In this Zoom interview, Dr. Fredj Jawadi speaks with Dr. Esfandiar Maasoumi about his academic journey and research contributions. Professor Maasoumi discusses his early education in Iran, his studies at the London School of Economics, and the influence of Professor Denis Sargan on his work.

The conversation spans a wide range of topics, including model misspecification, estimator properties, inequality, poverty, and well-being. He explains how his research interests evolved over time and how he integrated economic theory with econometric methods to better understand real-world issues.

Professor Maasoumi also reflects on his move from the UK to the US, his collaborations with prominent economists, and his long-standing role as editor of Econometric Reviews. The interview concludes with his thoughts on the evolution of econometrics, current challenges in the field, and advice for young researchers.

Chapters informations :

Q1. You were born in Iran and completed your early studies there. Later, you obtained your Master’s and PhD from the LSE. Could you tell us more about your background? Which professor or scholar had the most influence on you?

Q2. You prepared your PhD under the supervision of Professor Denis Sargan. Could you tell us more about your interactions with him? What memories have you kept from that experience?

Q3. Professor Sargan was more closely connected to Nagar’s work on finite moments, whereas your contributions in theoretical econometrics focus more on model misspecification, resampling, and estimators with infinite moments, etc. How did he perceive this shift in approach?

Q4. After beginning your academic career in the UK at the LSE and the University of Birmingham, you moved to the US. What motivated your decision to make that transition?

Q5. Your research interests span theoretical econometrics, financial econometrics, forecasting, information theory, policy evaluation and treatment effects, well-being, welfare, inequality, and poverty—with a focus on model uncertainty, estimator distribution, and inequality measurement among others. How did you develop this comprehensive research agenda?

Q6. You were among the first econometricians to explore model misspecification and estimator properties in the late 1970s. What was your main motivation at the time? How did your mixture estimators, as seen in your Econometrica (1978) and JoE (1980, 1986) papers, address these issues?

Q7. Your research also includes economic theory. What drew you to topics such as well-being, welfare, poverty, and inequality? What are the theoretical foundations of multidimensional well-being?

Q8. You’ve emphasized the importance of integrating econometric methods with economic theory to study inequality. How has this interdisciplinary approach enriched the analysis of economic disparities and informed policy-making?

Q9. Your work on multidimensional indices of inequality and well-being offers a broader view of societal welfare. How do these indices differ from unidimensional measures, and what are the key challenges in their construction and interpretation?

Q10. Your contributions to information theory have been significant, enabling you to test hypotheses related to dependence, goodness-of-fit, reversibility, and more. How did you become interested in this field?

Q11. In your collaborative work on information-theoretic and entropy methods, how have you integrated these concepts into econometric analysis? Could you share examples where this integration has led to notable insights or advancements?

Q12. Your work on measuring inequality has been very influential. What sparked your interest in this area, and why do you think it has had such a lasting impact?

Q13. Your research includes the development of generalized entropy measures for assessing income mobility across different demographics. What motivated this work, and how do these measures enhance our understanding of economic mobility compared to traditional metrics?

Q14. In your study on long-run inequality and stability among male-headed households, you applied generalized entropy measures. How do these measures deepen our understanding of income stability over time, and what were the key findings?

Q15. In your research on wage gaps between incumbents and newly hired employees, you employed entropic distances and stochastic dominance. What were the main findings regarding wage disparities, and how might these insights influence labor market policies?

Q16. Your use of Shannon entropy to quantify uncertainty and risk in economic disparity introduces a novel perspective. How does this approach differ from traditional measures like the Gini coefficient, and what are its implications for understanding inequality?

Q17. You’ve collaborated with notable scholars such as Jeff Racine and Clive Granger, particularly on nonlinear processes and nonparametric dependence analysis. How did these collaborations come about, and what were the key contributions?

Q18. How did your earlier work, such as your 1978 Econometrica paper, pave the way for future research—including work on big data and computational methods?

Q19. You developed entropy-based tests to detect nonlinear serial dependence in time series data. How do these tests improve upon existing methods, and in what contexts have they been especially effective?

Q20. Some of your papers on model uncertainty, shrinkage, and ridge estimation have not received as much attention. Why do you think these contributions were less cited or impactful?

Q21. What insights can we draw from your recent 2023 Econometric Reviews publication on stock price crashes?

Q22. You’ve been the editor of Econometric Reviews since 1987. How have you steered the journal’s direction to reflect evolving trends in econometrics? What challenges have you faced in maintaining its scholarly relevance and impact?

Q23. Over the course of your distinguished career, what major transformations have you observed in econometrics? How have these shifts influenced your own research focus?

Q24. Looking ahead, which emerging areas or methodologies in econometrics hold the most promise for advancing our understanding of economic phenomena? What key challenges do you foresee for researchers in the coming years?

Q25. What advice would you offer to young econometricians starting their careers, particularly in terms of choosing impactful research topics and adapting to new technological tools?