Nieuw Ekonometrisch Tijdschrift Volume 16, four th edition, June 2008
Interviews: Leo van Wijk, Willem Middelkoop and the founders of the TEV How attractive was alternative? Conference and drink
Summer edition: Summer photo contest and five specials
nekst
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S U M M E R VA C AT I O N ! P R E FA C E COLOP HON N e k s t i s t h e q u a r ter l y mag az i ne of the Ti lburg se Econometristen Ve reniging ©2008 Co r re s p o n d e n ce TE V/Nekst Ti lburg Uni ver si t y Room E110 P. O. B ox 9 0 1 5 3 5000 L E Ti lburg Telephone: 013 466 27 47 E-mai l: Nek st@ TE V. nl Homepag e: w w w. TE V. nl
Editorial staff R i k v an Beer s S er vaas van Bilsen Hettie Boonman Frans Fonv i lle Bas Hamer s G e o rgi o s Pe t ro p o u l o s Ti m Thi j ssen Annick Traa M ar i ek e v an der Ven
Towers Perrin houdt van mensen met liefde voor het vak Of je nu internationale carrièrewensen hebt, of het accent wilt leggen op een goede balans tussen privé en werk, bij Towers Perrin krijg je de ruimte. Als een van ’s werelds grootste adviesorganisaties voor people, risk en financial management, vinden we het belangrijk dat mensen zich kunnen ontplooien op een manier die bij hen past. Dé Towers Perrin consultant bestaat dan ook niet. Wat we wel gemeenschappelijk hebben is onze gedrevenheid en liefde voor het vak. Wil jij ook aan de slag in een uitdagende en prettige werkomgeving? Denk dan eens na over
een toekomst bij Towers Perrin. Op dit moment zijn we onder andere op zoek naar starters en actuarissen met minimaal 3 jaar ervaring. Meer vacatures vind je op onze website. Wil je meer weten? Ga naar www.100procentactuaris.nl of vraag de brochure over werken bij Towers Perrin aan bij Beatrijs van Rijckevorsel. Zij is te bereiken op telefoonnummer 020-711 41 36 of e-mail naar
[email protected].
Co ntr ibu tio n s To m Ac k e r m a n s M a r l e e n B a l ve r t R e m co B i e r b o o m s Marieke van Boekel Emile van Elen Manon Geertsen Pasc al Janssen Goos K ant Anouk Loonen Roel Mehlkopf Celi ne Netten N i cole v an R ei j Germain Rodriguez Stephan van Stalborch Bar t Ver sc hoor K im Weistra
This year’s work is now finished. The final issue of Nekst is out just in time to take it with you on vacation. Don’t forget it this year, because it contains not only special pieces and interviews with real celebrities, but you can also win money while on vacation! Do you want to find out how? Please check page 62 for the summer photo contest. You can also read about the interview two members of the editorial staff conducted with Mr. van Wijk, CEO of KLM. If that’s not enough econometrics in practice, then you should take a look at the business interviews with PricewaterhouseCoopers and SNS REAAL. There is also an informative interview with the founders of the TEV. Have you always wanted to know what the TEV’s favorite pub was or the destination of the first TEV excursion? And if you want an educational vacation this year, don’t miss the very interesting article on the theory of relativity, written by a real physicist, our own editor Georgios. Finally, I’d like to thank my editorial staff for all the work it took to change Nekst into English this year. They also did a great job professionalizing Nekst. Furthermore I’d like to wish my successor, Emile, the best of luck for next year. As you may have noticed, Emile had great front page designs this year. He has lots of new ideas, so I’m convinced that next year’s Nekst will contain lots of new and original things. But for now, have a nice holiday!
Marieke van der Ven Editor-in-chief
L ay- o u t & f ro nt p a g e R i k v an Beer s Emile van Elen Original design Sint Lu c a s @ wo r k Pr inting D r u k k e r i j O ffs e t S er v i ce
www.100procentactuaris.nl
Circulation 750
Nekst 4 - June 2008
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
01
Preface
05
Dear Members
ADVERTISEMENTS
07
Special: In n t e rvie e w L e o v a n W ijkk
Towers Perrin
cover
Watson Wyatt
5 6
11
Special: Interview with the founders of the TEV
All Options
13
Active Members Weekend
APG Investments
10
16
Bedrijfsinterview SNS REAAL
Zanders
18
19
Exchange report
ING Nationale-Nederlanden
22
21
Former Active Members day
Deloitte
28
23
Practical report
IMC
36
25
WBS Confe e r encc e 2 0 0 8
ORTEC
38
Achmea
44
27
Conference drink
PricewaterhouseCoopers
53
29
Wetenschappelijk artikel PGGM
Mercer
54
34
Excursion MarketResponse
Optiver
58
35
NITVA
De Nederlandsche Bank
63
37
Column
Ernst & Young
cover
39
Special: Einstein’s principle of relativity
SNS REAAL
cover
42
Special: Tilburg University Lustrum and The passion of...
45
Excursion Life Insurance
46
The teach h err
48
Economic Business week Tilburg
50
Bedrijfsinterview PricewaterhouseCoopers
55
Members day
56
Comittee profile: Business Research Program 2008
57
Opinion poll
59
Special: Interview with Willem Middelkoop
61
Puzzle
62
TEV on holiday
64
Quatsch!
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V [ c Y \ R Q c N [ U R a
_ V W T R Q _ N T c N [ W \ [ T R _ R [ \ ] Q R ] _ RZ V R c N [ U b [ N b a \ c R _ g R X R _ V [ T
DEAR MEMBERS, FROM THE BOARD
Advertentie Watson Wyatt At the beginning of the year some of our active members were still unfamiliar with the TEV. During the first months of their TEV career they were still trying to find their place within the organization. A few weeks ago the Active Members Weekend (AMW) took place, the weekend during which all active members of the TEV invaded Retie, a little village in Belgium. During this AMW we saw that active members have formed a solid group of enthusiastic, hard working, sociable and sometimes a little crazy TEV members. The AMW is not only a weekend full of fun and coziness, but also of traditions. These traditions vary from the presence of barbecue masters during the barbecue to drinking games such as ‘mexxen’ and ‘kingzen’, from a location in a very small town (also known as ‘toko’) to integration with the locals. But most of the traditions during an AMW concern me as chairman of the TEV. At some point during the night the chairman is traditionally flipped upside down together with his mattress and at the end of the weekend the chairman has to clean all the toilets. Even though these are not fun, these traditions make the TEV the TEV.
*EUGDIGE OVERMOED LEIDT NOGAL EENS TOT SCHADE AAN MENS EN MATERIEEL 6OOR EEN VERZEKERINGSMAATSCHAPPIJ ROEPT DAT VRAGEN OP )S ER VERSCHIL TUSSEN MANNEN EN VROUWEN TUSSEN DE ENE REGIO EN DE ANDERE "IJ 7ATSON 7YATT KIJKEN WE VERDER DAN DE CIJFERS $AT MAAKT ONS WERK ZO INTERESSANT 7ATSON 7YATT ADVISEERT WERELDWIJD OP HET GEBIED VAN @MENS EN KAPITAAL VERZEKERINGEN PENSIOENEN BELONINGSSTRUCTUREN EN INVESTERINGSSTRATEGIEÑN 7E WERKEN
VOOR TOONAANGEVENDE BEDRIJVEN WAAR MEE WE EEN HECHTE RELATIE OPBOUWEN /NZE MANIER VAN WERKEN IS OPEN GE
Although the TEV is currently in transition, the traditions mentioned earlier will make sure the TEV remains the TEV. In addition to our long-held traditions, the TEV is also characterized by its people. The TEV is and has always been supported by a solid group of enthusiastic, hard working, sociable and sometimes a little crazy students. This includes not only active members, but also econometricians who attend TEV activities and show interest in the TEV. People and traditions have made the TEV the association it is today and there is no reason to be afraid that the changes underway will change the identity of the TEV. Together we will make sure that everybody feels as connected to Asset |.Econometrics as they did to the TEV.
Name: Bart Verschoor Position: Chairman TEV board 2007-2008
Feit: Info
We would like to wish you all good luck with the upcoming exams and we hope to see you during the general members meeting on June 16 as well as during the soccer tournament and the announcement drink on June 17.
DREVEN EN INFORMEEL 7E ZIJN OP ZOEK NAAR STARTENDE EN ERVAREN MEDEWER KERS BIJ VOORKEUR MET EEN OPLEIDING !CTUARIAAT %CONOMETRIE OF TOEGEPASTE 7ISKUNDE +IJK VOOR MEER INFORMATIE OP WERKENBIJWATSONWYATTNL
faculty association Asset. By means of this amendment the name of our association shall change from TEV to Asset | Econometrics to show our merger into the faculty association and to make our target group clear to the TEV’s various contacts. Another change, about which you could have read in the last edition of Nekst, is the transformation of the TEV into an English-language association. These changes are important for the association’s daily affairs.
At the moment the TEV is undergoing several changes. During the general members meeting, which will take place on June 16, we will propose an amendment to the TEV articles which subsume the TEV within the
On behalf of the TEV board, Bart Verschoor Chairman TEV
7ATSON 7YATT :ET JE AAN HET DENKEN Nekst 4 - June 2008
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L E O VA N W I J K : A QUALITY QUANT SPECIAL: INTERVIEW WITH CHAIRMAN SKYTEAM
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Life is All about Options...
Nekst 4 - June 2008
7
Van Wijk explains. About the future of KLM within the SkyTeam Van Wijk is very clear. Right
now he is the chairman of the alliance because he is, with his 37 years of experience, the most seasoned person of all the directors. This is of course an advantage for KLM as a whole. Besides that KLM is the airline that, compared with the other partners, exists the longest. One reason for this could be that KLM has been a front runner since the beginning. A concrete example is the best joint venture in the world between KLM and Northwest Airlines which was established in the early nineties. Air Transport World wrote about it in 1997: ‘Northwest and KLM have transformed the very structure of the airline industry.’ “After the joint venture seemed to succeed, many airlines have tried to copy our success,
8
but they never reached what we have,” says Van Wijk proudly. Of course the great merger between Air France and KLM is a good example of the successful strategy of KLM. These strategies are also able to tackle other problems, like the increasing oil price and the low dollar. Five years ago about 8% of the total costs KLM had was for fuel, nowadays this is 35%. So in these years KLM had to change the whole conduct of business and they make other profit margins. But according to Van Wijk the lowest segment and the low-cost carriers of the aviation industry will be hurt most. “It is impossible for them to keep their prices as low as they were before. So then they have to raise their prices and the gap between us and them is not that big anymore. Thus less people will fly with low-cost carriers and therefore they have to raise their prices again. In the economy as we have today it is unavoidable that a couple of them will go bankrupt.” Another possible threat KLM faces is the aviation tax which makes flying from a Dutch airport more expensive and thus less attractive. But for KLM it is not a major problem because 80% of the total turnover is earned abroad. For subsidiaries of KLM, like Martinair and Transavia, the aviation tax is definitely a bigger threat because 90% of their revenues are earned in the Netherlands. Also for Schiphol Van Wijk sees enough opportunities, because from a technically point of view, there is space for growth. When the Nekst interviewers propose to build a new airport in the North Sea, we receive
a friendly smile as a beginning of an answer. “There are a couple of problems at sea which we cannot solve easily,” the answer continues. “You can think of the wind, which is harder at open sea than at land. Secondly you have to think of the salt, which leads to corrosion of the airplanes. And last but not least, sea-gulls can easily cause a lot of trouble by flying into the engines of the airplanes.” The interviewers are convinced but then Van Wijk comes with another argument. “And what do you think about the costs we would be facing if we were going to make an airport with the same infrastructure as Schiphol has. Airlines cannot afford that! And if all problems were tackled, I think it would be a drain for the Dutch economy. The combination of the port of Rotterdam and Schiphol is a unique one.” Nevertheless Van Wijk expects Schiphol to grow. This because technology evolves more and more as time goes by. For example, the noise of airplanes is reduced by a factor ten compared to a decade ago. And as a matter of fact, TNO is working on a device for engines which can ‘eat up’ this noise, so nuisance will decline further. Van Wijk truly believes in the innovative power humans have when it really has to, resulting in planes that can take off vertically and in other composites to build up safer, less heavy and less harmful to the environment. When all these technical tours or force fail or get delayed, Schiphol always could work together with Lelystad Airport.
