IER NEWSLETTER Vol. 4 (2016/2/29) 

 

My career as a scholar began late, when I entered the PhD program in economics at Cornell University in the United States at the age of 33 after leaving a steel company. After thinking of various ways to overcome my “three great hardships” of lacking a grounding in economics, poor English-language skills, and getting a late start at more than 30 years of age, I resolved that I would ask questions if there was anything I did not understand during a class. Even though I thought my classmates might get tired of it, I thought I could not afford to care what anybody else thought. However, about a month after courses began a number of students told me that they were glad I had asked questions about things they were wondering about but were afraid to ask. They encouraged me to keep asking questions. After that, I began to ask even more questions.

 

I was most fortunate to be able to meet Prof. Mike Waldman during my third year in the PhD program. After I enthusiastically explained to him my ideas for my PhD thesis, he said, “Your ideas are interesting. Have you written anything?” But when I showed him a rough draft of my thesis he said, “That’s no way to write an essay. You need to learn how to write an essay in English from the ground up.” This was near the end of my third year in the program. Thinking about my own age, I began to think that maybe I should give up on earning a PhD. I consulted with Mike about this, and he asked, “How old are you?” When I answered, “I just turned 36,” he let out a loud laugh. “You’re still young! When you said you thought you were too old, I thought maybe you were over 60 and just looked young. Rather than worrying about your age, I want you to rewrite these paragraphs of this rough draft by next week.” I saw then that it was never too late, and all I could do was keep moving forward.  After that, he taught me thoroughly on how to write an essay, word by word, line by line. I came to understand deeply that to write was to think, and to get a feel for both the importance and difficulty of identifying the logic and connotations behind a theoretical analysis and expressing them in plain language.

 

My five years at Cornell, where I was able somehow to overcome my “three great hardships” with the blessings of wonderful instructors and friends, were a truly irreplaceable experience in my life. I strive to teach my own students in ways that will enable me to pay back, if only a little, my indebtedness to Prof. Waldman.

 

 

 

3. Visitors

 

[Visiting and Adjunct Faculties]

Konosuke Odaka (Hitotsubashi University, Professor Emeritus)  From 2015/12/1 to 2016/3/31

Osamu Saito (Hitotsubashi University, Professor Emeritus) 2015/12/1 to 2016/3/31

Reiko Aoki (Kyushu University) 2015/4/2-2016/3/31