Editorial: Overview of the current issue

Fulbright Review of Economics and Policy

ISSN: 2635-0173

Article publication date: 6 December 2023

Issue publication date: 6 December 2023

450

Citation

Tran-Nam, B., Le-Van, C., Pham-Hoang, V. and Le, T.-H. (2023), "Editorial: Overview of the current issue", Fulbright Review of Economics and Policy, Vol. 3 No. 2, pp. 77-86. https://doi.org/10.1108/FREP-11-2023-074

Publisher

:

Emerald Publishing Limited

Copyright © 2023, Binh Tran-Nam, Cuong Le-Van, Van Pham-Hoang and Thai-Ha Le

License

Published in Fulbright Review of Economics and Policy. Published by Emerald Publishing Limited. This article is published under the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY 4.0) licence. Anyone may reproduce, distribute, translate and create derivative works of this article (for both commercial and non-commercial purposes), subject to full attribution to the original publication and authors. The full terms of this licence may be seen at http://creativecommons.org/licences/by/4.0/legalcode


1. Introduction

The untimely passing of Professor Ngo Van Long [1] in Montreal on January 15, 2022, has left the field of economics bereft of a world-class theorist. It has been an immense loss to the economics profession and his friends, and it has left a deep void in the hearts of his family. Notably, Professor Long’s demise has been deeply mourned by the international community of Vietnam-born economists. This issue of the Fulbright Review of Economics and Policy is dedicated to celebrating his contributions to economic theory. It is edited by four co-editors, one of whom is a former student of Professor Long (Tran-Nam). The contributors to this issue include a select group of his friends, colleagues, co-authors, former graduate students and mentees from around the world.

The rest of this overview is organized as follows: Section 2 provides a biographical sketch of Professor Long [2]. Section 3 discusses his contributions to economic theory. The subsequent section briefly considers Professor Long in his role as a scholar, mentor and person. Section 4 introduces the 11 papers included in this issue, concluding with acknowledgments.

2. Biographical sketch

Professor Long was born in Quảng Bình in 1948 and raised by his mother and grandparents in the former imperial city of Huế. He attended Quốc Học, the most prestigious high school in Huế, specializing in literature and philosophy in the last three years of school. He became valedictorian of Quốc Học after winning two National High School Competition Prizes (in French and Philosophy). In late 1967, he came to Australia to study economics as the top student on the list of 1967 Colombo Plan scholarship holders from South Vietnam.

Professor Long continued his academic excellence in Australia. He graduated with first-class honors in economics and the university medal from La Trobe University in 1971. He was then offered a scholarship from the Australian National University (ANU) to undertake a PhD study entitled “International borrowing for resource extraction” under the supervision of Professor John Pitchford. Following his PhD graduation in 1975 with the Sir John Crawford Prize for best doctoral dissertation at ANU, he was appointed as a lecturer at the Department of Economics of ANU, which was then the most powerful economics department in Australia. ANU became his academic home, where he garnered a full professorship in 1987. During his time at ANU, he established a close working relationship with Research Professor Murray Kemp of the University of New South Wales, Australia’s most prominent economic theorist in a generation [3]. Their working relationship became one of the most prolific and celebrated collaborations in economic theory [4].

In 1989, he and his family emigrated to Canada, where he was appointed as a full-time Professor of Economics at McGill University. For 20 years since 2003, he has held the James McGill Chair of Economics in recognition of his outstanding academic accomplishments. He taught a wide range of courses, including international trade, open economy macroeconomics, resources and environmental economics, microeconomics, dynamic optimization, differential games, etc.

During his long and illustrious career, Professor Long was invited to teach and conduct research at leading universities around the world, including Harvard (USA), Carleton (Canada), Aix-Marseille, Montpellier and Toulouse (France), Mannheim, Munich and Kiel Institute for the World Economy (Germany), the Center for Operations Research and Econometrics (CORE, Belgium), Tilburg (the Netherlands), the Vienna Institute for Advanced Studies (Austria), Adelaide, ANU (as a Fred Gruen Fellow), Monash, Sydney, Tasmania and UNSW Sydney (Australia), Otago (New Zealand), the National University of Singapore, Academia Sinica (Taiwan) and Hitotsubashi and Kobe (Japan). These visits led to a large number of joint papers with a diverse set of co-authors on a wide range of subjects [5].

