Curriculum Vitae: John Fountain

2006

 

Personal Details

Name                                               John Andrew Fountain

Citizenship                                     New Zealand/Canadian (dual)

 

Contact Information

E-mail                                             john.fountain@canterbury.ac.nz

WebPage                                         www.econ.canterbury.ac.nz/personal_pages/john_fountain

UCTV

 

Postal Address: home                   # 8 The Terrace

                                                         RD 1 Lyttleton

                                                         New Zealand 8033

 

Postal Address: work                    Economics Department, University of Canterbury

                                                         Private Bag 4800

                                                         Christchurch, New Zealand

 

Telephone                                       64-3-3299144 (home)

                                                         64-3-3642849 (work)

 

Fax                                                  64-3-3642635 (work)

 

Academic Qualifications

 

PhD (1976)	Economics		Stanford University, Stanford, California, U.S.A.
MA. (1971)	Economics		Stanford University, Stanford, California, U.S.A.
BA. (Honours) (1969)	Economics		University of British Columbia, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada

Experience

Academic Positions

• Senior Lecturer in Economics, 1980-present, University of Canterbury. Christchurch, New Zealand
• Visiting Assistant Professor in Economics, 1978-1979, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC.,Canada
• Lecturer in Economics, 1976-1978, Canterbury University, Christchurch, New Zealand
• Assistant Professor of Economics, 1974-1975, QueenÕs University, Kingston, Ontario, Canada

 

General overview of my academic , business, and community experience

My academic experience currently involves teaching courses and supervising graduate students in health economics and game theory. During my career I have also taught undergrad and grad courses in microeconomics, introductory economics, history of economic thought, public choice/finance, trade theory, experimental economics, and supervised a wide range of theoretical, institutional and empirical research projects for graduate students at the University of Canterbury.

 

My current teaching and research interests are:

• Experimental economics
• Operational subjective (de Finetti) statistical methods and Bayesian decision theory
• Health economics (including history or medical science and technology, risk measurement/assessment and contractual/governance issues)
• Microeconomic theory and  game theory
• Public and institutional economics (public choice, public finance, organisational economics, regulation, governance)

 

I have made an intellectual contribution (reports and books) to four important policy areas in New Zealand:

• Helping Treasury to prepare their submission to the Royal Commission on Broadcasting in 1984.
• analysing and developing property rights systems in the radio spectrum in New Zealand with the Communications division of the Ministry of Commerce,
• assessing the possibilities for competitive versus regulated telecommunications markets in the policy reforms leading to the dissolution of the then ( circa 1987)  highly centralised NZPO
• analysing the pharmaceutical subsidy system (Pharmac) in New Zealand that developed out of the health reforms of the early 1990Õs.

I have also a limited amount of successful business experience as well as community contributions:

• I was a co-founder of MagnumMac, NZ, a company which grew out of our leadership in the Apple user group at the University of Canterbury in the late 1980Õs.
• I helped form the Canterbury Osteoporosis Society (now a national body) with Dr Nigel Gilchrist and others in the early 1990Õs and for several years wrote and published the society newsletter.

 

Grants, awards and recent seminar activity: I hold the University Medal in Arts and Science from UBC (1969) .. Recent grants I have received include Wolfram Visiting Scholar Grant (2000), University of Cantebrury teaching Conference Grant (2003), University of Canterbury Erskine Grant (2003). I also have nearly 15 years of experience with Mathematica  in my teaching and research . I regularly present seminars at overseas universities and workshops including conferences specialized in Bayesian Statistics (Valencia 7, 2002) , and Experimental economics (Experimental Science Association Manheim 1998, Tuscon 2004) as well as general economics conferences (Western economics Association 2001, American Economics Association 1996). On my Erskine Leave, April 20003, I presented 4 different seminars on a range of topics in 5 major universities in North America (UC San Diego, University of South Carolina, McMaster University, University of Calgary, and University of British Columbia).

 

Recent Seminars/Conference presentations

Nov 2000	Wolfram Mathematica Research Centre, Indiana	Simulating market assessments of elicited beliefs using scoring rules in Mathematica
March 2001	University of Canterbury (Econ)	Measuring  Risk Relatively
June 01	Western Economics Association	Measuring  Risk Relatively
June 02	Valencia 7 Selected Contributed Papers (Seventh Valencia International Meeting on Bayesian Statistics)	ÒEliciting Beliefs from Risk Averse Forecasters  Using a Log Scoring RuleÓ
March 03	University of Canterbury (Sociology)	ÒFractured bone health contracts: Anatomy of opportunism in Bone  health service contracting in Canterbury 1998-2001Ó
April 03	University of California at San Diego	Measuring  Risk Relatively 1
April 03	University of South Carolina	Eliciting Beliefs from Risk Averse Forecasters Using  a Scoring Rules"
April 03	MacMaster University	ÒEliciting Beliefs from Risk Averse Forecasters Using  Scoring Rules"
April 03	University of Calgary	ÒMeasuring Risk Relatively 2Ó
April 03	University of British Columbia	Bone Health Contracting in NZ
June 03	Christchurch School of Public medicine	Fractured bone health contracts: Anatomy of opportunism in Bone health service contracting in Canterbury 1998-2001
October 03	University of Auckland	Measuring Risk Relatively
November 04	NA Economic Science Association Conference (Tuscon)	Eliciting beliefs from risk averse forecasters using Logarithmic and Quadratic scoring rules
April 05	University of Canterbury (Econ)	In defense of improper scoring rules

