The University of Amsterdam welcomes econometricians from around the world for the 24th edition of the Econometric Game! In this competition, teams from top universities will compete for the trophy from 19 to 21 April. The Econometric Game is an initiative of UvA EB’s Study Association for Econometrics (VSAE).

This year’s case

This year, the case will revolve around wasting, a form of malnutrition, in the Sahel region of Africa. According to the UN, in the last year alone, wasting will have impacted the lives of approximately 6.3 million children under the age of 5 in 6 countries across the region. The challenge is even more relevant given the 27 percent increase in cases in 2022 compared to the previous year. The students will be expected to provide a predictive algorithm using their technical, econometric and creative skills.

About the Econometric Game

The Econometric Game usually brings together around 30 teams consisting of 4 postgraduate students with a maximum of 2 PhD students per team. While many of these students specialise in Econometrics, Mathematics and Data Science students participate as well. The 3-day competition is held in Amsterdam’s Zuiderkerk. The event starts with announcing the case topic to the students for the first time. Next, the teams spend the first 2 days working on the case. After careful evaluation by the jury, only 10 finalists remain to solve the last and most challenging part of the case on the third day. The winner of the Econometric Game will be announced during the last evening and the winning team takes the trophy home.

Last week, the Econometric Game 2021 took place. In this extraordinary event, 30 teams from 30 different universities competed. They participated in a case about the impact of AirBnB on the housing market in Amsterdam created by Martijn Dröes and data was provided by Brainbay.

The housing costs in Amsterdam have increased significantly in recent years. It is a compact city with a limited stock of housing, but the popularity makes the prices go up. There are many other factors as well, but one that stands out for people is the AirBnB rent, which is a short-term renting service. This effect has attracted many people (also internationally) to invest in the city, which allegedly pushed up prices.

The jury, Martijn Dröes, Fonger Ypma, and Hans Koster, announced the top 3 on the 9th of April 2021.

1. Lund University
2. Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam
3. University of Cambridge

On behalf of the committee of the Econometric Game 2021, we congratulate Lund University.

 

The winning LUSEM team. Photo: David Dahlgren

The winning team consisted of the master’s students Ester Trutwin and Natalie Irmert, and the doctoral students Devon Spika and Matthew Collins. Lund University organised a small interview with the winners of this year. You can read the interview here.

After a cancelled Econometric Game in 2020, we are extra happy that many universities were motivated to join the Econometric Game in 2021. A strict selection left us with 30 universities that will join the coming event in April.
The universities are:

– Aarhus University
– Erasmus University Rotterdam
– Georg-August-Universität Göttingen
– Harvard University
– Keio University
– Lomonosov Moscow State University
– Lund University
– Maastricht University
– Monash University
– New Economic School
– Norwegian School of Economics and Business Administration
– Oxford University
– Stellenbosch University
– Tilburg University
– University Carlos III de Madrid
– Université de Lausanne
– Universidad del Rosario
– Universidad Nacional de Colombia
– University of Antwerp
– University of Bristol
– University of Cambridge
– University of Copenhagen
– University of Florence
– University of Melbourne
– University of Orléans
– University of Rome Tor Vergata
– University of St. Gallen
– University of Warsaw
– University of Amsterdam
– VU University Amsterdam