intercontinental flights. Of course these flights cannot be transferred to Lelystad Airport because that airport misses the infrastructure and is not able to connect flights due to its capacity. The second function is the leisure transport. “This function is less important nowadays because the airports in the province can easily handle the holiday flights. But Lelystad Airport could take over more of these flights from Schiphol,” Van Wijk explains. So according to these words we can trust in the future of Schiphol. Nekst is also very curious about the future of mister Van Wijk himself. “I never planned much in my life so neither I will do about my future,” the former CEO of KLM starts. At the end of this year Van Wijk will officially retire. But obviously, he will not quit immediately. “Right now within KLM we are talking about a strategic function at Air France-KLM or within the SkyTeam,” he reveals a small part of the corner. The future is unknown, also for the leading persons in the Dutch economy, but Van Wijk is sure that he will work less the upcoming years so he will have a better division between working time and spare time. Another thing he is sure about is that he will not accept new directorships. What he did accept was a job within NOC*NSF, a Dutch organisation trying to achieve the goal to stimulate top-class sport. So far about the working time. In his spare time Van Wijk is playing golf actively: “Together with my wife I like to play golf, especially in Portugal near our holiday house.”
Schiphol has had two main functions for KLM. First it is a transfer point for
Nekst 4 - June 2008
Nekst 4 - June 2008
A final topic to conclude this interview is for the interviewers also a topic of self-interest: Ajax. It is known that Van Wijk and Ajax have a bond. A few years ago he was asked to become the new chairman of Ajax. He liked the offer but he had to refuse due to developments at KLM and the coming merger with Air France. Until he was 19 years old he played in several youth teams and then he had to choose between football and his other fields of interest like playing baseball, playing basketball and of course his studies in econometrics. “Of course it was possible to continue within Ajax, but I had the needs for diversity in my life. A full pro career was not the career I aspired. Neither if I would have gotten the certainty of becoming a pro.” And he has had a great career. Until last year 80% of this agenda was already full at the beginning of the year. Then he got a new, more strategic function at Air France-KLM and the role of chairman of the SkyTeam. These functions are less busy as the function he had before. Every two weeks he has meetings in Paris for a couple of days. Besides these meetings he visits all the partners of the SkyTeam to discuss the strategy of both the alliance and the airline. But do not worry, Leo van Wijk is still one of the busiest persons of the Dutch economy: “A few years ago an average working week consisted of sixty up to eighty hours per week, nowadays I work thirty up to fourty hours a week. So I work about 50% at Air France-KLM and I have 50% spare time to use for other interesting things.” [BH]
Leo van Wijk’s choices: Boeing or Airbus: I do not have a preference, but an A380 misses the elegance of a 747 De Meer or ArenA: De Toekomst (training complex of Ajax) Office chair or airplane chair: Office chair By train or by car to Schiphol: By car, also if I have to face traffic jams L’equipe or AD sportwereld? French business papers Higher profit or better services? Better service will lead to higher profit Cargotransport or passenger transport? Passenger transport Favorite airport besides Schiphol? Singapore, because this airport is a perfect, maybe even better copy of Schiphol
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Idunt augait wisl et, vel ulputat, sim luptat lute min vel irit lor sed elit acip et dunt velendre modio con hendre cum veliquis nos eugait nosto conulex ex etumsan utpat lut ilit ulla concommodignis doloreet adit wisim zzrit laore duiscipit, volenibh ex eugue min Almost thirty facipismod years ago the people mentioned above utatthe students they had the ad same feelingerwe sequi blaore delisfour ationse adit wismoloreet dions augait to ex hear if velessit aliquat magnibh simhad. del founded our dolendr association, Tilburgse Econometristen The outcome was as dolorem hoped and expected.” John:nos “So,eros we nismolor suscilis ercidunt atio ex erostrud elesto conullam ercidunt autem iriuscidunt Vereniging. In aodipit pub in Amsterdam Nekst meets Jan, John, organized excursion to eum DSM,autalready mentioned by dolorper susto luptat, cor sit ip prat wis eriure feu feugait, consedandoaliquis lor sit aliquisit nonsed Annemie Pieter but more meet quisAnnemie, and sort of tatin a forum in which Professor Tinbergen euipsum and dolute eu Meeuwis, feum nullaore te important, loreet they adignissit, alit utpat wisl henim enit wis ent eum velit lobor One se feuismod magna con henisi again after long while. Pieter Meeuwis is a inciliq manageruamcommy at a ITtook among others. of the things we posed, had dolutat. Ut autpat. num place euguercin doleniam escompany Zaltbommel settled first TEV-board. with the socialblaorem relevance where itdoloborem all starteding with. Min et alitinluptat. Per il etand accum zzritin theutpatue rcilismolor to alisdodeliscillam, trud between tatummo the lobore core magna and facThis reunion gives noise thevel pub andquipit that makes the delisi Wetemade the comparison Latin language amconsenim ing etsome nim in etueincon am nullam faci blaorpe cum aliquisi. interview more difficult. After carefully listening mathematics. Latin can bequipit usefulwisit if you want to learn for in ver autesomewhat feummolore eugiamconse raestis nisis eu feugiamcon veliquam, velit ad ea acidunt eliquis adiam what these people do nowadays, first question example is not absolutely necessary.” faccumsandre do dolore magnibhwe eni-pose our se eugiatue cor summod tatueFrench, do ex- but itUnt nullam iriureet il study iurem and do we do before new anecdotes their study period dolobore can “So, we dolorper wanted to seedipit the application of the am, quissome aliquip estrud te duntabout adiam, erci blaore conse enit,by sequatie velent amet utem be fifth founder, August Swanenberg, was not velitheard. utat The aciliquam vel inciliquisit succeeded at least partly the excursion and alit thatlanforum. ipisit volortissi. ip erci eugaitfrom ad del esequat, present; he lives in the United States now. Agnismod ea faciduisit We continued organizing lectures that point ofcommy view. praesendiam zzrit pratue conummy ilit autpate nis ero eu facin henim iliwe eugiametue saw a role for an association nibh enim ip ecte minit et iurem nulvulla faciniam zzriusciAnother bla feu thing faci tiein which It started somewhere theluptatum end of 1978, but how? lam do od te tet, veriuscat ipisit corem venit aliquat, Feit: Jan Bogers: we wondered social relevance quipit delit“Actually lor alismod olendrem about au- thevelit utpat. Info of thedolobore study. We werenis studying in economics giam facilisis eum do something doOnulpute dit, quat. with much mathematics. However, we really wondered luptatem ip eu facing et wiscin eu feuUptat, velisitif alis this necessary for interpreting understanding gait math niscil was utpat. Pit pratueraese feui andaciliquis etuero odit Feit: the economy.” John Smiths taught tat lore dolortinibh et, consadds: num“We quiswere not alisim dit about aliquis auInfo what we could dofeuiscipit with econometrics alone in nulla conullaore nullamcom-in practice, tetumletnum dolobore business. Nowadaysdoluptat. there areNit more likefaccum the fieldexero of ex my niamcommodo velexamples ut feu actuarial sciences, back then that was not so clear. vel ute min et wisit but volore veriureetum enissim qui Few tie minFeit: econometricians worked wismolu as so those I thinkcor worrying dolent adigna consectet tpa-days. cipit, in veliquaInfo is much,dionsendre but we really about the social tumtoo dolenim te feu wondered faccum met wisisse magnim relevance. Jan dolorero formulated that very Pieter Meeuwis: ea faci blaore dolummy noswell.” aliquat. Ut ad el do “Exactly, would economists were interested nullaore we dolessi ex become ex eugiamet, sus- anddolenim zzriuscilin mathematics. But, during study taught trud dolorer cilismo lobortiour ncilis alitwe were lanmainly esseniam verostrudM i s t e r V a n d e r G e n u g t e n a t t h e B . B . q u i z quisis eu feu facil ullan ero esto dunt math, and less economy; missed the context.” ea aliquat, volore magniswedolor acilis erit ilit adipis eniam augait alisit wisci lorem ad do odioInodio nulpuwasniscidunt the accompaniment of students. the odiamco first study year esto et veliquate ver susciliscin hentatincidunt ad te veraese exSo, didute youfeugait do? vercip ese et Ro odolobore student mentor and we sawent thatprat. that Essenim worked dre what vel del erilla feui bla commodipit at, groups con ut-had a tat. John: “Ambitious as ipisl we were we thought asking aci the tat.first Ipsusustrud vero out but after year thatmolorperilit accompaniment prat, se tincili ssenit irit lutpate patabout atue doloborpero od very mod well, dolore Professor He had developed econometrics duicould bla consequis nosto doleniamet was over. fill this gap.” minci blanJan ut Tinbergen. autet, con ecte magna miniam ercinis ad dolore eros An autassociation ad as apart field of study, but after that he tetue became a social nis delent ipit Of iliquateTekst“Let ussi.not forget about in thehent parties. course we ad an moloborerat. feugait niat wis Pieter: acilis dolobor economist again. Who could better about the social duntdid Feugiamc adigna those interesting things, but onsendrer we also partied andaliquat drank Giam dipissim el iril utpat vel tell eniamLa aliquametum wisit, quipit ex relevance of velit our study than diat him?lobor A man who did not stuck eugueriustis irit nulla facin vercilla feugait the sort dip of liquid still drink. Did we core have te a favorite core eugue lore mod eugait aut nosto eum students to the odions field heat, had developed van der Ven: vulputp iriliquip now elenisiscip er ipisis diam, si. pub? Not in the have, but the people in ‘t susto susto dolore himself.” ver sum Annemie doloreet vulput atisim nisway students “We did not but allaugiate La we faccumsan Dorstige Hert knew who were.” velessecte delenim dit adit dunt niat.thought only of Professor Tinbergen, exer iure facilla tis eu faccums people to education something wis atum et, quis ex ecte tis nis nullaor Ipit wis who niat. were Agnaclose auguerit ea at ali- and knew andipisim in ullamconse veliquamet Was every student sisi. directly involved and enthusiastic about social relevance.” quatetthat ullaorem dolore te doloborer lor sed min utat, sustiscing enit praesassociation? Amconse quissit velent ut illa aci bla irilla cor ipsum zzrit nim dolobore senim vel delesequipisabout adit atthe et ut ing What plan of tis action? Jan:eugiamc “Actually, yes. When look back think we really had am I venis ea Iconsequisl ipsummy dunt became delis ad the dolobore ex elisl er sectem veraestionse omAnnemie: “Ourciliquam first thought to organize modit an excursion. a good let’s call it -nonsed business plan, although wetedid not estin ullam dolortisci dit nim digna facilis ilisit was ex eugue vendrerByaesequam vel- inciliqmeans of such facinibh an excursion wenum coulddosee what econometrics that then.” “We arranged everydolor activity was quatuero dunt that laorpero sequat duismodigna essim uam nostie estio oditrealize vercincipit lum John: would in practice.” Jan: “Firstipis we didvelis a survey under another. We comefeugue up with lore realized magnit, we sumhad vel to dolore te do erit mean alit loreet lum iuscill aortisl eugait wissi blafollowed feugue by magna delese dolor si blaorper sim dignibh eros nulput lore velis autat eros niscil cons autpat, quipis dunt laor seq-
have common? facilla incommy nullaore dolorerit, si
Nekst 4 - June 2008
11
THE WEEKEND OF ALL WEEKENDS ACTIVE MEMBERS WEEKEND
new activities time by time. Only then the TEV would remain a vivid association.” Jan: “Absolutely, a few years before was the same initiative, but that was not so successful. We knew we had to organize activities on a regular basis. Maybe more important was that we had arranged the first activity before the association was founded.” Pieter: “Even researchers and teachers were enthusiastic about it. They recognized that such an association could be of additive value for students.” Annemie: “Another key to the success was that we – the founders – did not come from one specific group. Pieter was a first year student, I almost finished my study and the other founders were somewhere in between. That mixed company made that everyone could identify him or herself with the association.” What did you learn from other associations? Annemie: “Well, not that much. We were inspired by others, but the TEV was the first association connected to the Economic Faculty. In those days many students were a member of St. Olof. That association differs now from the association it was in the late seventies.” John: “We went to a so called LOESmeeting (editorial note: LOES is the cooperation between econometric study associations in the Netherlands) in Amsterdam and heard about the associations in Amsterdam and Rotterdam. After this pleasant meeting we literally thought ‘if they can do it, we can do it’. That meeting just made clear that it was possible to found such an association, but we could not and did not want to learn more than that understanding.” How did it develop after the first meeting and excursion?