 

 

Publications

books

Fountain, J (with P Borren and A Woodfield)	Money and Medicines: An Economic Analysis of Reference Pricing and Related Cost Containment Polices for Pharmaceuticals in New Zealand	Hazard Press October 1997, 270 pp
Fountain, J	Telecommunications in New Zealand: The Case for Reform	New Zealand Business Roundtable, Wellington, December 1987,

 

Published articles

Fountain, J	Interpreting the Odds: New ZealandÕs sports betting bookies as experts forecasters	in B Curtis (ed) Gambling in New Zealand (Dunmore Press, 2001)
Fountain, J	A Simple Graphical Proof of Arrow's Impossibility Theorem	New Zealand Economic Papers June 2000
Fountain, J	Betting on Predictive Hypotheses	Proceedings of the 7th Amsterdam Workshop on Experimental Economics August 1997
Fountain, J	Radio Spectrum Management: An Economic Critique of the Trustee Model	in C Veljanovski ed., Freedom in Broadcasting, IEA, Billings and Sons, Worcester, 1989,31 pp
Fountain, J	The Economics of Radio Spectrum Management: A Survey of the Literature,	Department of Trade and Industry, Wellington, May 1988, 61pp
Fountain, J	A Production Theory Perspective on Collective Choice Theory	Quarterly Journal of Economics, V 98, 1984, 673-691, 19pp
Fountain, J & K Suzumura	Collective Choice Rules Without the Pareto Principle	International Economic Review,, v 23, 1982, 299-308, 10pp
Fountain, J	Consumer Surplus When Preferences are Intransitive: Analysis and Interpretation	Econometrica, Vol 49 (2), March 1981, 379-394, 16pp
Fountain, J.	A Note on the Connection Between ConsumerÕs Surplus and Economic Rent	New Zealand Economic Papers, v 14, 1980, 121-127, 7pp
Fountain, J.	BowleyÕs Analysis of Bilateral Monopoly and SenÕs Liberal Paradox in Collective Choice Theory: A Note	Quarterly Journal of Economics, June 1980, 809-813, 5 pp
Fountain, J. & L. Young	An extension of the Composite Commodity Theorem	Quarterly Journal of Economics, March 1980, 413-416, 4pp
Fountain, J.	What Can the Regression Model of Human Judgement learn from Multi Attribute Decision Theory?	Theory and Decision, V 9, 1978, 109-114, 6pp

 

Work in progress @Oct 2009

I am currently involved with a large project on belief elicitation with Glen and Lisa's team:

Andersen, Steffen; Fountain, John; Harrison, Glenn W., and Rutström, E. Elisabet,
“Estimating Aversion to Uncertainty,” Working Paper 09-07, Department of
Economics, College of Business Administration, University of Central Florida, 2009

Andersen, Steffen; Fountain, John; Harrison, Glenn W., and
Rutström, E. Elisabet, “Estimating Subjective Probabilities,” Working Paper 09-01, Department
of Economics, College of Business Administration, University of Central Florida, 2009,

Andersen, Steffen; Fountain, John; Harrison, Glenn W., and
Rutström, E. Elisabet, “Eliciting Beliefs: Theory and experiemnts,” Working Paper 07-08, Department
of Economics, College of Business Administration, University of Central Florida, 2009,

Information and uncertainty

"Bayes theorem and Inverse Probability"by Dr John Fountain (permanent citation link to the online published article and source code at Wolfram)

This is an interactive graphical representation of complex mathematical relationships based on Mathematica with descriptive and explanatory text about using inverse probability (P(A|B) and P(B|A),) in scientific reasoning. The text of the article connects the interactive mathematica prgoram with Gird Gigerenzer's natural frequency approach to explaining and facilitating use of Bayes Theorem. Original sourcecode is available for downlaod and modification.

"Microeconomic Theory and the Kullback-Liebler Discrepancy: Some Remarkable Connections"
  by  John Fountain and Peter Kennedy, February 2004 (pdf  34 Kb) This paper has been submitted several times -referees have asked to extend the analysis to include other information measures and utility functions. I'm currently working on this with a new title "Information measurement as a consumer surplus calculation" . I have all the requisite theory done for the HARA general class of utility functions and associated information measures.

Belief Elicitation in the Lab,( presented at FUR XII, Rome , July 2006)  jointly with Glenn Harrison, E Rustrom, S Anderson

 A geometric exposition of Bayes Theorem : a short piece aimed for general audiences on a constructive approach to working with inverse probability and Bayes theorem (I have now completed and published the Wolfram interactive module that will go along with deeper explanatory text).

