As this is an economics blog the vast majority of these comments came from economists or people with a strong interest in economics.  Now I’m yet to meet a person who “does” economics at either a professional or amateur level whose focus is on money or status.  Instead the interest in economics, and the corresponding study of economics, has come from an interest in understanding the social world – and a desire to understand if there is some way of making it better.

As a result, motivating nominations was easy, all I had to do was tell people to nominate an economist who has helped them to satisfy this desire to understand the world – specifically New Zealand.  What New Zealand economist has offered you insight into the world, and motivated you to dig deeper into your own understanding of the New Zealand economy and society.  That is where economics meets sexy.

With that in mind the nomination process is over.  Now it is down to you, dear reader, to determine which of these 20 economists most closely satisfies your personal definition of sexy – your choices will decide who wins “New Zealand’s Sexiest Economist 2015” (NZSE15).

This year there were 83 nominations, and a massive 51 different economists were nominated (in line with the 51 last year).  We have 15 changes from last years poll, and 10 people who have never been part of the NZSE finals before.  The 2013 and 2014 winners did not get sufficient numbers of nominations this year – meaning that we will have a new winner this year.  In fact, the only person to make it into all three competitions has been Nick Tuffley!

Even with all these changes, we have a very impressive line up of economists to pick from!

We will follow the same format as last year. To help you make an informed decision, below the poll is a profile section. In case you remember the face of your favourite economist, but their name has slipped your mind, I’ve also included a gallery at the very bottom.

NOTE:  The name appears BELOW the tick box for the individual you wish to vote for.  So make sure you click ABOVE the name of the person you wish to cast a vote for!

The poll will run until midnight Sunday March 1st (New Zealand time).

What am I reading?

The 2013 competition was based on irritation – why do we have all these arbitrary “sexiest XXX” competitions instead of discussing actual issues.  Why are issues of social justice, fairness, and the trade-offs faced in society often determined by whoever is the best looking or wittiest, instead of on the basis of solid analysis.  It was in a particular moment of annoyance I decided to just throw in a sexiest economist competition.

But it has carried on into a second and third year for a different reason.  You know what, as someone who on occasion tries to do some economics, I’ve seen a lot of abuse thrown economists way for just mentioning a trade-off.  Or for even existing.  I’ve seen economists careful and thoughtful work, using carefully collected data, be thrown in the bin because people didn’t think it was sexy enough.

But you know what, hell yes it is sexy enough.  And this competition is simply about admitting that economic research, on important issues that impact upon New Zealander’s lives, is sexy!

Profiles:

Note:  Many of the economists below are affiliated with multiple organisations – and affiliation has been set such that there is only one person nomination per organisation.

Andrew Coleman (University of Otago):  I feel the same way about this nomination as I did last year, so I’ll just say the same things.  Andrew is a personal favourite New Zealand economist of mine.  His analysis of tax and superannuation policy has been incredibly informative.  However, he has a wide range of interests when it comes to economic analysis, and great knowledge of economic history.  I find a conversation with Andrew will always help you to see a new perspective on economic and social issues.

Paul Conway (New Zealand Productivity Commission):  Last year Paul’s nomination for NZSE is based squarely on communication, and the tough role the Commission has making sure it communicates the trade-offs inherent in policy to a public and politicians who can sometimes be on the look out for a quick fix.  Although this role is still important, the myriad of nominations received for Paul were focused on one thing – his work with Lisa Meehan and Dean Parham on labour income shares in New Zealand (in fact, there were demands that the whole group should be nominated).  With Piketty reigniting the debate about factor income shares, this work was a necessary for us to build an understanding of how New Zealand “fits in” to this global debate.