12
“In 1979 there were about 125 students and we were amazed that almost all of them became a TEV member. We organized some drinks and these were better visited than most of the lectures,” Pieter says with a big smile. “I remember one specific activity. I was allowed to drive a truck, so we organized a dropping with many TEV members in the freight department of the truck. We dropped them somewhere near the Belgium border and we supposed everyone could find the way back to Tilburg. However, in the evening we were called by some members that have arrived in a beer hall in Poppel, Belgium. Due to the nice perspectives in this hall they called late in the evening.” John comes up with another anecdote. “In that time the BB-quiz was very popular. As you young guys might not know Berend Boudewijn’s television quiz, broadcasted by the KRO, was the seventies’ television hit. Because Professor Van der Genugten also has the initials B.B. we asked him to be the quizmaster during a TEV drink with the BB-quiz as central theme. We thought it was a good idea to ask a researcher with a certain distinction you normally only see during lectures instead of seeing him in a pub. At the end of the evening we concluded that Professor van der Genugten had a very good sense of humor and the atmosphere was quite nice. That was one of the best TEV drinks.” Has there been other cooperation with the department of econometrics? Jan: “Well, in those days it was called a sub-faculty, but they supported the initiative from the beginning. They supported us if we need their help to contact prominent lecturers and we could use some facilities.” Pieter: “Besides, they gave us a natural subsidy by financing Cirkel, our magazine.”
What about other committees? Did they already start in the beginning? John directly poses another question: “Does the education committee still exist?” The answer is clear and satisfactory. Pieter: “Well, The first years the TEV became bigger and bigger and so more and more committees started. In 1983 we organized our first study trip, mainly financed by subsidy. We went to Bonn and Frankfurt and in the last city we visited the airport and that visit had a lot do with statistics and quantitative analysis. We were taught about the half percent error chance concerning the luggage. ‘Quite a lot luggage,’ we thought after a quick calculation.” The TEV has adopted the color blue. Has the TEV always been blue since the very first beginning? Annemie: “In those days everything was mainly black and white, so the color was not an issue, just like the name. I don’t think we brainstormed very long for it. It was just logically: Tilburgse Econometristen Vereniging.” How do you look back at that time? Pieter: “In those days the study period was on average seven years. That the study period took so long, is a funny fact on itself,” Pieter says when he shows his big smile again. Jan: “Of course the study period was a fantastic time, but I think that we learned a lot from all the efforts we put into the TEV. Now when I look at study associations, they are almost small companies, very professional. For students it is good to develop themselves on a broader horizon than only the study. So, it was a very enjoyable and instructive time.” Everyone agrees with Jan’s summary. After that - busy as successful people are - the four had to hurry to be on time for their next appointment or for the parking meter. [ TT ]
Nekst 4 - June 2008
Lots dolorem of fun, velesequat little sleep, estie adolobor big barbecue se and of ssenit good drink means only one the econometricians prat, plenty se tincili ipisl irit lutpate iurething facillafor augiate tis eu faccums aneril utat vent nullandre del dignim
minci blan ut autet, con ecte magna
dipisim in ullamconse veliquamet lor sed min utat, sustiscing enit praessenvel eros auguero odip el in henissed Giam dipissim el iril utpat vel eniamim vel delesequipis adit at et ut ing er dolobore conse ver sum nos autat, vel core eugue velit lore mod diat lobor sectem veraestionse eugiamc ommodit dolor sit alisse faccum quatet nostie susto odions at, susto dolore ver sum vendrer aesequam vel inciliquam nosfacilla commy nullaore dolorerit, si adit dunt niat. tie estio odit vercincipit lum velis euex ex etumsan utpat lut ilit ulla conIpit wis niat. Agna auguerit ea at aligait wissi It all blaore startedfacipismod when thedelis active membersquatetpm. sequi ationse In contrast at the university, ullaorem doloreto teclasses doloborer bla feugue received letterdolendr they had been waiting foririlla cor nismolor the suscilis ercidunt atio everybody was surprisingly on time! ipsum zzrit nim dolobore m a The g n a the entiresusto year:odipit the letter that dolorper luptat, corlets sit you ip signdunt delis committee arrangedtis for ex a big van to carry ad dolobore elisl cons all autup for thedolute Active eu Members Weekendte(AMW ).digna our euipsum feum nullaore bags to the top location. The facilis ciliquam ilisitsecret ex eugue pat, two quipis The letterUtthat contains very little informationduismodigna dolutat. utpat. board members andnum Kay do volunteered facinibh Bas essim dunt tolaor about This hint was whetherdo eritdrive Min etthe alitAMW. luptat. Peryear’s il et accum zzrit (read:lum race) the aortisl van. When heavily alit loreet iuscill ipis the sequissed you have any withcon cows. amconsenim ing etaffinity nim in etue vel Theeros nulput loadedlore vanvelis leftautat the station and everybody eros niscil ea aliparticipants were also asked to bring a photodelessereceived in ver aute feummolore eugiamconse quamet their ver si.lunch packets, the weekend quat umwith themselves a cow in it. The faccumsandre doand dolore magnibh eni-photosEquat. was officially Ut utpat. Dui ready exero to el begin. dolor ausandipit varied from ingeniously edited am, quis aliquip estrud te duntimages adiam, to realgait, velis dolobore dipit lamet, compratue velife showed inmolo rtincilit velitphotos utat that aciliquam veleconometricians inciliquisit A short lutat walk velenissi from theblaoreros station to thelenia busses tumtheir younger years a bovine friend. praesendiam zzrit with pratue conummy caused some serious confusion: we num ilisi. m owere lortio our way in Belgium! A well Idunton augait wisl to et, Turnhout vel ulputat, sim euissi. member of con the henAMW weekend, ip et prepared dunt velendre modio Alisl utpat, consequisis niat estissim Name: Romeo Langestraat, had some iusci trouble dre commodignis doloreet adit wisim blamcommod tem in henim diam, van Elen paying the bus forutat the dions activeaumembers when riurem Emile zzrit adit wismoloreet volorpe nonsenit volendipit his ex payment-card was conullam refused a fewluptat times.lute min vel irit lor sed elit acgait ex erostrud elesto cum veliquis nos eugait nosto conulWhile everybody wasfeu trying to imagine what ercidunt prat wis eriure feugait, Begin studies: laore duiscipit, volenibh ex eugue min thedoloreet bus driver would think forty consed adignissit, quis when alit over 2006 velessit magnibh er sim del climbeduamcommy aboard his bus, was aliquat ad utpatpeople wisl inciliq numeveryone dolorem still wondering what lay ahead the autem iriuscidunt nos eros euguercin utpatue rcilismolor alis during aliquis eum aut lor sit aliquisit nonsed comingquipit days. am nullam delisi te deliscillam, Feit: tatin henim enit wis ent eum velit lofaci blaorpe raestis nisis eu feugiamInfo bortook se feuismod magna con henisi Yet in Turnhout our tripcor wasn’t con veliquam, se eugiatue sum-over. We blaorem another to ablaore small dolobore place called Retie, our doleniam doloborem ing esmod tatue dobus exerci tatummo lobore core magna facdestination. Romeo pressed a trud button consefinal dolorper ipisit volortissi. cumbus quipit wisit aliquisi. after aea while to get ilit the autpate bus to stop. The Agnismod faciduisit Unt velit nibh enim ip ecte minit et iurem nulstopped,zzriusci but where did faci so was bit ad ea acidunt eliquis adiam vulla faciniam blaitfeu tiejust a little As as te thetet, sign-up forms been handedcorem strange: dipit nullam iriureet il iurem do do lamsoon do od veriusc ipisithad luptatum a long straight venit aliquat, velit utpat.road with meadows over, theolendrem potentialaulocationOnulpute enit, sequatie velent amet alit lan utem quipitrumors delit lorabout alismod as far as quat. the eye couldvelisit see. Romeo guided us dit, Uptat, alis started to spread. Thisnisyear’s chairman ofaciliquis ercitoeugait ad del esequat, commy giam dolobore facilisis eum do doto etuero a lonesome farmhouse where we ip were odit alisim dit aliquis the AMW, ip Pascal Heuijerjans, actually nis eroofeugiametue eu facin henim ililuptatem eu facing et wiscin eu feu-helpedautetum spend weekend. The farm num the dolobore feu faccum ex- consisted spread the utpat. rumors. true actor, he eu feu facil ullan ero esto dunt gait niscil PitApratueraese feuilet slipero ex two buildings, grass field huge, enissim qui tie amincipit, cor and in onequisis that the dolortinibh AMW wouldet, take place the Safariveliquamet lorem ad do odio odio odiamco nulputat lore cons numatquis smellywisisse caravan. One building a sort magnim aliquat.contained Ut tat. Ro odolobore ent prat. Essenim Park Bergen in Hilvarenbeek. Trustingad el do nullaBeekse conullaore feuiscipit nullamcomof dolenim hall withzzriuscillan a nice music installation in it and esseniam souls as the Tilburg econometricians are, theyverostrud aci tat. my niamcommodo doluptat. Nit vel ut an enormous kitchen. On the second floor we Ipsusustrud molorperilit vero erit ilit adipis eniam augait all it. Unfortunately, everyone had toalisit wisci duiother bla consequis nosto doleniamet velbelieved ute min et wisit volore veriureetum foundtatincidunt a large number of veraese bedrooms. The ad te wait foradigna the weekend to take place tpato find outniscidunt dolent consectet wismolu building only contained bedrooms. nis delent in hent ipit iliquateTekstexerilla feui bla commodipwhether we would sleep between the hungryit at, con utpat atue doloborpero od Feugiamc onsendrer adigna aliquat tum dolenim dionsendre te feu faccum lions and the smelly hippopotamuses. irit nulla facin vercilla core te feugait ea faci blaore dolorero dolummy nos When miniam everyone got settled into a bedroom mod dolore ercinis ad dolore nullaore dolessi ex ex eugiamet, sustheadexploration begin. people elenisiscip er ipisis diam, si. eros aut tetue feugaitcould niat wis acilisA few iriliquip After many sleepless nights,ncilis the day faccumsan velessecte delenim dit trud dolorer cilismo loborti alit of alldolobor were kicking si. listening to music; some were La days was finally there. We were toLa aliquametum atum et, quis ex ecte tis nis nullaor ea aliquat, volore magnis dolor expected acilis football around; othersquipit were having awis couple dunt wisit, ex show upveliquate at Tilburg’s Station at threeeugait of esto et verCentral susciliscin henbeers in eugueriustis the big and smelly caravansisi. while aut nosto dip eum Amconse quissit velent ut illa aci bla dre vel del ute feugait vercip ese et doloreet vulput vulputp atisim nis exer
from Tilburg: Active Membersnum Weekend! zzriliquat vel dipis aliquatummy ad moloborerat.