Professor Long was a prolific scholar and published more than 200 journal articles, with an impressive h-index of 52, about 70 book chapters and eight books, not counting one under preparation at the time of his untimely passing (Sinn, 2022; Richardson & Tran-Nam, 2022). He published in the top general-interest economics journals including Econometrica, Quarterly Journal of Economics and Review of Economic Studies, [6] Canadian Journal of Economics, Economic Journal, Economic Record and European Economic Review and top economics field journals including Economic Theory, Games and Economic Behavior, International Economic Review, Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization, Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Journal of Economic Theory, International Journal of Industrial Organization, Journal of International Economics, Journal of Public Economics and RAND Journal of Economics. He also successfully supervised numerous MA and PhD graduates, and his research was funded by external, competitive grants every year since 1995.

Professor Long made significant editorial contributions in the field of economics. He served as the co-editor of esteemed journals like the Canadian Journal of Economics and Resource and Energy Economics. Additionally, he held positions as an associate editor for the Journal of International Economics, the International Game Theory Review, the Journal of Public Economic Theory and the Review of International Economics. His involvement extended to advisory roles, including membership on the editorial boards of the Australian Economics Papers. European Journal of Political Economy, Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Mathematical Social Sciences, Pacific Economic Review and Review of Development Economics and the advisory board of Dynamic Games and Applications. Professor Long's scholarly influence also extended to his fellowship status with prestigious institutions, including CESifo, the Center Interuniversitaire de Recherche en Analyse des Organizations (CIRANO), the Center Interuniversitaire de Recherche en Économie Quantitative (CIREQ) and the Global Environmental and Climate Change Center (GEC3).

For his remarkable achievements, Professor Long received several notable awards and distinctions, including the Distinguished Alumnus Award from the College of Economics and Business at ANU in 2005, the Award for Distinction in Research from McGill University's Faculty of Arts in 2010, the title of Research Professor at the Ifo Institute from 2011 to 2022 and an Honorary Professorship at the Crawford School of Public Policy at ANU from 2016 to 2022. In his nomination letter for the Award for Distinction in Research in the Faculty of Arts at McGill University in 2010, Professor Bill Watson, Economics Department Head, noted, “the IDEAS indicator of impact and publication statistics ranks [Long] in the top 2.2% of over 22,000 economists, which puts [him] in the distinguished company of Nobel Prize winners … Long’s work combines the discipline and rigor of mathematical modeling with a capacious curiosity, endless energy, and remarkable sociability as a researcher [7].”

3. Contributions to economic theory

Professor Long was a highly influential, general-equilibrium economist who followed in the Samuelsonian tradition. His primary expertise lies in what can be characterized as economic dynamics (Turnovsky, 2022). Utilizing a combination of superior mathematical techniques and a profound grasp of economic theory, he applied his technical skills to a wide range of important economic issues, spanning the entire spectrum from mathematical economics and economic theory to empirical economics. In the last five years of his life, he also demonstrated a keen interest in ethics from the perspectives of economics and sociology.

While his peers widely perceived him as an economic theorist, Professor Long described himself as an applied economist, despite having little interest in numerical data (Sinn, 2022). Borrowing René Thom's argument [8], Professor Long indeed embodied an applied economist in the sense that, thanks to his deep understanding of economic theory, he was able to construct formal models that capture the economic essence of real-life problems under study. His robust propositions could, therefore, be harnessed to guide real-world policymaking.

Professor Long made significant and lasting contributions to four interconnected areas of economics: natural resources and environmental economics, international trade, the theory of dynamic games and dynamic optimization and applied microeconomic theory (particularly industrial organization theory and public economics). Since these contributions have been well discussed elsewhere (see Tran-Nam, 2008; Benchekroun, 2022; Sinn, 2022), it suffices to briefly highlight some key aspects of his contributions in these areas.

Professor Long’s early works revolved around crucial economic issues related to resource exhaustibility and renewability. He and Professor Kemp explored various facets of natural resources, including uncertainty about the size of the resource stock; optimal strategies for search, extraction and consumption of resources; sustainability and survival; and the optimal harvesting of renewable resources (Tran-Nam, 2008, pp. 172–3). While Professor Long did not directly delve into environmental policy or climate change in his early work, the implications of his research were evident. His notable contributions in this area included the Green Paradox [9], which was based on his earlier study (Long, 1975) and a joint study with Professor Hans-Werner Sinn (Long & Sinn, 1985). More recently, Professor Long shifted his attention to environmental issues, particularly energy policy and renewable resources in the context of climate change. Professor Long’s research played a fundamental role in advancing our understanding of how economic activities interact with natural resources and the environment.