Geoff Cooper (Auckland Council/ADC): Although Geoff has flown off to Princeton to undertake a Masters in Public Affairs there was still significant demand for him to be included in this year’s competition.  Geoff is most well know for his former role as Chief Economist for Auckland City, a role where he was able to help shape the direction of the new Super City – and get into an argument with Don Brash.  However, he is a co-founder of Aotearoa Development Cooperative – a microfinance cooperative that aims to provide a hand-up for those most in need around the world.  An economist that has worked on practical urban economics issues, microfinance, and had a public spat with Don Brash – I can understand why Geoff is a popular choice!

John Creedy (Victoria University of Wellington): This is John’s first year on NZSE, largely due to the fact it has taken nominees the past three years to work through the huge number of important contributions he has made to the understanding of income distribution analysis and public economics in recent decades – if you name a policy question, it is likely that John has written a paper on it.  His work on modelling the income distribution, and practically estimating “equity” effects from policy changes, were internationally significant.  However, it is his work with Jesse Eedrah on New Zealand income inequality that convinced people to nominate him this year.

Lilla Csorgo (New Zealand Commerce Commission):  While many of the economists you see on TV are hunting after attention and soundbites, industrial/competition economists typically shy away from the cameras and focus their attention solely on the more private business of legal cases around market structure.  In this way, industrial economists are often the unsung heroes of the economics profession – and as a result it is encouraging to see a ground swell of nominations for the Chief Economist of Competition Law at the Commerce Commission.  One of the nominators explained clearly why Lilla deserves your vote “She has a rare ability to explain competition law economics to the lay audience with passion and poise, and she always speaks without notes. On top of this, she works in defending the consumer against cartelists and monopolists.”.  As can be seen in Lilla’s link, she is also a talented playwright as well as a gifted economist!

Felix Delbruck (Westpac): Felix bet out close competition from his Westpac colleagues to earn a nomination for NZSE this year.  Those nominating Felix based it on the fact that his analysis tends to have a bit more technical “meat” than you usually get from free sources – making the conclusions seem more credible, and sometimes even clearer.  I personally subscribe to his releases and although I don’t always share the same views, I always find his writing enlightening and challenging. My clearest recollection of Felix is when I was an undergraduate and he was one of my tutors – explaining concepts I had no prior interest in (macroeconomics) in a concise and interesting way.

Pete Gardiner (Statistics New Zealand):  Pete offers a lot of the public facing comment, and does a lot of internal work, at Statistics New Zealand with regards to their productivity, wellbeing, and regional statistics.  Data is the life blood of a lot of what economists do – without some form of observation we are just theorycrafting – as a result, it is good to see a Statistics NZ economist get selected for the competition.  Those nominating Pete were clear to stress that he has provided input to a wide variety of projects around the public sector, and it is his ability to jump between projects and work with others that makes him stand out from other economists.

Arthur Grimes (University of Auckland):  New Zealand honestly has one of the best monetary policy regimes in the world, and Arthur Grimes is one of the key people we can thank for this – with his work on and with monetary policy has been incredibly influential.  However, he has done so much more than this – with top quality work on the housing market, regional economics, and analysing firm level performance.  He also produced what has been argued as the best article on the Treasury website.  During nominations I was informed that his jazz band is well worth a listen.

Dean Hyslop (Motu):  Dean is an internationally renowned labour economists who, luckily for us, has decided to focus his attention on labour market issues in New Zealand.  Barely a week goes by without me hearing someone refer to either this paper on inequality in New Zealand or this paper on youth minimum wages – perhaps it is the circles I hang out in, but these papers are both incredibly interesting and useful.  As well as writing policy relevant research Dean has been lecturing at Victoria University, at one point I was in his econometrics classes where he communicated technical ideas in a way that was clear and surprisingly motivating.

Girol Karacaoglu (Treasury):  Making his first appearance in the NZSE competition is Treasury’s Chief Economist.  I sometimes think that people steer away from nominating Treasury with regards to sexy economics due to its reputation of being unemotive or immovable.  However, through his work on the Living Standards Framework (LSF) – specifically trying to articulate the way different types of “capital” may exist and impact on any ultimate quality of life objective – has helped to change this impression.  Those nominating Girol were keen to point out that it isn’t just the LSF that has nominated his motivation – but the fact that he is a “proper gentlemen” who gets along with everyone he meets.