Nekst 4 - June 2008
13
the unlucky ones were fixing dinner for everyone else. When things started to smell like spaghetti, everybody lined up in the kitchen for a big plate of Italian food. The true heroes lined up again to make sure they’d have
At 8:30 the next morning the overly active chairman of the AMW committee woke us. He couldn’t wait to tell us his plans for us. While the morning crew prepared breakfast, the other members tried to catch a few final minutes of
living Stratego! This time the group was divided in two teams. Each team had the same end: capturing the other team’s flag. Each team was allowed to hide the flag somewhere in the playground (a forest again).
“ The peaceful trip on the water resulted in a savage sea battle.” sufficiently energy for the long night to come. After dinner the cleaning crew got to work while everyone else strolled over to the bar to start enjoying a well deserved glass of beer. Another big AMW event is the night activity. This year’s committee organized a scouting expedition in the middle of a dark Belgium forest to search for bottles of delicious Dutch jenever. The group was divided into six smaller groups that had to work together in order to find the exquisite liquor. Each group was given a compass, a map and a flashlight. The map indicated nine points of interest with nine corresponding hints. At each point a few cards were hidden. The hints were supposed to tell the group where the cards were hidden. Each card was a credit for a glass for each member of the group or, in some cases, an entire bottle. Of course some groups came home with multiple bottles and some came home with just one glass. This naturally fostered the necessary competition among the different groups. When the activity ended at midnight, the night was still young. The active members gathered in the main hall to enjoy a night that ended around 4 am for most.
14
sleep. As always, it’s interesting to see how the same people look so different after a night of partying and little sleep. The delicious breakfast had a
positive effect on how people felt (and looked). An after-breakfast shower was the finishing touch to make people feel like new again. Pascal Heuijerjans was eager to announce the morning activity:
Every member received a card with a number on it. The number represented your rank. The higher your number, the higher your rank. If you outrank a member of the opposite team you can ‘kill’ them by touching them. The exception to this rule is the bomb. The bomb kills everyone, but he’s not able to touch anyone else. This fun game resulted in a competitive match that was won by the red team initially. A rematch resulted in a tie game. Living Stratego made everyone pretty hungry. Our stomachs were therefore filled by a bunch of tasty hotdogs for lunch. With everybody back at full strength, we then had some free time to enjoy the beautiful Belgian sun. We formed a half circle toward the sun in desperate hope of catching a little tan and were entertained by those members quite capable of keeping a football aloft. To prevent the members from falling asleep in the sun the committee announced the second activity of the day: kayaks and mini golf. Because there was no bus service in Retie over the weekend, we had to take a long walk to our second activity of the day: six kilometers to be precisely. We were all a little tired upon arrival, but when we saw a beautiful grass where we could lie down, everybody forgot about
Nekst 4 - June 2008
the long walk. Half the group started with the kayaks, the others with mini golf. Ninety percent of the group that started with the kayaks were men. As you might know, the combination of men and kayaks sometimes produces strange results. That is exactly what happened: the peaceful trip on the water resulted in a savage, yet friendly, sea battle. Paddles were stolen and kayaks ended up at the bottom of the river. Fortunately, the men were able to rest again by playing a game of mini golf and resting in the sun with the nice TEV ladies. During our six kilometer trip back we worked up an appetite for a giant barbecue meal. Everyone, except the vegetarians, enjoyed the well grilled meat the barbecue masters prepared. It really was a nice sight: delicious food, lovely weather and great music (Dire Straits). Until... the raw meat felt on the floor! Everyone stopped and looked like dumb cows at the meat on the floor that should have been on the barbecue instead. Miraculously, only three pieces of meat were lost during this sad episode.
general atmosphere. And when the DJ played the song ‘Brabant’ by Guus Meeuwis the econometricians were just unstoppable! Another climax was when our editor-in-chief performed a spectacular crowd surf. Unfortunately for Sjoerd Timmermans, Marieke van der Ven landed right on top of him! The DJ didn’t stop playing until 5 am. By that time only the diehards were still in the Belgium club. Most of the econometricians had gone home at 3 or 4 am. The active members were able to get home by themselves because TEV paid for cabs. Once everybody got home safely, the diehards had the noble idea of waking up all the chairmen in a rather uncivilized way: by flipping over their beds while they were still in it: ‘keren’!
The last day started at 9.30 am. This is a nice time to wake up normally, but too early for most members this weekend. After another nice breakfast, everybody started cleaning the two buildings, as ordered by the committee. Once totally clean, there was time for a lovely group photo. After that everybody walked those six kilometers again to catch busses back to Tilburg. Since we all came back to Tilburg alive and kicking from a phenomenal weekend, I would like to call this year’s AMW a great success. Therefore, on behalf of all the active members, my wholehearted compliments and thank to all the members of the committee who organized this wonderful trip!
To conclude the day on an upbeat, we headed out to Turnhout for some nightlife. Because everyone was tired of walking, those who came on their own volunteered to bring everyone to a location where we’d be able to catch a bus to Turnhout. In Turnhout we went to a club called ‘De Zwarte Ruiter’ (‘The Black Knight’). The evening began with some terrible Belgium dance music. Just when we were on the point of leaving, the music took a turn for the better which helped improve the
Nekst 4 - June 2008
15
E C O N O M E T R I S T E N A LT I J D WELKOM
TITEL
BEDRIJFSINTERVIEW SNS REAAL
INTERVIEW
In de gezellige setting van het mooie en grote bedrijfsrestaurant van SNS REAAL ontmoeten twee
InleidingPerilis duismolobor sed do od te tetuerci tet volorperiure facil enim dolenibh ese digna commodipit,
redactieleden Marieke Moonen en Mireille Ligtenberg voor een bedrijfsinterview. Het interview vindt plaats
sequat.
in het hoofdkantoor van SNS REAAL gelegen aan de Jaarbeurszijde van het centraal station van Utrecht.
Lorperaesto od molorero do et lumsandit wis nisissequis doloreetue tie velis dolore delit velenim vullutpat aliqui tat. Ecte tat, quiscidunt vent ver iliquis ad ero dolor
Mireille studeerde Econometrie aan de Vrije Universiteit in Amsterdam en is sinds een jaar en twee maanden werkzaam bij SNS REAAL. Na zes-en-een-half jaar studie waarin ze zich vooral toelegde op de kant van de Operationele Research studeerde ze af. Tijdens haar studie roeide de Amsterdamse wedstrijden en was ze actief bij studievereniging Kraket. “Na anderhalf jaar vond ik een kamer en kon ik actiever gaan roeien en ook bij Kraket actiever worden,” vertelt ze. Bij Kraket zetelde ze in de reiscommissie waarmee ze een reis naar Brazilië heeft kunnen organiseren en maakte ze onderdeel uit van de Sport, Naam: Borrel en Feestcommissie. “Daarna ben ik het Mireille Ligtenberg bestuur ingegaan als interne coördinator. Dat nam zo’n twintig uur per week in beslag.” Als Mireille daarna nog vertelt dat ze ook in de Leeftijd: studentenraad zat en een half jaar in Madrid 25 jaar heeft gestudeerd, kan de redactie niet anders dan concluderen dat het traject van zes-eneen-half jaar met al deze nevenactiviteiten Afdeling: bijzonder snel is. “Eigenlijk wel ja,” geeft Balansbeheer en Risk Mireille toe. “Madrid was eigenlijk een verlenging van mijn studieperiode aangezien Management alle vakken als extra dienden, maar je studententijd is wel de ideale tijd om naar Functie: het buitenland te gaan.” Madrid was hierin een logische keuze, omdat Mireille graag Trainee Spaans wilde leren. Riskmanagement Het traject dat Marieke heeft gevolgd om uiteindelijk bij SNS REAAL te komen, heeft enkele parallellen met het traject dat een van de meegereisde redactieleden nu volgt. Vanuit haar woonplaats Brunssum verhuisde ze voor haar studie naar Tilburg. “Het hele dorp ging naar Maastricht, terwijl voor mij de studententijd juist een periode is waarin je nieuwe mensen wil leren kennen. Ik koos voor Tilburg vanwege de goed aangeschreven rechtenstudie.” Na even aan de studie rechten geroken te hebben, bleek Beleids- en Organisatiewetenschappen haar echter beter te passen. Ook zij was in haar
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studententijd naast haar studie actief een deed een bestuursjaar. Marieke koos echter voor een gezelligheidsvereniging en maakte een jaar lang deel uit van het Plato-bestuur. Als Marieke wordt gevraagd waarom ze voor SNS REAAL heeft gekozen als werkgever, vertelt ze een leuke anekdote. “Toen ik nog bij mijn vorige werkgever zat, liep ik wel eens bij het voormalige hoofdkantoor van SNS Bank in Den Bosch naar binnen om te pinnen. De gemoedelijke sfeer die in de entree altijd heerste, maakte een goede indruk op mij en dat heeft mij doen besluiten te solliciteren bij SNS REAAL.” Inmiddels werkt ze hier bijna een jaar. Over de sfeer vertelt ze straks meer. Zoals gezegd legde Mireille zich gedurende haar studie meer toe op de OR-kant en in dat opzicht is de keuze voor SNS REAAL wellicht niet de meest logische. “Misschien niet direct, maar dat ik in OR ben afgestudeerd, wil niet direct zeggen dat ik nooit interesse heb gehad in deze richting. Uiteindelijk gaat het om je analytisch vermogen en niet specifiek om de afstudeerrichting of zelfs specifiek econometrie.” De ommezwaai naar de financiële kant van de econometrie kwam na haar afstuderen. “Bij KPN deed ik een afstudeeropdracht waarin ik het optimale aantal telefooncentrales moest berekenen. Dat was voor KPN een uitstapje, want in principe concentreert het werk dat KPN aanbiedt zich toch meer op de sales. KPN kon mij dus ook geen baan aanbieden in de OR-richting.” Toen ze verder ging zoeken bleken de perspectieven in de OR-richting veel minder te zijn dan in de financiële sector wat ervoor zorgde dat Mireille haar blikveld verbreedde. In de zoektocht naar een baan – met de verbrede blik – zag ze verschillende traineeships langskomen waarbij die van SNS REAAL er direct tussenuit sprong. “Het traineeship dat ik nu doe, is verreweg het
Nekst 4 - June 2008