Professor Long made important contributions to various international economic issues, including trade and endogenous growth, trade in the presence of labor unions, lobbying, infant industry protection, the political economy of customs duties, outsourcing, government procurement, foreign aid, immigration, trade and income inequality and the international debt crisis (Sinn, 2022). His best-known contribution to international trade is perhaps his joint research with Professor Murray Kemp on trade with exhaustible resources (see, for example, Kemp & Long, 1979a, 1984a, b). Interestingly, in a little-known and under-appreciated work, Kemp and Long (1979b) provided one of the earliest (if not the earliest) examples of Pareto inferior uncompensated trade, using a model that incorporates overlapping generations and exhaustible resources.

Professor Long was a pioneer in extending dynamic economic theory to analyze strategic interactions and decision-making processes. He applied these tools to study diverse issues, some of which were mentioned above, including resource sustainability, the transition to clean energy sources, the sustainability of climate agreements, intergenerational equity, the transmission of social norms and the promotion of cooperation (Benchekroun, 2022). His work in this area has greatly enriched the fields of game theory and dynamic optimization, and his findings have been of particular interest to scholars in public economics.

In addition, Professor Long also made notable contributions to the field of applied microeconomics. A representative selection of his research publications in this expansive domain covered diverse topics such as monopolistic and oligopoly theory, vertical integration, mergers, on-the-job training, the accumulation of specific human capital, the brain drain phenomenon, voluntary contributions to public goods, taxation and the evaluation of social income in a dynamic economy. His research had practical implications for comprehending market dynamics and shaping public policy.

Professor Long was also a builder of the discipline in view of his knowledge dissemination via the publication of several consequential books throughout his career. For example, his two North-Holland books with Professor Kemp (Kemp & Long, 1980, 1984b) served as landmarks, containing path-breaking expositions of exhaustible recourses and encouraging many other scholars to follow in their footsteps. Two of his later books, published by Cambridge University Press, have been recognized as the authority in dynamic optimization (Leonard & Long, 1992) and differential games (Dockner, Jorgensen, Long, & Sorger, 2000). They are valuable textbooks and reading references for students and researchers who seek to acquire the appropriate technical skills. As pointed out in a tribute by his McGill colleague, these books reflect his many personal attributes: concise presentation, rigorous treatment, state-of-the-art and sophisticated technical materials and accessibility to graduate students and early career researchers (Benchekroun, 2022).

4. A scholar, a mentor and a person

4.1 A scholar

To appreciate Professor Long’s academic achievements, it is essential to delve into the myriad of his scholarly qualities. First and foremost, following the tradition of the mathematical school of economics, he consistently upheld a high level of rigor in his thought, modeling and conceptualization. This unwavering dedication to intellectual rigor formed the bedrock of his scholarly endeavors. It has been noted that “[h]is analyses were always rigorous, based on tightly specified theoretical models, using state-of-the-art techniques.” (Turnovsky, 2022).

Secondly, Professor Long’s commitment to research was unparalleled [10]. His work ethic and innate talent made him such a daunting collaborator. One of his numerous co-authors mentioned sending a draft to Professor Long, expecting a couple of weeks before revisiting it, only to receive an email the next morning with the paper corrected, expanded and improved (Richardson & Tran-Nam, 2022, p. 245)! His dedication persisted even as he approached his final days. Remarkably, he continued to write almost until his very last day, completing journal articles and book chapters to fulfill his various academic obligations.

Thirdly, Professor Long exhibited an expansive reading habit and an insatiable intellectual curiosity, both within and beyond economics. This naturally led to the continual expansion of the scope of his academic research (Richardson & Tran-Nam, 2022, p. 254). A good example is the array of interdisciplinary references cited in his work on Kantian and Nashian behavioral economics.

Lastly, he championed a holistic research approach, highlighting the interconnected nature of economics’ various domains. His McGill University bio published in 2018 cited his research covering a wide range of issues in microeconomic theory with specialization in four separate but related fields of economics, stressing their complementarity and intersections: resources and environmental economics (field 1), theory of international trade (field 2), theory of dynamic optimization and dynamic games in economics (field 3), theory of industrial organization (field 4).

