INSTITUTIONS  

Association of Southern European Economic Theorists (ASSET) is a group of 13 economics departments and economics research  centres situated in Spain, France, Greece, Italy, Portugal and Turkey. The purpose of the Association is to encourage the development among the participating centres of programmes of research into economic problems that meet international standards of quality in quantitative economics and econometrics. To this end, the group promotes exchanges of researchers and of ideas among institutions that are all based in Southern Europe. 

The Association had as its origin a Franco-Spanish collaboration that began in 1979 on the initiative of researchers attached to the universities of Aix-Marseille, Barcelona, Bilbao, Madrid, and Toulouse. Its activities received financial support from 1984 to 1986 within the framework of activities linked to Franco-Spanish cooperation, and subsequently obtained support, in 1987 and 1988, from the CNRS and the CAICYT. The Association which has also been the beneficiary of grants from a number of Universities, in particular, the Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales, received, for the period mid 1989 to mid 1993 funding within the framework of the SPES programme of the European Union which was then followed from 1994 by funding within the framework of Human Capital and Mobility Programme of the European Commission.

From October 1989 the Chairman of the Association was L.A. Gérard-Varet, Directeur d'Etudes EHESS, and Director of GREQAM at Marseilles. He was preceded by J.Urrutia, Professor at Juan Carlos University, Madrid. The Chairman of ASSET is assisted by a committee composed of representatives from the different centres :
D. Perez-Castrillo (Barcelona), J.R. Uriarte (Bilbao). M. Ivaldi (Toulouse), X.Calsamiglia (Barcelona), A. Kirman (Marseille),T. Kollintzas (Athens), R. Marimon (Florence), C. Seabra (Lisbon, University Nova), L.Modesto (Lisbon, Catholic University),  A. Villar (Alicante), M. Sertel (Istanbul) P. Garella (Bologna) 

Starting in 1997 ASSET was placed under the responsibility of  a president, elected for a period of two years by the ASSET committee seconded by a vice-president elected for a period of two years and destined to become president.  The secretary general elected for a period of four years by the ASSET committee is responsible for ensuring the administration of ASSET. L.A. Gerard Varet was the first President elected under this system. He was followed by Salvador Barbera and Alan Kirman has been president since October 2001. Semih Koray is the secretary-general and will hold that office until 2004. The two vice presidents elected in 2000 were Murat Sertel sadly deceased, and Tryphon Kollintzas who will become president in October 2003

Each year ASSET organises an international conference which brings together eighty to a hundred members from the participating centres. This conference established since 1986 is open to researchers working in a number of centres situated in the Mediterranean area, and also to those from outside this area shows signs of becoming the focal point in Southern Europe for scientific exchanges in economic theory and statistical methods in economics.

On the occasion of the annual ASSET conference a renowned economist is invited to present a paper. Since 1990 the speech which the invited speaker gives has become known as the Vilfredo Pareto lecture. The presenter is chosen by the local organisers

In addition there is an invited ASSET lecture which was inaugurated in 1993 and which from this year will be renamed the "Murat Sertel" lecture. The paper presented is by a member of the ASSET network. The presenter is chosen by the ASSET Organising Committee.

The organisations belonging to the Association have endeavoured to create an efficient means of communication within the international scientific community. Their endeavours gave rise, in February 1982, to a working paper series entitled "Southern European Economic Discussion Series" (SEEDS), which distributes the research findings of the members of ASSET to 250 Universities worldwide. More than 160 papers have been distrib
uted to date, and of these about three quarters have found their way, after their distribution to these Universities into first-class international journals.

Since 1997, Oxford University Press publishes and distributes monographs derived from research in economics and econometrics, undertaken by various members of the ASSET network. An ASSET editorial committee selects the volumes for publication.