meest inhoudelijk. Wellicht dat ik ooit in een managementfunctie terechtkom, maar ik vind dat je wel gezien moet hebben wat er in het veld gebeurt. Bovendien wil ik eerst iets met mijn studie doen. Zo’n opleiding doe je immers niet voor niets.” Marieke vult aan dat er per jaar zes plekken zijn voor trainees. “Op dit moment worden die bezet door twee econometristen, twee mensen die technische bedrijfskunde hebben gedaan en een persoon die is afgestudeerd in dierwetenschappen.” Trainees komen, hoewel SNS REAAL ook grote kantoren heeft in Alkmaar en ’s-Hertogenbosch, vrijwel altijd op het hoofdkantoor in Utrecht terecht. “Binnen een traineeship werk je veel samen en zie je veel afdelingen, dan is Utrecht gewoon het meest praktisch,” vertelt Mireille die op dit moment een voorkeur heeft voor de bancaire kant binnen SNS REAAL. “Ik heb een aantal afdelingen gezien nu, bijvoorbeeld ook actuariaat waar veel econometristen werken en ook de verzekeringskant die veel groter is, maar voor mij staat wel redelijk vast dat ik iets wil doen met risk management.” Op dit moment werkt Mireille op de afdeling BRM, dat staat voor Balansbeheer
en Risico Management. Ze vertelt dat ze op die afdeling altijd goede econometristen kunnen gebruiken. “Die zijn hier in Utrecht altijd welkom en dan vooral bij BRM en het actuariaat .” Als trainee werk je dus in Utrecht, al voegt Mireille toe dat je ook afhankelijk van de opdracht die je doet, afspraken in ’s-Hertogenbosch en Alkmaar kan hebben om daar met collega’s te overleggen. “Je kunt ook thuiswerken, al is dat niet altijd handig, zeker niet als je veel wilt leren van je collega’s.” Marieke vult aan dat thuiswerken momenteel beperkt wordt gefaciliteerd en dat het wel steeds meer gebeurt. “Een andere vorm van flexibele invulling van je werk is dat veel mensen vier dagen in de week negen uur werken.” Mireille merkt op dat vrijdag de bezetting van het gebouw dan ook erg laag is waarop Marieke weer aanvult dat SNS REAAL innovatieve huisvestingsplannen heeft voor de toekomst: “In 2012 willen we voldoen aan de nieuwste, flexibele eisen die de moderne werknemer tegenwoordig aan zijn of haar baan en werkplek stelt.” Het is immers zo dat veel mensen thuis werken, afspraken buiten de deur hebben of studeren, want die mogelijkheden zijn er ook genoeg. “Als je op de afdeling actuariaat werkt en je wilt Actuaris AG worden door een (verkorte) studie te volgen aan de UvA, dan kan dat. Maar dat moet je zelf willen. Er is voor iedereen een ruim studiebudget voor handen, maar dat kun je ook anders gebruiken.”
Naam: Marieke Moonen Leeftijd: 29 Afdeling: P&O / Recruitment & Mobiliteit Functie: Recruiter
Tot slot vragen we beide dames of ze nog adviezen hebben. Marieke raadt aan altijd iets naast je studie te doen, maar wel iets dat je echt leuk vindt en niet alleen om je cv op te leuken. Mireille geeft als tip naar het buitenland te gaan in je studietijd en heeft voor daarna ook nog een belangrijk advies: “Laat je niet leiden door een mooie auto en een laptop.” [ TT ]
Nekst 4 - June 2008
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P A R I S , A M U LT I - F A C E T E D C I T Y We are looking for
EXCHANGE REPORT
Consultants It is often said that our senses are the most important way through which we perceive the world. I’m discovering life in France mostly through sight, but also through sound, smell, taste and touch. Here are a few anecdotes from my period as a Dutch Erasmus student in Paris.
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Zanders Netherlands P.O. Box 221 1400 AE Bussum + 31 (0)35 692 89 89
development opportunities to everyone, on a professional as well as personal level. At Zanders, we are always looking for talented people who would like to use their expertise and know-how in our firm. We are currently looking for Consultants to strengthen our team.
affinity with the financial markets; - Pragmatic and solution-oriented; - Excellent command of English (written and verbal), willing to learn Dutch or French and any other language being an asset.
Our expertise areas What is the profile of our Consultants? To be considered for this position, you should meet the following requirements: - University degree in Economics, Econometrics, Business Administration, Mathematics or Physics; - Maximum 2 years’ work experience; - Well-developed analytical skills and
Zanders Belgium Place de l’Albertine 2, B6 1000 Brussels + 32 (0) 2 213 84 00
Treasury Management Risk Management Corporate Finance Processes and Systems Would you like more information about this position, and/or are you interested in a career at Zanders? If so, please contact our Human Resources Manager, Mrs. Sjoeke Kamphuis.
Zanders U.K. 26 Dover Street W1S 4LY London +44 (0)207 763 7296
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Sight Paris is definitely a city in which there are a lot of must-sees. So the first thing to do after arrival is visit the tourist areas: the 900-year-old ‘Cathedrale Notre Dame’, the dazzling white ‘Sacre Coeur’ in Montmartre, the metal ‘Tour Eiffel’ that symbolizes Paris, the ‘Arc de Triomphe’ that dominates the ‘Champs Elysées’ and many other magnificent buildings and areas. I got very lucky with my accommodations, because my roof terrace offers a view which includes all these buildings. On top of that the location is in the city center. The building is called ‘Foyer international des étudiantes’, which means that only female students can live there. Half of them are French and the other half come from all over the world. Here I experienced the advantages of going abroad: learning a new language and coming into contact with many different cultures.
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Sound Spring has begun and I can hear the birds in the parks and gardens. The buds on previously bare trees are starting to bloom and some trees are already covered in a pink icing of flowers. The bulbs have come up too; most parks have daffodils and tulips in clumps around trees. The sound of spring is
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in the air and I love the change. Reading the French Harry Potter in ‘Jardin de Luxembourg’ across the street from my foyer is something I wouldn’t want to miss for anything in the world. Another sound is the ‘rappèl’ at the beginning of each lecture. My university here is called ‘Sciences Po’, which is the abbreviation for ‘Institut d’études politiques de Paris’. On my first day the director proudly announced that politicians such as Nicolas Sarkozy and Ingrid Betancourt studied at this institute. I should remark that France has a dual university system, which includes ‘universités’ and ‘grandes écoles’. The main differences between these two are that the ‘grandes écoles’ are closer to the labor market and they have no obligation to accept every candidate. That is why French students who want to get into a ‘grande école’ such as Sciences Po often take two years of preparatory classes before taking the entrance exam. At the same time this increases the competitiveness among students. At Sciences Po I follow French courses exclusively and they are mainly from the ‘Finance et stratégie’ program. The teaching method is completely different from that at Tilburg University. Each lecture takes two hours without a break and it is possible to have a lecture at 8 am on Saturday! Each lecture starts with a ‘rappèl’, which means that the professor calls out each student’s name to determine whether they are present. Missing more than three lectures means failing the class. At Tilburg University we take a scientific approach, whereas at Sciences Po general knowledge and a broad overview are more important. We study hardly any mathematics at this political institute which is contrary to what I’m used to in econometrics. But I must admit I like the change, because I developed other skills at Sciences Po than those at my home university.
Name: Anouk Loonen Begin studies: 2003 Country: France
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SAME NOISY EVENING, DIFFERENT PLACE AND PEOPLE F O R M E R A C T I V E M E M B E R S D AY
Smell It is sad but it seems that each metro platform has its homeless man. The unemployment rate in Paris is very high and that’s why there is a community of people who largely never go past the exit signs to see the world above ground. Life in the tunnels is warmer; but a result is that some tunnels are used as toilets and the smell of urine permeates. Fortunately, other Parisian smells are more enjoyable. When I walk to university in the morning I pass the most magnificent ‘boulangeries’ and ‘patisseries’. I love the ‘pain du chocolat’ and the croissants. In Paris I walk a lot because the city center is relatively compact. Another advantage of living in Paris is public transport. If you don’t feel like walking, there are metros that can take you to every corner of Paris.
everyday life. One day while walking to university I saw a shocking accident between a girl on a scooter and a jeep. Another example is the rampant theft, which occurs even at my university. In the library there are posters that warn you to watch your belongings because thieves steal things every single day. When I was sitting in a computer room I witnessed how a notebook was stolen from a girl right behind me. But when you are at a police station and you must look through photos of four hundred potential offenders you unfortunately cannot be much help. Touch I got in touch with a lot of really nice people here in Paris. As an Erasmus student you meet a lot of people who are in the same situation and in general everyone is really nice. The French also surprised me. I was prepared for chauvinistic snobs who are difficult to
Taste The first association I have with taste is food. Elementary parts of the French kitchen are wine, cheese and baguette. The history of the French red wine goes back to a few eras before Christ and at the same time it represents the only product that is cheaper in Paris than in Tilburg. You can drink wine accompanied by a few different sorts of cheeses. You may choose from a whole range of smelly and tasteful cheeses. But Paris can also have the bitter taste of a large capital where unpleasant things can happen. The sirens of ambulances and police cars are part of
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connect with, but this mostly depends on your attitude toward them. I started playing handball on an otherwise
completely French team, but I instantly got invited to the home of a few team members for a party.
“But I won’t even be here for the whole program because I must leave before 6.30 pm!”
However, the stereotype of the French people is also partly true. For example, there are a lot of people who are initially really very reserved and who can make it difficult to connect with them. At the tourist places waiters can be really rude, but I think this is an issue that comes up when restaurants include the tip in their prices. Another part of the stereotype is the ubiquity of strikes. That part is certainly true. My first strike took place after only a few days after I arrived and did so right in front of my house. Since then I’ve had the pleasure of witnessing many more.
“So I should just write something about the evening program?”
Another touch is the French ‘bisou’ at the beginning and end of a conversation. A thing I still cannot get used to is the touch of two kisses instead of the Dutch three. So I haven’t become a complete Parisian girl yet and I still have some adjusting to do.
- “Doesn’t matter, five hundred and fifty words. In English.”
