Abstract Inaugural Lecture
The widespread use of the Internet and computer systems has led to a situation where data are available on almost everything. The volume and the level of detail of these data is something we considered to be impossible until a few years ago. Researchers in economics and business now have access to a new variety of data. Such data are often not directly comparable to the data that have historically been considered in econometrics. This brings opportunities and challenges for academic researchers, companies, and even econometrics as a field and as an educational program. All parties involved can, or even have to use these data to stay ahead of the competition.
Dennis obtained his doctorate cum laude in 2003 from the Erasmus University Rotterdam. He worked as an assistant professor at the Econometrics department of the EUR and since 2008 as an associate professor. Dennis Fok was elected by the TI students as Lecturer of the Year 2012-2013 in the Tinbergen Institute MPhil (research master) program.
Dennis’ main research interest is in the fields of Marketing and Applied Econometrics, including modeling choice, at an individual level as well as at an aggregated level, nonlinear panels and estimation based on simulation methods (classical as well as Bayesian inference). Fok emphasizes the development and application of new quantitative techniques for actual (business) problems. He is interested in modeling detailed (business) data on consumers and firms in order to gather strategic insights for firms, consumers, and policy makers. Dennis published in leading journals in econometrics, such as the Journal of Econometrics and the Journal of Applied Econometrics and in top journals in the domain of quantitative marketing.