Kirdan Lees (NZIER):  This is Kirdan’s debut on NZSE, driven primarily by the popularity of his NZAE paper on the trade-offs faced by Auckland Council when it comes to deciding on whether to allow expansion out, or up.  However, I like to think that Kirdan’s willingness to offer an intelligent and frank assessment of monetary policy is another reason why he has ended up in this competition (see here and here).  Among those nominationing him I’ve also been informed that Kirdan is a poker shark.

Gareth Morgan (Morgan Foundation): Gareth returns to the NZSE centre stage this year, this time representing the Morgan Foundation.  Gareth has written on a huge range of issues over the past three decades and is known predominantly for his provocative style and the ability to make people think.  But for all the fame he’s garnered for his presentations, Gareth is also no slacker as a top quality economist.  His time series econometrics and forecasting work at the Reserve Bank (where he earned his PhD) was exceptional, and he used those skills to found Infometrics and ensure that his presentations were based on solid facts – a focus that continues, and is sometimes downplayed by his detractors, in his most recent work.

Ganesh Nana (BERL): Ganesh also returns to the finals of NZSE this year.  Among analysts Ganesh is best known for his work with CGE (computable general equilibrium) models, a useful modelling technique for ensuring that any cost-benefit policy work we preform includes “general equilibrium” feedback effects.  His work pushing this type of analysis has led to a significant improvement in policy advice.  However, Ganesh has also consulted and lectured on a wide range of other economic issues over recent years, adding to policy debate and forcing us all to more clearly consider the trade-offs we make when introducing certain policies.

Benje Patterson (Infometrics):  My work colleague Benje makes his first appearance on NZSE this year after a stellar year of articles – particularly his open letter to Bill English (also here) which garnered a lot of attention during the nomination round!  However, I have a soft spot for his appeal not to subsidise regional economies – a tough issue to tackle as a Southland boy.  Benje is a phenomenal communicator and writer who has an all consuming passion for economics – every time I walk in the door he’s ready to start discussing some economic issue with me off the bat.

Bill Rosenberg (NZ Council of Trade Unions): Bill is another top economist returning for this year’s NZSE.  Often discussing issues of wage poverty and income inequality before they were cool, it is encouraging to see Bill get nominated in the year when these concepts did become a central part of the policy debate.  A long term proponent of the idea that falling shares of labour income was both occurring in New Zealand, and was fundamentally unfair, Bill straddles the line between economist and advocate in order to help advance ideas he sees as beneficial to the country as a whole.

Stephen Toplis (BNZ): As Head of Research at BNZ, Stephen is responsible for the sizable output of the Bank’s research department – remember that much of the research they do isn’t publicly released, implying that these merely scratch the surface of the issues the BNZ team looks into.  He is well known for being concise, and cutting straight to the point when discussing economic issues – an admirable trait given how many of us ramble on in ridiculously overwrought metaphors.  Stephen bet out stiff competition from other members of the BNZ team to represent the bank in NZSE – a deserved nomination.

Nick Tuffley (ASB): The only economist to make it to the finals of NZSE three years in a row, Nick continues to call on a hard-core of supporters who find his commentary about the New Zealand economy especially insightful – commentary that he has been making as Chief Economist at ASB for eight years.  As I mentioned last year, when I’ve seen Nick speak I seen him speak clearly and without pulling any punches – even if what he’s saying is unpopular with the crowd.  Nick bet out strong challenges by a couple of his colleagues at ASB to ensure that he made the finals again this year.

Marilyn Waring (Auckland University of Technology):  Marilyn deservedly got last year’s NZIER Economics Award, and this year is in the running for NZSE.  Her push to get policy makers, and other economists, to pay attention to “non-market” activities (specifically unpaid work in a household) – at a time when easily quantifiable measures like GDP were treated as bible – was brilliant, and has had a significant impact on the way New Zealand economists consider policy issues today.  However, as a politician and an individual focused on public policy her focus and influence has been much broader than in just economics.  Her role in the 1984 NZ snap election is also spectacular!