- “Yeah. In English. Five hundred and fifty words. You can send it to
[email protected], before May 10.” So that’s where I am. But what should I write about? I assume nobody is interested in an and-then and-then and-then story, detailing the groups we formed to play street golf, the size and color of the balls we used, or the places where we drank beer. So let me keep it to just the facts and figures: it concerns the ‘now already huldial OAL (former active members) activity’ on April 19. The program was good: we met early in the afternoon on a terrace in Rotterdam for a street golf tour in the beautiful part of Rotterdam known as the old village of Delfshaven. Street golf was followed by a so called havenkroeghoptocht (pub hopping) in the same neighborhood. There we had to deal with difficult historical questions and piles of coins that could be
Five minutes after my friend and I sat down and ordered, a noisy group of young people in blue jackets entered the restaurant. The group was mostly men with only two or three women among them. It was not even 7 pm, but they seemed a bit drunk already. As if they had had to deal with piles of coins that could be substituted for beer, just like us. A student welcomed them and discussed the answers to the quiz. After announcing the winner, she left the restaurant accompanied by a loud “Esther bedankt! Esther bedankt! Esther, Esther, Esther bedankt!” While writing this article, I realize we didn’t recall a single TEV story from old times during this OAL activity. And I don’t even know the destination of the next TEV study trip or what other major activities the TEV is currently involved in. All we discussed are our preferred outfits on the tennis court, horror stories about child birth and the pros and cons of accepting your husband’s last name. And we may have spent a few minutes on our jobs.
Perceive the world: go abroad! By going abroad I came into contact with new people and cultures; I learned a new language; I even improved a second (English always comes in handy as an Erasmus student) and I became more independent. I know it’s a cliché and when I started studying at Tilburg University I never thought I’d be one of those who’d write this, but: I recommend going abroad to everyone!
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substituted for beer. This is where the huldial OAL activity ended for me because I had a dinner date with a friend.
Name: Marieke van Boekel
Feit: Info Feit: Info
At the end of the evening my friend started chatting with the waiter. We talked about the frequency of serving big groups in their restaurant. Usually groups are less noisy than this one. The waiter hoped it didn’t disturb our evening. “No, not at all.” A few years ago I was part of such a group myself and if I hadn’t made this appointment I’d be member of a similar group now dining and drinking somewhere in Rotterdam.
Nekst 4 - June 2008
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Na-borrelen in Hong Kong? Doe mee aan de NationaleNederlanden Bèta Talent Award 2008 Meedoen en meer informatie over de spelregels: www.nnbetatalentaward.nl
Nationale-Nederlanden. Wat er ook gebeurt
THEORETICAL RESEARCH AND A P R AT I C A L C A S E PRACTICAL REPORT
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Nekst 4 - June 2008
23
H O W AT T R A C T I V E I S A LT E R N AT I V E ? WBS CONFERENCE 2008
once). However, for some cases there are still large errors in performance measures, especially in mean waiting times. I looked at three possible causes for these errors: - An incorrect estimation of the variance of interarrival times. - A correlation in interdeparture times which had not been taken into account. Successive interdeparture times are not independent because the next interdeparture time depends on the state in which the previous customer had left the workstation (empty or not). - The mean and variance of interarrival times might not be enough to estimate a distribution of interarrival times. I made two refinements to the iterative method. The first refinement estimates the departure process by a Markovian Arrival Process (MAP), trying to catch some of the correlation. The second refinement uses a supplementary third moment to estimate the distribution of interarrival times more accurately. Both refinements seem to produce improvement in most cases.
Practical case The second part of the project was a practical case of Smurfit Kappa, which is a factory making corrugated cardboard boxes. The factory has a complicated lay-out. The corrugator is the first machine in the factory, this machine makes pieces of corrugated cardboard out of rolls of paper and stacks them. These stacks are transferred by a transfer car (TW100) to the Minda A-field, a large buffer. After this, stacks get served to one or more converting machines which are placed parallel in the factory. Stacks of the same order have to be served by the same machine(s). A transfer car (TW200) brings stacks from the Minda A-field to one of the converting machines or to the Minda-B field, which is a buffer in front of Bobst1602, Bobst1601 and BobstDomino. The Cuir is also a converting machine, which has a special place in the factory. Stacks being served on this machine are placed on Lane I and transferred to the Cuir by transfer car TW700. After a stack has finished service at a converting machine, there are two possibilities. Either the stack has to
be served by another converting machine, or it has finished service at all the converting machines at which they should be served. In the first case, stacks take the following route back to Minda A-field: transfer car TW700/ TW790 -> Retour Lane II -> transfer car TW200 -> Retour Lane A -> transfer car TW100 -> Minda A-field. In the second case the stack is transferred to the palletizer and strappers, which are the last machines, by transfer car TW700 or TW790. I modeled this factory as an open queuing network, where the corrugator is the (external) arrival process and all the machines, transfer cars and (return) lanes are workstations. The challenge in this modeling part was to obtain the mean and variance of interarrival times and service times. The goal of the model is two-fold. First, the iterative method as explained before can be tested on a more complex network. Second, the model is compared to a detailed simulation of the factory. Unfortunately, I had to make some serious assumptions in order to model the factory as an open queuing network. This makes the comparison with real life difficult, although I was still able to compare quantities such as throughputs and workstation loads. Testing the iterative method was very interesting, since the error in mean sojourn time made by IM was only 1,61%. Also the errors in mean waiting times where small. It seems that IM works better for complex networks, a possible explanation for this is that correlations in arrival and departure streams partly cancel each other out in the case of many streams. During the last seven months, I had a great time at CQM working on this project. I would like to thank my supervisors for their support during my internship. For the next four years, I will continue the research on queuing networks at Eindhoven University of Technology and CQM as a PhDstudent.
24
Nekst 4 - June 2008
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A potato bouillon of nim dolobore in ullamat theenim Restaurant Du Bonheur nibh ip ecte Auberge minit et iurem nul- anddunt delis vegetables and ravioli secondvelad dolobore tiscompleted ex elisl ourconse were heading for Café where thedigna course. lam donow od te tet, veriusc ipisit Joris luptatum While drinking a nice glass of wine facilis ciliquam ilisit ex eugue i q u athe met monthly TEVlor drink was toolendrem take place. quipit delit alismod au-On ourduismodigna main dish, consisting veal steak facinibh essimofnum do combined lor sed min way stopped homenis toeum change into ourdo eritwith giamwe dolobore facilisis do dofennellum and potato muslin, served. alit loreet iuscill aortisl ipis was utat, sustiscing enit praessenim vel Name: party clothes. on et mywiscin Marioeu costume luptatem ip euI put facing feu- anderos nulput For dessert we had combination of delesequipis several lore velis autata eros niscil adit at et ut ing er sectem Manonommodit Geertsenvendrew myself a typical Mario mustache. gait niscil utpat. 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Ro odolobore ent prat. Essenim the verostrud day. Asseterit Liability Management (ALM) esseniam ilit adipis eniaci tat. Ipsusustrud molorperilit vero am augait alisit wisci tatincidunt ad
Nekst 4 - Juni 2008
25
T H E A LT E R N AT I V E N I N E T I E S CONFERENCE DRINK
studies and explains the benefits of alternatives. Yet we need to be careful when interpreting the results of these models for data problems need to be addressed before conclusions can be drawn about the added value of alternatives. Two and a half hours earlier, at 1.30 pm, the afternoon session had started. Conference participants could choose between parallel sessions and a workshop. During the workshop students developed an alternative investment strategy and set up their own long-short equity hedge fund. During the parallel session participants chose between lectures about hedge funds, private equity, commodity trading and lifesettlements. In addition, there was a lecture on the importance of pension fund investment in alternatives, in order to achieve attractive returns. One hour earlier, at 12.30 pm, the plenary morning session had ended and it was time for lunch. I was satisfied because the morning program went well, but also a bit stressed in
anticipation of the afternoon program as well as a little proud as I walked among the participants enjoying their lunch. I enjoyed seeing these satisfied people and as I took another look around the room I felt happy. I walked towards the portrettenzaal to look in on the lecturers and found them happily conversing, each with their own vision of today’s subject. It was nice to see this and it gave me a fulfilled feeling. Before I knew it, it was time to continue the day and announce the next lectures and workshop. Two and a half hours earlier, at 10 am, the first official lecture had started. Theo Nijman introduced today’s subject, alternative investments, and told us some more about common terms used in this field. His lecture also presented the challenges for risk management and legislation of solvability for the current developments. Jelle Beenen told us more about the role of alternatives for a pension fund, about the consequences of missing historical data, long term strategic investment policy and responsibility for a pension fund. The following lecture, by Ton
Vorst, made the connection between the credit crisis and alternative investments, approached theoretically. The last plenary lecture was given by Dirk Broeders: he gave an impression of a supervisor’s tasks and the principles he has to follow.
On a beautiful evening in May I was lucky enough to attend a TEV drink. After having promised Bart and his
Half an hour earlier, at 9.30 am, I was standing on the platform of the auditorium where, within a few seconds, the official opening was to take place. This was the moment for which I had been practicing all night, the moment which represented the official opening of the conference day. I gathered my courage, stepped up to the lectern and started my speech, hoping no one would notice my nervousness. After finishing, I listened to the introduction given by our chairman, Nico Steenbergen. He talked about the topicality of alternative asset classes, the impressive returns of alternatives and the link between the credit crisis and investing in alternatives.
You might think traveling an hour and a half just for some beer is a little insane, but since Leon (President Vesting), Sjoerd (Secretary Vesting) and Eelke all came down from Groningen this proved that some people were even willing to travel three and a half hours for it! To be fair, I should mention that they were kind of obliged to visit Tilburg, since their precious LEVT 2001 trophy had somehow disappeared from Groningen some time earlier.
An hour and a half earlier, at 7 am, I arrived at the TEV room. Champagne was waiting to be uncorked, pineapple was waiting to be cut and the princess chocolate sprinkles were waiting to be spread on buns. During breakfast we went through the day once more, discussed possible difficulties and possible solutions. After a solid breakfast nothing stood in our way to making the day a success. We went to the auditorium for a last check. Finally, our big day could begin. I was awoken at 6 am by the familiar sound of my alarm. I knew immediately today was going to be the big day, the day I had been looking forward to for almost a year. With adrenaline coursing through my veins I sprang out of bed.
26
Nekst 4 - June 2008
fellow board members several times this year that I would visit Tilburg to go drinking with them, I finally found time on May 22 to undertake the journey from Maastricht.
At 9 pm I met the delegation from Groningen at the train station and we decided to go directly to Café Joris since we expected the drinking to start at 10. After a short walk we ordered our first beers in the completely empty bar. Slowly but surely the clock reached the announced starting time and at some point the four of us were afraid that all the TEV members had been abducted (would that be a good or a bad thing?)! This didn’t stop us, however, from ordering another round. Our fear was relieved shortly after the sixth or seventh round when the first TEV members arrived. Unfortunately all the board members were still racing around Tilburg, either to change clothes or for other strange reasons. Some time later Café Joris was nicely filled and the first TEV fust finally found its way to our thirsty mouths. Of course this was a joyous moment for all of us, since our wallets were getting lighter and lighter. After the arrival of the board, the party really started. (Please note: had my fellow board members arrived as late to a Vectum drink, they would have had some serious problems!) Part of the program was the return of the LEVT trophy to Groningen. Just giving it back was not an option, so Leon and Sjoerd were
Nekst 4 - June 2008
challenged to drink a pitcher of beer in a minute. Unfortunately, they failed miserably. To have another chance, Leon challenged Bart to a beer relay race. Bart happily accepted the challenge and after they started drinking a furious fight started. Yet Leon failed again and therefore the only option he had left was to give away a fust which was greatly appreciated by all the TEV members. I am still not sure whether my dear Vesting colleagues had a few too many beers or are just not very careful, but the trophy did not end up going to Groningen the next morning!
