Inaugural lecture Dr. Stephan Smeekes
Appointed professor of "Econometrics" at the School of Business and Economics
“Time Will Tell: Econometric Intelligence to Unravel a Complex World”
We live in a world full of complex challenges, from global issues that shape our societies to personal decisions that affect our daily lives. To navigate these challenges, we need to make sense of the past. Analysing historical data is key: it helps us understand how the world works and guides evidence-based decisions. But time, while essential for this analysis, also makes things more complicated. Add to that the fact that today’s problems involve countless interconnected factors, and the puzzle becomes even harder to solve. In this inaugural lecture, I will explore how modern econometrics can help us make sense of this complexity.
Traditional econometrics has developed powerful tools to deal with time, but struggles when faced with the sheer number of relationships that shape real-world problems. By contrast, machine learning and artificial intelligence excel at handling complexity, yet fall short when it comes to incorporating time. I will argue that the future lies in combining the strengths of both worlds. This fusion – what I call Econometric Intelligence – opens up exciting possibilities for extracting trustworthy insights from data and shedding light on some of the most pressing problems of our time.
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