Graeme Wheeler (Reserve Bank of New Zealand):  The most powerful economist in New Zealand makes his second appearance on NZSE.  Graeme’s nomination is more than deserved this year, with the introduction of LVR’s, falling unemployment with limited inflationary pressures, and a continuing focus on transparent communication around monetary policy all major economic outcomes that he has been in the centre of.  A common theme among Graeme’s nominations was a strong appreciation of his suits – with his sharp eye for the details of the macroeconomy neatly translating into a sharp eye for good clothing.  Given economists aren’t usually known for their fashion this is a unique gift.

Sharon Zollner (ANZ): Sharon blitzed her ANZ workmates to receive her second consecutive nomination to NZSE.  As a former central banker, and current ANZ economist, Sharon focus is predominately macroeconomics – and broad economic trends.   In this space, her work on the Truck-o-meter has been incredibly valuable to many analysts and journalists, providing a clear and sensible leading indicator of economic activity.

Last year we introduced a nominations round.  Many people complained that their favourite economist wasn’t in the competition – which I’m guessing is a sign of regret that they didn’t get around to nominating them.

I want everyone to feel that they have had the chance to say “I think this economist does the sexiest economics, and is therefore my sexiest economist“.  As a result, this year I want all of you to take nominations very seriously.  On that note, here are the rules:

1. The nomination must be for a public facing economist that is involved with New Zealand.  This is defined in more detail here.
2. You can nominate more than one economist – but I’m still not allowing you to rank economists in the nomination round.
3. You get an extra 1/4 of a nomination point for the person if you send me an economicsy looking picture of the economist.
4. You get a FULL extra nomination point for writing a paragraph describing why your economist produces sexy economics.  I am very excited to see what people write.

Nominations will close at 5pm on Thursday the 12th of February (New Zealand time).  Voting will commence at 8am Friday the 13th of February (again, NZT).  This way you will be able to discuss who you are going to vote for with your partner during your Valentines Day dinner on Saturday.

You can nominate people in a number of ways:

• Comment with their name and organisation in this post.
• Email me at matt@tvhe.co.nz with your nomination.
• Tweet us your nomination here.
• Comment on Facebook here.
• Comment on the relevant post on Linkedin.
• Doing something to this Google+ page – I still don’t know how this works.

Note:  I’m going to reiterate here to keep it classy – the purpose of the competition is to celebrate economists work, not to attack economists.  Let’s objectify the economics not the economists.  I will come down hard on any lewd or insulting comments, with the fire of a thousand economists who are being told that economics isn’t a science – you have been warned.

It is my privilege to announce that the deserved winner of the 2014 New Zealand sexiest economist competition was Marie Marconnet!

Marie Marconnet – Castalia

With 273 votes from the 1,003 that were cast, Marie was the clear winner – beating out Özer Karagedikli on 158 votes and Geoff Cooper on 150 votes.  However, the traffic wasn’t all one way – early on Marie was in the lead, but then slid back to 3/4 position for the majority of the competition.  However, on Friday Marie made a sudden surge up the charts with votes piling in from around the world for the economist from Castalia.  As was stated on Twitter:

For those wondering… http://t.co/3LucyE5Feu Vote for Marie Marconnet, she's sex on toast supposedly.

— Harry Doyle (@MrHarryPants) February 28, 2014

Assuming that sex is an acroymn for “social science and economics to the extreme”, I think Harry has summed up how we should feel about Marie’s work, and the work of all the contestants in this competition – a series of individuals helping to push on our knowledge of the trade-offs faced in society, so we can make more informed decisions.