Since 1973, he has consistently published in these areas, often emphasizing their interconnectedness. He stated:

I believe that knowledge should not be compartmentalized, and I encourage my students to work across fields rather than in a single field. For example, in the study of pricing by internet service providers (field 4), dynamic games (field 3) are crucial to the analysis. Similarly, the strategies for resource-rich nations (field 1) would be best understood in the context of increasing world trade (field 2). In studying the effects of trade on income inequality, one cannot ignore the investment in human capital, which is inherently a dynamic process (field 3) [11].”

4.2 A teacher and mentor

It is well known that Professor Long was an inspiring educator and mentor. He played a pivotal role in the academic development of numerous Master's and PhD graduates and early-career researchers, underscoring his commitment to nurturing the next generation of economists. When he was selected to the ANU Faculty of Economics & Commerce Distinguished Alumni Hall of Fame in October 2005, for a statement on his career philosophy, he wrote: “My greatest interest is the search for knowledge. This is followed by spreading knowledge and preserving knowledge. It is a pleasure to be a mentor of young scholars, to encourage them to do research and publish the results of their research. In my teaching, I encourage students to ask questions and to think for themselves.”

This emphasis on mentorship resonates universally, as evidenced by various testimonies. For example,

He was always very generous in many different ways, including as a fine mentor to his younger colleagues at McGill (Turnovsky, 2022);

He was always approachable; in scientific events he would socialize mostly with junior colleagues and graduate students offering gentle advice and encouragement (Benchekroun, 2022); and

During these contacts he always interacted intensely with the faculty and the students, providing valuable inspiration to their work (Sinn, 2022).

Not only did Professor Long contribute to the international academic community, but he also showed a strong commitment to helping young Vietnam-born economists. He accepted an invitation to join the International Society of Vietnam Economists (ISVE) from its inception, serving as a founding member and a member of the Board of Executives. His academic reputation greatly contributed to the successful development of ISVE. Additionally, he twice served as a keynote speaker at the Vietnam Economists Annual Meetings. His Vietnam-born former students and young colleagues who had the opportunity to meet him in person received his support and described him as an excellent teacher and mentor.

4.3 A person

Professor Long, with his subtle humor and kind and gentle nature, deeply touched all who knew him. While he may have initially appeared reserved, a deeper connection revealed a warm and friendly personality. Despite his immense intellectual stature, he remained remarkably humble, always conducting himself with politeness and friendliness and perpetually adorned with a warm smile. As one of his colleagues at McGill put it, Professor Long “would never point to a mistake made by his co-author or by a speaker in a seminar but, rather, ask if a given approach is sound, or ask for clarification. Since his doubts would inevitably end up being found, one cannot help but assume he knew all along that he was right” (Benchekroun, 2022).

Professor Long embarked on a lifelong journey of companionship when he met his beloved wife, Kim Chau, during his undergraduate years at La Trobe University. Together, they had a daughter, Chi and a son, Bach. While Professor Long was not good at household chores, he was nonetheless a devoted family man, constantly traveling with his family to explore diverse corners and cultures around the world (Sinn, 2022). He also occasionally returned to Vietnam, giving free, invited lectures and taking the opportunity to visit family graves.

His daughter, Ngo Chi Long, offered a glimpse of his personal family life at a workshop dinner held in his memory in Montreal in September 2022 [12]:

My earliest memories of Dad are of him sitting in a corner with pen and paper, deep in thought scribbling away. When he had neither pen, paper, nor chair or corner, he could stand still in the middle of a shopping mall, or in the aisle of a supermarket, and continue to do what he loved the most inside his head. He could do this for hours on end, perfectly happy in this self-contained universe. As a family man, it meant he could accompany us on all kinds of outings, without ever complaining, because he was never waiting for time to pass, every moment was an opportunity to think. I never grasped exactly what he was thinking about, but he would call it his economics. And so it became a well-repeated phrase at home: Where is dad? Oh, he’s doing his economics.

Maybe house chores were not one of his fortes, but Dad was the best when it came to morning toast, spaghetti and cheese, and omelets. His cooking repertoire may not have been large, but he knew how to keep his kids happy.

He was very good at all things artsy and crafty.

He would patiently braid my hair for school every morning. Not just one simple braid, he could do French braids, Dutch braids, two braids, five braids, whatever I dreamed up the night before, he would make it happen on my head. He was also responsible for Mum’s hairdos too. Where did he learn all these skills prior to the age of YouTube tutorials?