 The simple analytics of Critical Thinking using Simpson's paradox : (with Derek Chirnside UCTL) : a paper aimed at educators who wish to teach critical thinking skills to students who have limited quantitative skills, or for those who have extensive quantitative skills but really don't understand how to use them on their feet, in a seminar or discussion situation. The basic idea is simple, and starts with an example based on Dennis Lindley's exposition of Simpson's paradox - a treatment that seems to be better for everybody, but is actually worse for men and worse for women. Ie once disaggregation occurs (or conditioning on a relevant but omiited "variable") an empirically based argument that claims an effect (or lack of effect) of "this" on "that" can be systematically overturned. The paper offers a quick diagrammaticback-of-the-envelope type of method for developing the counter argument. While the geometry is fun, and the intuition straightforward, the key idea is to take critical thinking beyond platitudes or conceptual criticisms and show how to overturn empirical claims about marginal (or total) effects.

 Agnostic Inferences about Expected Utility Theory and its non-EU generalizations: a boundedly rational Bayesian approach This paper is based on my conference presentation at European ESA meetings , June 1998 , Mannheim Germany. I regard it as my best piece ever in terms of originality...but it's far too long for a journal article in todays times.

ÒMeasuring Risk RelativelyÓ This paper was been submitted to the AER, but the editor at the time (Preston MacAfee), while conceding it was interesting and novel , thought it would be too theory oriented for their audience. I've now extended the analysis from CARA to the general class of HARA utility functions used in finance.

 

Research Supervision

Honours research projects I have supervised (each Econ 480 research project is the equivalent of one full year course for an honours student)

 

Author	Project Title	Year
Shannon Tyler	Reviewing the reviewers:High Country PastoralLease policy 1948-1998
Daniel Brass	Anatomy of a High Country Land Contract
David Adair	The Truth About Drug Companies:a  critical economic review	2005
Matthew Clark	Is randomization in clinical trials an economically  efficient way of practicing evidence based medicine? (Matt withdrew from the hons program in August)	2004
Charlotte Hicks	Direct to Consumer Advertising of Prescription drugs in NZ	2003
Helen Griffin	Regulating contracts for Hi-tech Babies	2003
Katrina Lynne	Vaccines for meningococcal Disease in NZ: Are the benefits worth the costs?	2003
Wade Campbell	An economic pathology report on contracting for bone health services in New Zealand 1998-2001	2002
Scott Rainey	Going head to head with the TAB in the Super 12: can rational bettors using publicly available information out-predict the TAB sports betting bookies (Scott withdrew from the program in August)	2002
Margaret Austin	An economic analysis of the cost-benefit methods used for awarding  infertility contracts in New Zealand Margaret withdrew from the program in the second term	2001
Michael Drummond	Predicting individual behavior in Public Goods Experiments: an operational subjective approach	1998
Greg Taylor	Scoring Rule Assessment of Theories of Individual Decision Making	1997
Simon Paget	Measuring and Predicting Correlation in Risk attitudes	1996
William Chu	The Common Consequence Effect: Reassessing the Evidence	1995
Bruce MacFarlane	Incentives Frames and Risk Attitudes in the Loss Domain	1994
Jeremy Traylen	Tradeable Rights in the Radio Spectrum: A review of the New Zealand System	1993
Dean Morris	Are People Really Risk Seekers When Facing Losses?	1993
Tim Preston	Recycling in Christchurch	1992
Michael McCosker	An Experimental Test of Systematic Deviations from Rational Choices	1992
Joe Kaufman	Revising New ZealandÕs Copyright Laws: Should Parallel Importing Restrictions be Withdrawn?	1990
Stephen Curnow	Efficiency in the Broadcasting Industry	1990
Darrin Goulding	Review of the Commerce Act 1986: Does market dominance matter?	1989
Julian Manning	Cross subsidization in New Zealand Telecommunications: Definition Measurement Assessment	1988
S McDougal	Broadcasting in New Zealand: Monopoly versus Competition	1986
Michael Purves	Increased Competition and Decreased Regulation in New Zealand Telecommunications Industry: Lessons from Canadian Experience	1985
Marie King	The Ocean Shipping Arrangements of the New Zealand Meat Producers Board 1922-1982	1982

 

PhD supervision

After visiting Simon Fraser on sabbatical in 1999 I was approached by Ms Susan Baxter to be a co-supervisor for an interdisciplinary Phd Thesis she is undertaking at Simon Fraser University, Vancouver, Canada::Therapeutic equivalence in Context :An interdisciplinary analysis of restrictive formularies and their medical, economic, ethical, linguistic and socio-cultural subtext and implications for patients. Ms BaxterÕs approached me after reading Money and Medicines.Her thesis has been completed in 2006.

 

2009: I am an external committee member for David Rivenbark's PhD at University of Central Florida (with Glenn Harrison, Lisa Rutstrom, Richard Hoffler, and Michael Caputo (see link to UCF committee members here) The title of David's thesis is "UNCERTAINTY, IDENTITFICATION, AND PRIVACY:EXPERIMENTS IN INDIVIDUAL DECISION-MAKING
EXPERIMENTS IN INDIVIDUAL DECISION-MAKING" (click here for most recent proposal in detail)