I asked Marie for some comments about her work to celebrate her win.  She was in Senegal at the time and said:

We’re helping the Government implement Senegal’s renewable energy law, by evaluating energy scenarios, developing a methodology for setting RE tariffs, developing tender procedures, and advising on power purchase agreements. It’s pretty interesting!

Awesome – this is the sort of tough work around institutional and legal structures that will change an immeasurable number of lives.  As I’ve said in the past, I am no energy economist so the actual work is beyond my ability to sum up

As a result, I’ll just repeat my profile from the poll.

Marie Marconnet, Castalia:  Marie was a Masters student at Victoria at the same time I was.  However, when I was floating around with unimportant hypotheses she was looking at hard data, and trying to analyse real world questions regarding the Pacific Islands.  Over the last seven years she has been employed at Castalia extending and broadening her analysis of developing nations.  When nominating her someone admitted that they’d never met an economist who could articulate and argue real world concepts as clearly as Marie.

Final notes

I’d like to thank all the people who nominated, voted, and who linked to the competition through Twitter, Facebook, and NBR.  I’d also like to give a shout out to all of our contestants for being good natured about this, as well as doing some pretty awesome work.

Economics and its practitioners can be pretty awesome, and this is something we should be allowed to celebrate.  So why not celebrate it in this little corner of the internet, found in our little corner of the world

Also, don’t let me forget that I owe Marie a trophy, and that I also owe Darren a trophy from last year!

At first I thought this was ridiculous.  But thinking about the work New Zealand economists do, I think there are a lot of ‘sexy economists’ ~ Anonymous

I’ll be honest, I’m impressed with the list of economists we ended up with from nominations.  Looking through the list of people who got into the final twenty, and those who missed out, I see a series of names of people who’s work I enjoy.  Sure there are a lot of other economists I’d love to see represented but opportunity cost right!

The poll

Here is the poll.  The top 20 were selected via the quantity of nominations they received.  We had 51 economists nominated, which was pretty exciting!  A lot of the nominations were from other economists, and people were incredibly supportive of the quality of each others work when nominating.  Compared to the partisan ego fights we all publicly see on US and UK economics blogs, this shows that the economics community in New Zealand is incredibly warm and excited by good work.

To help you make an informed decision, below the poll is a profile section.  I am sure that after reading the profile section you will want to vote for all twenty of the candidates, and so below that I’ve included a gallery because … why not!

The poll will run until midnight on Saturday March the 1st.

Seriously, what is this?

Last year’s competition was based on irritation – why do we have all these arbitrary “sexiest XXX” competitions instead of discussing actual issues.  Why are issues of social justice, fairness, and the trade-offs faced in society often determined by whoever is the best looking or wittiest, instead of on the basis of solid analysis.  It was in a particular moment of annoyance I decided to just throw in a sexiest economist competition.

But I’m carrying it into a second year for a different reason.  You know what, as someone who on occasion tries to do some economics, I’ve seen a lot of abuse thrown economists way for just mentioning a trade-off.  Or for even existing.  I’ve seen economists careful and thoughtful work, using carefully collected data, be thrown in the bin because people didn’t think it was sexy enough.

But you know what, hell yes it is sexy enough.  And this competition is simply about admitting that economic research, on important issues that impact upon New Zealander’s lives, is sexy!

Profiles:

Andrew Coleman, University of Otago:  Andrew is a personal favourite New Zealand economist of mine.  His analysis of tax and superannuation policy has been incredibly informative.  However, he has a wide range of interests when it comes to economic analysis, and great knowledge of economic history.  I find a conversation with Andrew will always help you to see a new perspective on economic and social issues.

Paul Conway, Productivity Commission:  Paul is one of the driving forces behind the Productivity Commission and their desire to honestly discuss and communicate the policy trade-offs we face in New Zealand.  In many ways the PC finds itself between a rock and a hard place, as it is expected to provide ‘results’ while also giving an objective appraisal of the impact of policy – it is economists like Paul that ensure that the Commission finds the right balance in the advice it gives to government.