He taught us how to draw, how to make a million ingenious things out of cardboard, glue and scissors. He would participate in our school projects, make maquettes and create three-dimensional geometric forms for maths class. He was our full-time homework tutor, always curious about what we were learning at school. Whichever books we had to read at school, he would read as well, so we could exchange about it.

He would later make elaborate pop-up collage birthday cards for his grand-daughter, Bambou - my daughter-, complete with drawings and riddles to solve. It would take the entire evening for the adults to figure out the enigma, the answer usually emerging around tea and birthday cake time.

Dad was a lover of poetry and literature. I believe he even practiced writing his own poetry. He had a deep appreciation for music, even if he never had any training of his own. He would accompany me with devotion to my music lessons and concerts, and sit and “do his economics” whilst I practiced.

A poignant insight into Professor Long’s indomitable spirit facing his terminal leukemia can be found in a private email from his wife to two co-editors, Le-Van and Tran-Nam. She wrote: “Long passed away peacefully, with full awareness and his trademark serenity, until his last breath … He was a source of support for me, Chi, Bach, and Bambou [13], helping us maintain our physical health, hope, and positivity over the past eight months with his gentle smile and unwavering work ethic, unshakable optimism and philosophical composure before his passing.” Note that Professor Long was able to maintain his awareness until the end as he chose not to take painkillers or sedatives.

In summary, Professor Long’s profound contributions to economics and his lasting impact on the discipline will always be remembered. His commitment to research, mentorship, editorial work and engagement with academic institutions and organizations continue to inspire and shape the future of economics. The co-editors invite readers to join them in acknowledging and celebrating the life and accomplishments of Ngo Van Long, a distinguished economic theorist, a true gentleman and a scholar of the finest tradition.

5. Organization of the remainder of the issue

The collection of papers in this volume touches on topics and themes on which Professor Long has made a lasting impact. The first two papers are in the areas of environmental and resource economics. In an empirical analysis Jean-Alain Heraud, Phu Nguyen-Van and Thi Kim Cuong Pham find that environmental quality, public services and security affect perceived well-being in the Strasbourg metropolitan area, France. These effects vary by income level, with higher-income individuals tending to be dissatisfied with environmental quality. This paper extends Professor Long’s work on environmental policy by linking the quality and the well-being of individuals.

In celebration of Professor Long’s work on climate change and environmental policy, Chu Hoang Long estimates emissions of greenhouse gases (GHG) from rice production by Vietnamese households in Vietnam using the Vietnam Household Living Standards Survey (VHLSS) from 2018. Calculations of household profit per unit of GHG allow him to construct a marginal abatement cost curve (MACC). Using the MACC, the paper argues that the imposition of a carbon tax can reduce emissions from the least efficient producers, which are those with the lowest profit per unit of emissions.

Professor Ngo Van Long has made numerous contributions in the area of international trade and its relationship to productivity and growth. The next three papers honor him in these areas. Tsuyoshi Shinozaki, Makoto Tawada and Mitsuyoshi Yanagihara characterize the symmetry-breaking equilibrium in international trade. In their model of trading economies, the existence of a unique symmetry equilibrium versus a symmetry-breaking equilibrium in domestic policies depends on the properties of the countries’ production function. Pham Thi Bich Ngoc, Pham Thi Hoa Tien, Pham Dinh Long and Huynh Quoc Vu study the relationship between total factor productivity and outsourcing activity in small and medium-sized firms in Vietnam. The authors find that firms that engage in outsourcing are more productive than those without outsourcing activities. The gain in productivity increases with spending on outsourcing. Minh Ngoc Le and Hoang Long Chu look at the association between standards compliance and participation in the global value chain. Also using Vietnam’s small and medium-sized enterprises survey, they found that compliance with standards was associated with participation in the global value chain via subcontracts with FDI multinational firms. They also found that standards compliance was associated with higher value-added labor. Based on these results, the authors argue that firms are better off with more compliance with standards.

The next two papers remember Professor Ngo Van Long’s expertise in dynamic optimization and dynamic games. Cuong Le-Van and Binh Tran-Nam analyze policies such as public spending, debt and the COVID-19 shock from the lens of different neoclassical growth models: Harrod-Domar, Solow and Ramsey. Raouf Boucekkine, Carmen Camacho, Weihua Ruan and Benteng Zou contributed a paper on optimal coalition splitting. In the context of a group of countries in a coalition managing a stock of pollution, the authors characterize the conditions under which a country chooses to split from the coalition using the framework of a multi-stage differential game. They highlight the implications for long-term pollution levels and the duration of coalitions.

