, Wiesbaden. 10. Karlin, S. (1968), Total Positivity. Volume I, Stanford University Press, Stanford. 11. Kuosmanen, T. / Post, T. (2002), Nonparametric Efficiency Analysis under Price Uncertainty: A First-Order Stochastic Dominance Approach, in: Journal of Productivity Analysis 17, Lehmann, E. L (1952), Testing Multiparameter Hypotheses, in: Annals of Mathematical Statistics 23, Lehmann, E. L. (1955), Ordered Families of Distributions, in: Annals of Mathematical Statistics 26, Markowitz, H. M. (1952), Portfolio Selection, in: The Journal of Finance 7, Marschak, J. (1938), Money and the Theory of Assets, in: Economica New Series 6, Neumann, J. v. / Morgenstern, O. (1944), Theory of Games and Economic Behavior, Princeton University Press, Princeton. 17. Pólya, G. (1915), Algebraische Untersuchungen über ganze Funktionen vom Geschlechte Null und Eins, in: Journal für die reine und angewandte Mathematik 145, Pólya, G. / Schur, J. (1914), Über zwei Arten von Faktorenfolgen in der Theorie der algebraischen Gleichungen, in: Journal für die reine und angewandte Mathematik 144, Schönberg, I. J. (1951), On Pólya Frequency Functions. I. The Totally Positive Functions and their Laplace Transforms, in: Journal d Analyse Mathématique 1, Seibt, F. (1978), Karl IV. Ein Kaiser in Europa , second edition, Munich, Süddeutscher Verlag. 21. Seibt, F. (2001), Historische Voraussetzungen für die Ausgestaltung des Staat-Kirche-Verhältnisses in den Adalbert-Ländern, in: Henrix, H. H./Süssmuth, H. (eds.): 13. Leutherheider Forum. Das Staat-Kirche-Verhältnis in den Adalbert-Ländern: Erfahrungen und Perspektiven, Adalbert Stiftung, Krefeld (2001), S Tirole, J. (1993), The Theory of Industrial Organization, sixth edition, MIT Press, Cambridge. 23. Wald, A. (1945), Sequential Tests of Statistical Hypotheses, in: Annals of Mathematical Statistics 16, Wald, A. (1950), Statistical Decision Functions, Wiley, New York et al.; sixth printing (1966). 13