Geoff Cooper, Auckland Council:  Last year one of the main complaints I received about the NZSE poll was the fact that Geoff was not involved.  His tireless efforts in communicating the specific issues that Auckland faces (issues that can be downplayed by those of us based in Wellington) would by themselves be enough to ensure his nomination to this competition.  However, as an economist he provides a lot more than that, with his willingness to offer thoughtful commentary on a range of social issues such as  poverty and inequality.

Jean-Pierre de Raad, New Zealand Institute of Economic Research:  NZIER has always been an important part of the economic landscape.  However, under Jean-Pierre’s watch they have struck an impressive balance between public communication and deep analysis.  Jean-Pierre, through his work at the institute, has helped to significantly improve the quality of policy debate in New Zealand – at a time where society was calling out for rigorous debate.

Kevin Fox, Australian School of Business:  I was introduced to Kevin’s analysis within my workplace at a point in time when I felt comfortable ranting about productivity in New Zealand.  Kevin’s careful analysis of productivity trends and measurement, and specifically his paper comparing NZ to Australian productivity in different ways, were significant additions to our understanding of the New Zealand economic and policy environment.

Darren Gibbs, Deutsche Bank:  Darren was last year’s champion, fighting off stiff competition from a series of other economists.  Every time I hear something from Darren I know it is something I should listen to, his intuition, his experience, and his understanding of the data, make him an extremely strong macroeconomist.  What I have always appreciated with Darren is the fact that, even faced with media pressure, he articulates the conditional and partial way that economic conclusions are formed – it is a skill we should all be jealous of.

John Gibson, Waikato University:  John deserves a place here for the myriad of papers he’s written looking at low income nations and the issues they face.  However, the nominations he received specifically mentioned how much they’ve enjoyed his writing about seasonal workers, and the idea that seasonal work in  New Zealand can be used as a tool to help reduce poverty in the Pacific Islands.  When us bloggers say that we’d like to see/do work on inequality and poverty, we mean that we wish we could see more of (or do) the type of important work John has dedicated himself to!

Chris Green, First New Zealand Capital:  I’ll be honest, in my narrow view of the world Chris Green was someone I had not heard of previously.  However, after a string of nominations arrived I discovered he was involved with the all important RBNZ Survey of Expectations, and that he has been busily discussing trends on both sides of the Tasman.  With a distinct understanding of how monetary policy functions through the BOE and RBNZ, Chris offers an important perspective for discussing monetary policy issues within New Zealand.

Özer Karagedikli, Reserve Bank of New Zealand:  Özer is the type of economist who anyone would feel comfortable discussing macroeconomic questions, but who can also guide analysis and policy to an incredibly deep and technical level.  When I discussed the art of economic communication as being about “peeling back assumptions during a conversation”, I must have implicitly had the ability of Özer in mind.  Having an economist like this that specialises in monetary policy and exchange rates, two areas where communication is key, is very valuable to New Zealand.

Gareth Kiernan, Infometrics:  It is hard to write objectively about Gareth, given he is my boss, work colleague, friend, and someone I have spent the last seven years eagerly learning from.  Gareth’s focus has always been in the building industry, and related macroeconomics – and I am still trying to learn the subtleties of his understanding in these areas.  A key focus of his is on how to clearly communicate these ideas to clients who want to utilise this information for business decision making.  When I have gone to present I have been told “you better be good, because we had Gareth talking to us about these ideas last time, and he was excellent”.

Marie Marconnet, Castalia:  Marie was a Masters student at Victoria at the same time I was.  However, when I was floating around with unimportant hypotheses she was looking at hard data, and trying to analyse real world questions regarding the Pacific Islands.  Over the last seven years she has been employed at Castalia extending and broadening her analysis of developing nations.  When nominating her someone admitted that they’d never met an economist who could articulate and argue real world concepts as clearly as Marie.