Name: Tom Ackermans Study association: Vectum
The Vesting fust found its way to the partying crowd and was soon empty. Of course I did not come to Tilburg empty handed and therefore the Vectum fust followed immediately thereafter. Once that was drained it was time to leave Café Joris, but to my great satisfaction many of you decided to continue the party until closing time a few meters further down the street in Café Philip.
Feit: Info
Luckily Bart and Bas offered me and the guys from Groningen a place to sleep (at least for a few hours) before we started the long journey home. Thanks to all of you who were there, I had a blast!
27
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Per saldo draagt doorsneesysteem de mannen een subsidieutpatue nulla conullaore feuiscipit nullamcomalis deliscillam, nibheen er sim del 23 dolorem autem iriusdusdelisi een te deel zijn premie overnos eros aliquis eum aut lor verstrekken aan de doluptat. vrouwen. Nit vel ut my niamcommodo quipit jongere am nullam facivan blaorpe cidunt nonsed tatin henim enit generatie ouderen.sitInaliquisit de vel ute min et wisit volore veriureetum raestisaan nisisde eu huidige feugiamcon veliquam, Afdeling: Focus leeftijdssolidariteit ent eum velit lobor se feuismod hoop dat er later, als hij do zelfexoud is, wis nieuwe dolentop adigna consectet wismolu tpase eugiatue cor summod tatue Actuariaat ALM Het PGGM-onderzoek richt zich vooralerci blaore magna con henisi blaorem en doleniam jongeren zijn dieconse hém subsidiëren. Daarmee tum dolenim dionsendre te feu faccum dolobore dolorper op de blaore solidariteit tussen jong ennos oud, deipisit volortissi. doloborem ing estrud tatummo lozorgt het doorsneesysteem dus voor een ea faci dolorero dolummy zogenaamde In hetAgnismod bore core magna faccum quipit wisit omslagelement binnen ons kapitaalgedekte nullaore dolessileeftijdssolidariteit. ex ex eugiamet, susea faciduisit ilit autpate Functie: doorsneesysteem betalen jongere aliquisi. pensioensysteem. zalfaci aantonen dat dit trud dolorer cilismo loborti ncilis en alitouderevulla faciniam zzriusci blaIkfeu tie deelnemers dezelfde prijs dolor voor iedere Unt velit ad ea Actuaris acidunt eliquis adiam met zich meebrengt. ea aliquat, volore magnis acilis eurocorem risico’s venit aliquat, velit utpat. Maar de actuariële opgebouwd pensioen dipit nullam iriureet il iurem do do esto et veliquate ver1.susciliscin henOnulpute dit, quat. Uptat, velisit alis Voordelen doorsneesysteem enit, sequatie velent amet alit lan utem aciliquis etuero odit alisim dit aliquis Maarnum eerstdolobore noem ik feu de voordelen. Want weeugait ad del esequat, commy ip erci autetum faccum in Nederland natuurlijk zomaar ero eugiametue eu facin henim iliexerohebben ex enissim qui tie mincipit, cor niet nis gekozen voor hetmagnim doorsneesysteem. Het quisis eu feu facil ullan ero esto dunt in veliquamet wisisse alide bescherming van lorem ad do odio odio odiamco nulpuquat.belangrijkste Ut ad el do voordeel dolenim is zzriusciloudere werknemers. Alsilitiedere de odolobore ent prat. Essenim tat. Ro lan esseniam verostrud erit adipisdeelnemer bijaugait zijn leeftijd actuariële premie (zie Ipsusustrud molorperilit vero aci tat. eniam alisit horende wisci tatincidunt 2) zou moetenexerilla betalen, dan zouden de consequis nosto doleniamet dui bla ad tefiguur veraese niscidunt feui totale arbeidskosten nis delent in hent ipit iliquateTekstbla commodipit at, con voor utpatoudere atue werknemers een stukod hoger te liggen dan voor Feugiamc onsendrer adigna aliquat doloborpero mod komen dolore miniam jongere werknemers. Detetue doorsneepremie irit nulla facin vercilla core te feugait ercinis ad dolore eros aut ad zorgt erwis dusacilis voor dolobor dat ouderen gebied elenisiscip er ipisis diam, si. feugait niat si. - op hetiriliquip van pensioenkosten - opquipit de arbeidsmarkt La faccumsan velessecte delenim dit La aliquametum dunt wisit, geen aut concurrentienadeel wis atum et, quis ex ecte tis nis nullaor ex eugait nosto eugueriustis dip ondervinden Figuur van jongeren. tweede voordeelsisi. is de dre vel1 del ute feugait vercip ese et eum doloreet vulput Een vulputp atisim Amconse quissit velent ut illa aci bla prat, se tincili ssenit ipisl irit lutpate nis exer iure facilla augiate tis eu fac-
Nekst 4 - June 2008
29
de doorsnee-opbouw los en geven een degressieve opbouw. Voor elk van deze twee systemen moeten we nagaan in hoeverre het de nadelen van het huidige doorsneesysteem wegwerkt en in hoeverre de voordelen behouden blijven.
Figuur 2: Jongeren betalen meer dan nodig, ouderen betalen minder dan nodig uitlegbaarheid doorsneesysteem.
van
het
Tien jaar werken betekent dat je tien jaar de doorsneepremie betaalt en dat je tien jaar een doorsnee-opbouw ontvangt. Dat is helder en - zelfs voor pensioenanalfabeten - gemakkelijk te begrijpen. Onderlinge subsidies Het doorsneesysteem brengt echter ook nadelen met zich mee. Op het eerste oog lijkt het omslagelement geen probleem: je betaalt als jongere dan wel te veel premie, maar als je straks oud bent betaal je te weinig, dus per saldo speel je quitte. Maar die vlieger gaat niet altijd op. Want wat als je als oudere geen pensioen meer opbouwt, bijvoorbeeld omdat je in het buitenland gaat werken? En wat gebeurt er als de pensioenregeling tussentijds wordt aangepast? In figuur 3 zien we dat het doorsneesysteem leidt tot onderlinge subsidies binnen het pensioenfonds. Wanneer deze te groot worden of wanneer ze de verkeerde kant op gaan (van de ‘zwakken’ naar de ‘sterken’), kunnen ze het draagvlak voor andere (waardevolle) vormen van solidariteit en uiteindelijk het draagvlak voor collectief pensioen ondermijnen. Bestandsrijping = prijsstijging Een tweede nadeel van
30
het
omslagelement in het doorsneesysteem is de relatie tussen de bestandsopbouw en de hoogte van de doorsneepremie. Wanneer de gemiddelde leeftijd 3 van de premiebetalers stijgt, dan stijgt de totale actuarieel benodigde premie mee. In figuur 2 is de gemiddelde leeftijd 46. Wanneer deze stijgt, dan stijgt de doorsneepremie mee. Vanwege de vergrijzing en de almaar ouder wordende babyboomgeneratie zal de gemiddelde leeftijd van de Nederlandse werknemers de komende jaren gaan stijgen. Dat betekent dus ook dat de doorsneepremie, en dus de pensioenkosten, en dus de totale arbeidskosten in Nederland zullen gaan stijgen. En dat doet onze internationale concurrentiepositie geen goed. Zijn er alternatieven? De twee bovengenoemde nadelen, die leiden tot druk op het solidariteitsdraagvlak en druk op de prijs, waren voor PGGM reden om alternatieve systemen te verkennen. Omdat juist de combinatie van doorsneepremie en doorsneeopbouw tot deze nadelen leidt, ligt het voor de hand om te onderzoeken wat er gebeurt als we één van deze twee elementen loslaten. Dat geeft twee mogelijkheden: (1) we laten de doorsneepremie los en vragen een progressieve premie of (2) we laten
Progressieve premie voldoet niet Wanneer we de doorsneepremie loslaten en elke deelnemer de leeftijdsafhankelijke actuariële (progressieve) premie laten betalen, dan zijn we weliswaar verlost van de onderlinge subsidies, maar ouderen ondervinden dan wel concurrentienadeel op de arbeidsmarkt. Maar dat is juist wat we met het doorsneesysteem willen voorkomen. Bovendien geldt bij een progressieve premie nog steeds dat bestandsrijping tot prijsstijging leidt. Progressieve premie voldoet dus niet. Degressieve opbouw voldoet wel Wanneer we de doorsnee-opbouw loslaten en elke deelnemer een leeftijdsafhankelijk (degressief ) opbouwpercantage geven, dan zijn we verlost van de onderlinge subsidies én van de afhankelijkheid voor de bestandsopbouw. We zijn dus verlost van de druk op het solidariteitsdraagvlak en de druk op de prijs. En omdat we nog steeds een doorsneepremie vragen, ondervinden ouderen op de arbeidsmarkt geen concurrentienadeel van jongeren. Het enige nadeel is dat het systeem minder gemakkelijk uitlegbaar wordt. De regel ‘tien jaar werken is tien jaar een doorsnee-opbouw’ gaat immers niet meer op. Uitdagingen Hierboven heb ik aangetoond dat we het huidige pensioensysteem robuuster kunnen maken wanneer we de doorsnee-opbouw vervangen door een degressieve opbouw. Dit kan echter niet zomaar: er staan ons eerst nog drie uitdagingen te wachten. De eerste uitdaging is wettelijk van aard. Het
Nekst 4 - June 2008
huidige doorsneesysteem is wettelijk gezien namelijk een noodzakelijke voorwaarde voor de verplichtstelling. Omdat het Nederlandse systeem van verplichtstelling op vele vlakken voordelen 4 met zich meebrengt, zullen we eerst de wet moeten aanpassen om degressieve opbouw te kunnen combineren met de verplichtstelling. De tweede uitdaging is financieel van aard. Werknemers die nog geen 46 zijn, hebben in het huidige doorsneesysteem te veel premie betaald, zonder dat ze daarvoor iets hebben teruggekregen. Werknemers die ouder zijn dan 46 hebben wel al iets teruggekregen, maar nog niet alles 5. Het lijkt niet redelijk om van de een op de andere dag over te stappen op een degressieve opbouw zonder deze werknemers daarvoor te compenseren. Met andere woorden: alle huidige werknemers hebben nog een ‘claim’ op het pensioencollectief 6. Onze berekeningen wijzen uit dat de waarde van deze ‘claim’ gelijk is aan 15 à 20% van onze dekkingsgraad. De vraag is hoe we dit gaan financieren. De derde uitdaging ligt op het gebied van communicatie. We zullen onze deelnemers moeten uitleggen dat de pensioenopbouw leeftijdsafhankelijk is. Een jongere heeft immers een hoger opbouwpercentage dan een oudere. De vraag is of de deelnemer dit gemakkelijk begrijpt en pikt.
Tot slot Het onderzoek dat we bij PGGM doen wordt nog wel eens met argusogen bekeken. We deinzen er namelijk niet voor terug om de fundamenten van ons huidige pensioensysteem ter discussie te stellen. Maar ons onderzoek is er juist op gericht om te zoeken naar
technische aanpassingen die deze fundamenten kunnen verstevigen. Op die manier dragen we er als actuarissen aan bij, dat we in Nederland kunnen blijven profiteren van de voordelen van collectiviteit en solidariteit. Niet alleen nu, maar ook in de toekomst.