Celebrating Professor Long’s many contributions to applied microeconomics, Mai-Huong Vo, Ngoc-Anh Nguyen, Estelle Dauchy and Nuong Nguyen use retailer data in Vietnam to estimate cigarette tax pass-through. Comparing the differential price responses of domestic cigarettes and illicit cigarettes following a big increase in the excise tax in 2019. The authors find that a larger tax burden falls on low-priced brand smokers compared to premium brand smokers. There is also evidence of cushioning behavior shown in the gradual price increases over a period of one year after the tax increase.

Cuong Le-Van, Ngoc-Anh Nguyen, Ngoc-Minh Nguyen and Phu Nguyen-Van focus on corruption, a topic to which Professor Long contributed a number of papers. The authors argue that capital diversion in Vietnamese state-owned enterprises is a special form of bribery they call “hidden overhead”. Using a stochastic frontier production model applied to a panel data set of over 10,000 state-owned enterprises from 2010–2018, the authors estimate a capital diversion rate of 69% on average in state-owned enterprises and call for reforms in the sector.

The last two papers remember Professor Ngo Van Long’s work incorporating the concepts of duty and morality into economic models, particularly his introduction of the Kant-Nash equilibrium in different contexts. Van H. Pham extends Professor Long’s (2016) analysis of quantity-setting oligopolistic firms to labor markets with adult and child workers. In this case, Kantian behavior in the output market can spill over into the labor market in a negative way, lowering wages and possibly increasing the incidence of child labor. If firms follow a Kantian norm directly in the labor market by not hiring child workers, adult wage rises but could lower child wage as children if they can only work for Nashian firms. When labor demand is sufficiently high, more Kantians could raise adult wages above subsistence and eliminate child labor.

Finally, Binh Tran-Nam applies the concepts of Kantian and Nashian behavior in the context of tax audits. Nashian taxpayers seek to minimize payments by paying a bribe lower than the audit penalties and Nashian tax auditors maximize income through the extraction of bribes. The paper introduces the possible existence of “conditional Kantian” taxpayers who pay a bribe if the potential penalties exceed some threshold and tax auditors who accept bribes if they exceed some threshold. The incidence of tax corruption is affected by both institutional factors and behavioral factors.

These eleven papers are nowhere near enough to represent the vast number of intellectual writings of Professor Ngo Van Long. The authors honor him and know that Professor Long’s legacy lives on through his papers and the works that derive from them.

Notes

1.

Professor Long’s family name was Ngo, and his given name was Long. Outside of Vietnam, he continued to write his name according to the Vietnamese convention (family name first and given name last) so his family name to the western world was Long.

2.
3.

In many private conversations with one of the co-editors (Tran-Nam), Professor Kemp often confided that Professor Long was the best economist in Australia.

4.

For example, their collaboration in exhaustible resources yielded two edited books and over 30 journal articles and book chapters; see Tran-Nam (2008, p. 172).

5.

He had more than 85 co-authors (source: Professor Ngo Van Long’s CV downloaded from McGill University September 2022).

6.

Econometrica, Quarterly Journal of Economics and Review of Economic Studies belong to the 50 journals used by the Financial Times (FT) in compiling the FT Research rank, included in the Global MBA, EMBA and Online MBA rankings.

7.

Letter to Professor Ngo Van Long from the Committee on Research in the Faculty of Arts at McGill University notifying the unanimous decision to select him as the recipient of the 2010 Award for Distinction in Research.

8.

Professor René Thom (1982, pp. 10-11), a Fields Medal winner, defined applied mathematicians as those who can apply pure mathematics to solve real-world problems.

9.

The Green Paradox refers to the situation where government tax increases (similar to nationalization) on fossil fuels may incentivize resource owners to extract more in the short or medium term.

10.

Professor Long once said humorously in his CV, “I love the Canadian winter, especially when the temperature is around −30 °C. It is my most productive time of the year.” It reflected his natural optimism and focus to work under any climate or environment and also to encourage his family to embrace the good aspects of Montreal winter. This became a frequent joking “catchphrase” among his academic colleagues and students about him and his productivity outputs.

11.

Ngo Van Long’s CV, downloaded from McGill University, September 2022. In essence, Professor Long’s scholarship transcended the confines of traditional silos, embracing the interconnected tapestry of knowledge within economics and beyond. His legacy as a scholar will forever illuminate the path for future generations of economists and thinkers.