Vladimir Petkov, Victoria University of Wellington:  Vladimir was one of the lecturers at Victoria that, through a discussion of classical microeconomics and ‘delegated management’, got me excited about microeconomic ideas.  Vladimir also supervised both James and my Masters theses – as a result, it is largely his fault that this blog exists.  One thing I have to say, although I am not sure that Vladimir would like it, is that for someone who always told me not to worry too much about discussing methodology I swear he has a pretty sophisticated view of methodological ideas.  Otherwise why would two of his masters students blog about methodology so religiously?

Jacques Poot, University of Waikato:  I almost feel that I can’t give Jacques a fair introduction.  He won last year’s NZIER economics award.  His work on population, migration flows, and regional development have been a major driver of the type of analysis at my work place – in fact I can’t think of an economist who is discussed/mentioned more often when we talk about these issues.  Jacques work has been immeasurably important to both current, and likely to future, understanding of the New Zealand economy.

Steve Stillman, University of Otago:  The sheer range of labour market and immigration studies that Steve has been involved in, and their comprehensive nature, is beyond my ability to summarise.  Just take it as read that he has offered an important contribution to the literature in these areas, as that is the case.  What I would like to add is the incredibly enthusiastic and motivated comments I have heard from his students in the past.  Not only does he understand, and offer a strong analysis of, labour market institutions – he motivates others to want to do the same.

Adolf Stroombergen, Infometrics:  Adolf is the Chief Economist at Infometrics, and not a day goes by where the breadth of his knowledge doesn’t amaze me.   Although in his day-to-day work Adolf focuses on CGE style models, he has been known to dabble in a broad range of other strict empirical and heterogeneous agent models when he believes that suits the question at hand.  I have never met an economist who understands, and commits themselves to consulting transparently on the basis of, the idea of “many models” in the same way as Adolf.  And what makes it even more incredible is that he also understand these models deeply – to be fair you would think there would be some sort of trade-off!

Dominick Stephens, Westpac:  Bank economists perform an important role in New Zealand of informing the public under intense pressure.  We are a small country, and it is these guys that are responsible for a lot of economic information.  This is where Dominick is an absolute star – not only is he clear and articulate, but he actually cuts to the heart of specific issues when speaking to the public.  An economist can only be that clear if they truly understand what they are talking about, and Dominick (in fact Westpac as a whole) has always been clear in explaining why they believe certain trends exist.  IMO, he is doing a better job than economist in Australia (but don’t tell economists over there I said that).

Nick Tuffley, ASB:  Nick has always been a straight talker regarding what is really going on in the domestic economy.  My clearest memory of Nick was sitting at one of his presentations, where he was trying to explain just how much of a big deal the seize up in global markets during the GFC was for shipping, and therefore exports.  His prognosis was right, even if it wasn’t popular.  It is those sorts of explanations, and the trust they build in economists, that we really need.

Jane Turner, ASB:  I’ve always been impressed with how quick Jane can turn economic data into a sensible, and justifiable, narrative about what is going on with the New Zealand economy.  It is easy to just say things about data that sound compelling, but Jane’s views are always based on a real understanding of the data and a clear story around what is going on in the macroeconomy.  Either this requires a lot of work, or Jane has a great natural talent.

Zoe Wallis, Kiwibank:  Kiwibank is still a relatively new institution, and like most up-and-coming firms it must seem tempting to be contrarian to get attention (just look at their ads).  However, as an economist at Kiwibank Zoe has refused to go down that path, instead focusing on providing a clear and honest expression of what is going on in the New Zealand economy.  This has worked well as those that nominated her have praised her clear, straight to the point, communication style.

Sharon Zollner, ANZ:  ANZ produces a large number of useful indicators of economic activity, free of charge for the general public.  Sharon’s work and analysis has been a large part of making this available.  I have been told that her work on the Truck-o-meter has been incredibly valuable to many analysts and journalists, providing a clear and sensible leading indicator of economic activity.

