Founding

On a cold Wednesday in February 1999, the very first Econometric Game took place in Amsterdam. What started out as a relatively small, national event has evolved into a well-respected international event over the last decade. This year, the Dutch capital of Amsterdam was a proud host of the fifteenth Econometric Game. Highly prestigious participants, a rising academic profile and challenging econometric cases with real social significance make the Econometric Game a unique event really worth your while!

In 1999, the VSAE organized the first Econometric Game. The University of Amsterdam and VU University Amsterdam sent teams consisting of six econometric students that were challenged to use their talents and skills to compete against one another in solving a case. The VSAE cooperated with high-standard companies like ING, DNB and PWC to make an econometric case about financial markets. The case was prepared by prof. dr. J.F. Kiviet, dr. J.A.C. Van Ophem and prof. dr. H.P. Boswijk, all members of the University of Amsterdam. A jury of experts evaluated the presented solutions and named the University of Amsterdam the proud winner of the first edition of the Econometric Game.

The Econometric Game started growing year after year. In 2000, three other Dutch universities joined the two teams from Amsterdam. The first foreign university that participated in 2001 was from Belgium. Joining the five Dutch teams in trying to solve a case regarding the stability of demand for money before and after the unification of Germany. The edition of 2001 is regarded to be the start of a trend of internationalization that is still observable in 2014. The National Econometric Game changed into the European Econometric Game and in the following years, teams from Belgium (Universities of Antwerpen and Gent), France (University of Lille) and Denmark (University of Aarhus) participated in the Econometric Game. Furthermore, the Econometric Game 2002 was the first to have an international victor: the University of Gent. In the years that followed, numerous other foreign universities participated in the Game. The debut of New York University, Boston University and Monash University in 2009 made that, for the first time in Econometric Game history, participants from three different continents participated. Therefore, the Econometric Game can rightfully be labelled a global event!

The increasing number of participants called for an expansion of the program as well. For the first time in 2006, the event was spread over two days instead of just one. This gave the participants the opportunity to obtain more information about the case topic and present even better solutions to the jury. A third day was introduced in 2009. The ten finalists announced at the end of the second day were challenged to solve another interesting case, while the rest of the teams had time to explore the beautiful city of Amsterdam. In 2010, the first Econometric Game Congress was organized on the third day of the event. The participants, the jury and other interested people from the University of Amsterdam could listen to inspiring speakers and the presentations of the results of the ten finalists. The winner of the Econometric Game was announced during a party at the end of the last day.