12.

Workshop in Memory of Professor Ngo Van Long (1948-2022) at CIRANO, Montreal, Canada, September 2022. https://www.gerad.ca/colloques/Workshop-NgoVanLong-2022/

13.

Bambou is Chi’s daughter.

References

Benchekroun, H. (2022). Ngo Van Long (1948–2022). McGill Economics in Memoriam. Available from: https://www.mcgill.ca/economics/people/history/ngo-van-long (accessed 18 February 2023).

Dockner, E. J., Steffen, J., Long, N. V., & Sorger, G. (2000). Differential games in economics and management science. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Kemp, M. C., & Long, N. V. (1979a). International trade with an exhaustible resource: A theorem of Rybczynski type. International Economic Review, 20(3), 671677.

Kemp, M. C., & Long, N. V. (1979b). The under-exploitation of natural resources: A model with overlapping generations. Economic Record, 55(150), 214221.

Kemp, M. C., & Long, N. V. (Eds) (1980), Exhaustible Resources, Optimality, and Trade. Amsterdam: North-Holland.

Kemp, M. C., & Long, N. V. (1984a). The role of natural resources in trade models. In R. W. Jones, & P. B. Kenen (Eds), Handbook of International Economics (Vol. I, pp. 367417). Amsterdam: North−Holland.

Kemp, M. C., & Long, N. V. (Eds) (1984b), Essays in the Economics of Exhaustible Resources. Amsterdam: North-Holland.

Leonard, D., & Long, N. V. (1992). Optimal Control theory and static optimization in economics. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Long, N. V. (1975). Resource extraction under the uncertainty about possible nationalization. Journal of Economic Theory, 10(1), 4253.

Long, N. V. (2016). Kant-Nash equilibria in a quantity-setting oligopoly. In P. von Mouche, & F. Quartieri (Eds), Equilibrium Theory for Cournot Oligopolies and Related Games (pp. 179201). Springer International Publishing.

Long, N. V., & Sinn, H. -W. (1985). Surprise price shift, tax changes and the supply behaviour of resource extracting firms. Australian Economic Papers, 24(45), 278289.

Richardson, M., & Tran-Nam, B. (2022). Vale Ngo Van Long. Economic Record, 98(321), 244246.

Sinn, H. W. (2022). Obituary in remembrance of Ngo Van Long, CESIfo Network. Available from: https://www.cesifo.org/en/network-member/long-ngo-van (accessed 31 August 2023).

Thom, R. (1982). The role of mathematics in present-day science. in L. J. Cohen, J. Los, H. Pfeiffer, & K.-P. Podewski (Eds), Logic, Methodology and Philosophy of Science VI (pp. 3-13). Amsterdam: North-Holland.

Tran-Nam, B. (2008). The contribution of Murray Kemp to the discipline of international trade and welfare economics. In B. Tran-Nam, N. V. Long, & M. Tawada (Eds), Globalization and Emerging Issues in Trade Theory and Policy (pp. 165191). Bingley: Emerald.

Tran-Nam, B., Le-Van, C., & Nguyen, N. A. (2022). Vale professor Ngo Van Long, a giant in the field of economics” (in Vietnamese), Khoa Hoc Phat Trien, 23 February. Available from: https://khoahocphattrien.vn/khoa-hoc/gia-biet-giao-su-ngo-van-long-cay-dai-thu-cua-nganh-kinh-te/20220223014937605p1c160.htm (accessed 18 February 2023).

Turnovsky, S. (2022). In memoriam: Ngo Van Long (1948–2022). Journal of Public Economic Theory, 24(2), 410.

Acknowledgements

The authors would like to take this opportunity to express their gratitude to Dr Le Viet Phu, Co-Editor-in-Chief of the Fulbright Review of Economics and Policy for inviting the authors to edit this issue in honor of Professor Ngo Van Long. The creation of a journal issue is truly a collaborative effort and can only come to fruition with significant time and effort from contributors, reviewers and editorial assistants. The authors extend their appreciation to each and every author and to the selfless efforts of all reviewers. Last, but certainly not least, the authors are also very grateful for the indispensable assistance provided by Do Truong Phuong Lam, Editorial Assistant and Purnima Joshi of the Emerald Peer Review team.

As an editorial item, this article has not been subject to double blind peer review.

Related articles