He sat in his hotel room and thought about what to do to kill time. He suddenly remembered that there was an invitation letter he had yet to respond to.
He remembered the words Professor Krugman said in the email. He hesitated for a while and finally sighed.
“Whatever, I have time to kill anyway, I’ll just go check it out.”
He was actually quite curious if the Lu Bewley model was as nutty as Krugman said it was.
The location for the conference was at a five-star hotel, and the invitation also included dinner and lunch vouchers. Even though Lu Zhou wasn’t interested in economics, he was interested in free food.
Lu Zhou got up and changed into his casual clothes. He called Wang Peng and asked him to get the car ready downstairs. He then took the elevator down and went outside.
Lu Zhou said, “Xinrui Hotel… A five-star hotel that was built recently. It’s quite far though.”
Lu Zhou was sitting in the backseat as he took out the invitation letter and read the address to Wang Peng.
Wang Peng reached out and tapped on the GPS navigation screen.
“Xinrui Hotel? It doesn’t seem to be that far, only a thirty-minute drive.”
Lu Zhou’s eyes felt droopy as he said, “I’m not in a hurry.”
“Is this another meeting?”
“Kind of, but I’m mainly going there for the food.”
“Okay then…”
…
Just like Wang Peng had estimated, after a thirty-minute drive, they arrived at the entrance of the Xinrui Hotel.
The worker standing at the entrance of the hotel took a look at Lu Zhou’s invitation letter. He then invited the two into the hotel.
Lu Zhou walked through the hotel lobby and looked at the decor and the people in the lobby.
He realized there wasn’t a single tourist here.
No wonder academia costs so much money, these economists are so extravagant with their conferences.
Not only is this a five-star hotel, but they seemed to have rented out the whole place for the conference.
Mathematics conferences, on the other hand, were often hosted in small meeting rooms. Even top conferences such as the ICM wouldn’t be hosted in such a luxurious venue.
Lu Zhou still remembered the last International Congress of Mathematicians conference in Rio de Janeiro. Even though the hotel wasn’t horrible, it was nowhere near a five-star resort.
No wonder mathematicians look down on economists. These economists use mathematical tools to create theories and attend these extravagant conferences!
Lu Zhou speculated that the reason this venue was held in such an extravagant place was that the conference organizer was sponsored by famous universities such as Aurora University and Kai University.
The local government and universities were happy to spend money to attract international scholars.
Just like the saying goes.
He who pays the piper calls the tune.
If this were before, international scholars would never come to a domestic conference like this.
But the academia environment had changed since then.
With the rise of China’s economy, more and more scholars and economists had become interested in China’s economic models. They were willing to research existing problems in the Chinese economy, as well as study what kind of impact China’s economy would have on the world…
From an objective point of view, being able to attract international scholars was a good thing.
After Lu Zhou went into the venue, he immediately went to the souvenirs booth and happily collected some free notebooks and pens from large investment banks.
These pens were not available for purchase, and rarely would people sell them. Thus, they were quite a collectible item.
Lu Zhou had always had the habit of collecting gifts from academic conferences. For him, this was a way of tracking his academic progress.
He hadn’t been attending as many conferences over the past few years.
Holding the free metal pen made Lu Zhou feel nostalgic.
Next to the souvenirs booth was the poster booth area.
Just like mathematics conferences, advanced topics were discussed in conference halls, while the poster area gave a chance for all scholars to show off their results.
Compared to giving a talk or a report, the barrier of entry for a poster booth was much lower. It was like a street vendor setting up shop next to a high-end mall. Most of the people here were master’s and PhD students. Anyone with a loud voice and an eye-catching poster would receive quite a lot of attention.
Even though an academic poster was inferior to other academic communication methods, this was still a very useful way to show off one’s work.
Lu Zhou looked around the dazzling poster stalls. He realized that even though he recognized the individual words and symbols on the posters, he didn’t understand what the poster was actually trying to say.
He was starting to get confused when he suddenly noticed a familiar-looking headline on a poster.
“… Lu Bewley model?”
Even though the poster was poorly done, the title was written there clearly.
A tall, skinny man standing in front of the poster noticed Lu Zhou, and he raised his eyebrows and asked, “You’re in this research area?”
Lu Zhou heard the young man and smiled.
“Sort of.”
“What a coincidence.” The young man smiled and reached out his hand as he said, “I’m Wisl, PhD student at Princeton, researching macroeconomics… More specifically, I’m researching economics models that are built using mathematical models. The Lu Bewley model is my research project!”
He had been standing here with his poster since the morning, but no one was interested in his poster.
He finally found someone who seemed to be interested in his poster, so he didn’t want Lu Zhou to leave.
However, Lu Zhou didn’t plan on leaving anyway.
The reason why he attended this conference was to find out if the Lu Bewley model was as significant as Krugman had claimed.
“Is the Lu Bewley model important?”
Even though Lu Zhou felt a little narcissistic asking this question, he couldn’t help but feel curious.
Lu Zhou was embarrassed to ask this question, but Wisl took that as Lu Zhou doubting the importance of this model. He stood up straight and began to explain.
“Of course! It’s one of the most important economics models in recent years! You’re in this research area, you should know about the Bewley model, right? The Lu Bewley model is a strong version of the Bewley model… Are you really in this research area? It sounds like you’re a layman.”
Lu Zhou looked at Wisl’s skeptical eyes and spoke.
“Of course, are you doubting me?”
“No, no.” Wisl waved his hand and said, “Actually, it’s fine if you don’t understand, since this is quite a cutting-edge research field. If you plan on learning about the Lu Bewley model, you should check out lecture hall 1.”
Lu Zhou: “Lecture hall 1?”
“That’s right. Professor Joseph Eugene Stiglitz, a Nobel Prize laureate, is speaking there. Surely you have heard about his Dixit-Stiglitz Model. He’s a theoretical researcher in symmetric information economics, but he also has profound insights regarding mathematical economics.”
For some reason, there was a hint of envy in Wisl’s voice, as if he wanted to attend the lecture instead of standing at his poster booth.
“Just go if you want to.” Lu Zhou looked around the empty poster booth and said, “There’s no one here anyway.”
“I can’t do that!” Wisl said, “If no one guards the poster booth, someone will take my poster away. That means I’ll be disqualified for the poster creativity award.”
“I’m sorry but… You plan on winning an award with this poster?” Lu Zhou looked at the horribly-drawn poster with his mouth wide open.
This looks more like an abstract art painting.
But for an academic poster…
It would be better if he just took a piece of blank paper and wrote a summary line by line.
However, Wisl wasn’t amused, and he stubbornly spoke, “What if I do win? You never know.”
Lu Zhou shook his head.
“Good luck then… I’m going to lecture hall 1.”
“Go ahead, you might not be able to get a seat… Oh yeah, I didn’t catch your name?” Wisl said to Lu Zhou, who was walking away from the poster booth.
Without looking back, Lu Zhou smiled and spoke.
“I’m Lu Zhou.”
Wisl: “…???”