Gallery:

Last year I learnt a very important lesson – I am not the only person that thinks that the study and application of economics is sexy.  The sexiest economist competition led to a lot of discussion, a deserved winner (don’t let me forget to pass on a trophy at some point), and two comments I heard repeatedly for the rest of the year:

1. Are you going to do this again next year so I can vote for X.
2. Where is this person Y I really wanted to vote for – specifically mentioning the lack of female contestants.

I had no intention of doing a 2014 version of this competition, but I’m also vulnerable to peer pressure, so here we go again!

However, things will be a bit different this time.  I am asking for your nominations for New Zealand’s sexiest (public facing) economist – you are allowed to nominate multiple economists.  Details are below the flap.

A ‘public facing’ economist is simply an economist who deals with the public in such a way that a sizable chunk of people will know who they are and how sexy their economics is – this is a broad definition, and people from a variety of government departments, banks, private organisations, and universities are all likely to sneak into it.  I will leave defining public facing up to you – I will not remove nominations.

If you want an example, the head economist of a large government department is an appropriate choice.  The intern at your firm over summer, who you thought was sort of cute, and also had spectacular economic intuition, is not an appropriate choice.

The 20 with the most nominations will then enter the voting round.  Attaching your favourite photo of the economist will count as an additional quarter nomination, which could be useful if they are 20th equal (the logic being if you give me an appropriate photo, I don’t have to look for one!).

If we don’t get 20 I will hold an emergency general meeting of TVHE to get additional nominations.  If we get more than 50 I will hold an emergency general meeting of TVHE to see if we can make use of this additional information in some way.

Nominations will be open until Thursday February the 13th (New Zealand time), and voting will begin on Friday February 14th (at 8am New Zealand time) – just in time for Valentine’s day!

You can nominate people in a number of ways:

• Comment with their name and organisation in this post.
• Email me at matt@tvhe.co.nz with your nomination.
• Tweet us your nomination here.
• Comment on Facebook here.
• Comment on the relevant post on Linkedin.
• Doing something to this Google+ page – I don’t know how this works.

Note:  So far I’m assuming this post means we have one nomination from the Productivity Commission for Paul Conway.

Sidenote:  Can we also keep this classy – last year you guys were awesomely impressive in the way you focused on the sexiness of the economics, without making things judgmental or objectifying the fine people involved.  If we can do that again it would be super.

After frantic voting the champion was … Darren Gibbs with 97 votes (24%)

Darren Gibbs – Deutsche Bank

This was an impressive performance, and no doubt shows the depth of appreciation for both Darren’s looks and his application of economic ideas and concepts.

In second place was Donna Purdue with 91 votes (21%).  She receive wide ranging support from the economist and non-economist community, and was constantly threatening for first place.

Eric Crampton (3rd place) and Gareth Kiernan (5th place) made an early run during the first day of voting, however both fell off the pace as the voting went on.  Shamubeel Eaqub lived up to his reputation as a dark horse, pulling in a number of votes on the final day to take out 4th spot!

Shamubeel and Jean-Pierre de Raad may feel aggrieved, as by putting down two members of NZIER I was splitting the NZIER vote (BNZ has a similar claim) – however, I would note that the combined NZIER vote still would have had them significantly off the pace set by Darren and Donna.

All in all, congrats to Darren, it was good to see that everyone received some votes, and economics was the winner on the day.

I will include an other option on the poll, and if you do click other I would love it if you put their name down in comments! It is entirely possible I have missed people, as I am exceedingly incompetent.

I have also stuck to economists that are in the public eye incessantly, there are a lot of economists you may think are hotter who aren’t talking in public a lot – but they are excluded at this point.  Also, if you are bitterly mean about how any of the economist look I’m going to do a rare thing, break my own personal rule, and censor your comment – economists are my idols, and this blog is my place of worship

Note:  Will close Friday 22 March, at midday in NZ.

If you need photos, come with me as I explore google trying to find professional photos.  If you can find better photos, throw them in the comments and I will update!