In onderstaande cases bekijken we drie deelnemers die elk op hun 25ste (startsalaris: €20.000) zijn gaan werken bij een bedrijf met het doorsneesysteem. Case 1: werken in het buitenland Deelnemer X gaat op z’n 35ste in het buitenland werken, in een bedrijf zonder doorsneesysteem. X heeft tot z’n 35ste €36.500 aan premie betaald. Als hij de actuarieel benodigde premie had betaald, was dit slechts €22.000 geweest. Deelnemer X heeft dus een subsidie van €14.500 betaald. Hij heeft 40% van zijn ingelegde premie af moeten staan aan het pensioencollectief. Case 2: subsidie van zwak naar sterk Deelnemer Y maakt op z’n 50ste een forse promotie: zijn salaris groeit dat jaar met €20.000. Op leeftijd 65 heeft hij in totaal €580.000 aan premie betaald. Als hij de actuarieel benodigde premie had betaald, was dit bedrag €610.000 geweest. Deelnemer Y heeft als gevolg van zijn forse promotie dus een subsidie van €30.000 ontvangen van het pensioencollectief. Case 3: aanpassen van pensioenregeling Als deelnemer Z 40 jaar is, besluit het pensioenfondsbestuur om de pensioenregeling te versoberen. Het opbouwpercentage wordt verlaagd van 1,5% naar 1,0%. Op leeftijd 65 heeft Z een premie betaald van €496.000. Als hij de actuarieel benodigde premie had betaald, was dit bedrag €474.000 geweest. Deelnemer Z heeft als gevolg van de aangepaste pensioenregeling dus een subsidie van €22.000 betaald. Figuur 3: Onderlinge subsidies binnen het pensioencollectief
1.
Met een euro opgebouwd pensioen bedoel ik dat de deelnemer vanaf zijn 65ste (als hij op dat moment nog leeft) ieder jaar, tot aan zijn dood, een euro pensioen ontvangt.
2.
Dit is het grootste effect. Wat ook meespeelt, is dat de kans dat een 25-jarige 65 jaar wordt kleiner is dan de kans dat een 64-jarige 65 jaar wordt.
3.
Correct geformuleerd: de salarisgewogen gemiddelde leeftijd.
4.
De verplichtstelling maakt het gemakkelijker om collectiviteit te organiseren en om continuïteit te bewerkstelligen. Dat levert aanwijsbare voordelen op het gebied van kosten (door schaalgrootte), risicobeheersing (door lange horizon) en het geeft de mogelijkheid om producten aan te bieden die op de financiële markten niet voorhanden zijn (door de interne fondsmarkt). Bovendien beschermt de verplichtstelling werknemers tegen pensioenanalfabetisme.
5.
Deze werknemers hebben al enkele jaren een doorsneepremie betaald die lager is dan hun actuarieel benodigde premie, dus ze hebben al een gedeeltelijke compensatie ontvangen. Maar omdat ze nog geen 65 zijn, is de teveel betaalde premie nog niet volledig gecompenseerd.
6.
Nota bene: dit is geen wettelijk afdwingbare claim.
Nekst 4 - June 2008
31
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08
FIRST STEPS IN THE MARKETING VILLAGE
O U R C U L I N A R Y A F FA I R
EXCURSION MARKETRESPONSE
R E P O R T O F T H E N I T VA
In the center of the Marketing Village in Leusden, a consultancy and marketing bureau, MarketResponse, is
On Tuesday, May 13 the TEV board organized a cooking workshop at ‘De Culinaire Affaire’.
specializing in doing research on the market. A group of Econometrics students laid, on March 18 2008, their
Around 6 pm we arrived. The TEV board looked lovely in their pink aprons with flowers!
first steps in the Marketing Village, for a planned visit to MarketResponse.
Here awaits them a presentation of the assets of MarketResponse and the role of econometrics in the research of market aspects. Here follows a brief compilation of this successful visit.
Name: Germain Rodriguez Begin studies: 2006
34
About MarketResponse MarketResponse is a consultancy and marketing bureau which carries out researches on different aspects of the economic market, like management concering costumers, employees, communication, portfolio and company management. It provides its customers with solutions and advice on different company aspects like optimal rendement on customer portfolio, communication budget and product portfolio. It can also supply companies with answers and advice on employee satisfaction and methods to improve the functioning of such companies. This is all done by means of quantitative and qualitative research.
Econometrics and Marketresponse MarketResponse conducts and processes researches in workteams. These consist of different knowlegde brainiacs, one of which is knowledge on econometric methods and applications like data analysis. When the results of a research are known, it is the duty of MarketResponse to convert these into useful information to the costumer. It is thus of utmost importance the role of econometrics in this process. Using mathematical econometrics and techniques it is possible to compute such usefullinformation. Logical thinking, data analysis, exact and technical way of thinking and skills in higher programming is thus a must. And these are all aspects which an econometrics should possess. Case study During their visit at Marketresponse, the group of econometrics students became acquainted with above mentioned aspects of the daily functioning of Marketresponse. They also handled a actual case, in order to get a better vision of the role of econometrics in Marketresponse. The case, in order of Randstad, was about how this company can get a grip on the course and conservation of its employees. The aim was to express the behaviour (loyalty) of these employees towards their jobs. After conducting data analysis and interpreting the actual results, these students also gave a short presentation to the constituent, simulating the real life scenario.
Nekst 4 - June 2008
After everybody had arrived, the chef-cook Marcel told us what we were about to do. We were going to make an eight-course amuse diner. We were divided into eight different groups, and each group would be making one course. Everybody started cooking very enthusiastically. Because there were 36 people, we needed a lot of ingredients. The vegetables and pieces of roast beef came from everywhere. Within a few minutes, the kitchen was very busy and everybody was working hard. Except for one group: the desert-makers. They had to wait because else the ice would melt. So Celine started wandering around, checking out all the delicious things that would be served later the evening, although not everything looked delicious yet. My group had to make a shrimp salad. While Alex and I cut the vegetables, Nelleke and Dieuwertje started to remove the intestines of the shrimps. They almost looked like real shrimp-surgeons. After an hour or so, most groups were finished and started doing the dishes, which of course is also a part of the cooking. After that we could go to table.
with the main courses. We had a course with pork meat and after that we had risotto. Of course everybody wasn’t just eating, we had to drink something too. So Bas decided to make sure some of us had enough wine. Everywhere he saw a half-empty glass, he refilled it with white wine. The board always needs to give the right example, you could say. After that, it was our turn. We still had to bake the shrimps and Marcel told us we should put some peppers in it too. But when we tried the shrimps, we found out we had maybe put in too many peppers. Finally, the best course came: desert! Ramon told us what they had been making for us, and from his story we understood that we would be eating pear with ice and chocolate. Unfortunately, there wasn’t enough ice, so me and a few others had a desert with just the chocolate and the pear. The chocolate brought up the child in Rens, Bas and Kay and they started rubbing melted chocolate onto each other! This evening, we had learnt how to cook (and how not to cook), we had a delicious dinner and a lot of fun! A very nice activity.
Name: Marleen Balvert Begin studies: 2007
Feit: Info
We started with a small cup filled with roast beef, peppers and salad. It was delicious. After that, Mark told us that his group had made something very special for us: garlic. With a bit of salmon and cucumber to finish it. It looked great: there was a slice of cucumber rolled up, and in the middle there was salmon with garlic sauce. The third course was very nice. It was a chicken-soup. There were a few vegetarians too, so they had the soup without the chicken. Paul was very surprised, and could not refuse to ask: “Vegetarians do eat chicken, right?” Very good, Paul. Once we had finished all of the entrées, we could start
Nekst 4 - June 2008
35
W H AT YO U R L E C T U R E R S D O W H E N THEY ARE NOT TEACHING COLUMN
Have you ever wondered what Henk Norde, Ruud Hendrickx, Hans Schumacher and all your other lecturers do when they are not teaching you? For the past several months, your Nekst columnist went undercover as a PhD-student in the Koopmansbuilding and found the answer.
During my period as an undercover columnist at the economics faculty I discovered that, besides teaching, your lecturers mainly engage in three other activities, namely: eating, sleeping and doing academic research. Although you are probably familiar with the first two activities, the third activity may be somewhat puzzling to you.
Natuurlijk kun je voor jezelf beginnen. Maar dat kun je ook bij ons komen doen. IMC Trading is gespecialiseerd in aandelen- en derivatenhandel voor eigen rekening. IMC Trading is naast marketmaking actief in het zelfstandig ontwikkelen van innovatieve trading strategieën. IMC Trading is onderdeel van de IMC groep met daarin naast Trading toonaangevend activiteiten op het gebied van Brokerage, Consultancy in derivaten en Asset Management. De ruim 600 medewerkers verdeeld over het hoofdkantoor in het financiële centrum van Amsterdam - Zuid WTC - en vestigingen in Chicago, Sydney, Zug en Hong Kong. We bestaan sinds 1989 en zijn een niet-hiërarchische, dynamische en jonge organisatie, waar innovatie en ondernemerschap voorop staan. Onze cultuur kenmerkt zich door professionaliteit, gedrevenheid en teamspirit. Vanwege de groei van onze activiteiten zijn we op zoek naar enthousiaste
Junior Traders - Strategists/ Trading Engineers Na een traineeship - dat bestaat uit een theoretisch, praktisch en strategisch gedeelte - kijken we welke richting het beste bij je past. Je profiel: een afgeronde academische studie, bijvoorbeeld een technische, of
What is this ‘academic research’? Well, in one sentence it can be explain it as: ‘trying to solve problems by making unrealistic assumptions’. Typically, they hope to tackle highly realistic problems, and then subsequently assume all kinds of ridiculous things like people being self-interested rational machines, markets being competitive and banks not charging you any transaction costs. If this still makes sense to you, let me introduce you to a very special type of academic researchers: those trying to solve unrealistic problems by making unrealistic assumptions. During my time as undercover columnist, I have searched and found the research solving the most unrealistic problem by making the most unrealistic assumptions. To my surprise, this research was conducted by one of the most famous economists at this time: Princeton professor and New York Times columnist Paul Krugman. In the seventies Krugman cracked the problem of how we can trade with aliens (The theory of interstellar trade, 1978). Some of the assumptions in
the paper are: (i) aliens exist (ii) we can communicate with aliens (iii) aliens are familiar with concepts like prices and interest rates (iv) both humans and aliens are selfinterested rational machines and (v) there are no transactions costs involved in buying and selling interstellar derivatives. Subsequently Krugman derives the ‘fundamental theorem of interstellar trade’: the interest rates on earth and on the planet of the aliens will be the same. Any differences in the interest rate will be arbitraged away by human or alien arbitrageurs. If you want to know whether your lecturers also solve unrealistic problems by making unrealistic assumptions, like Paul Krugman did in the seventies, then just have a quick glance at the publication lists of your lecturers and you will find the answer soon. I would like to end this column by leaving you with a couple of suggestions for the research topic for your Bachelor’s or Master’s thesis. After all, Paul Krugman left some unanswered questions for you to solve. For instance: does trade with aliens benefit from the introduction of an interstellar central bank? Can trade with aliens take place if our inertial frame differs from that of aliens? But beware: the final research question requires quite some knowledge of the general theory of relativity.
Name: Roel Mehlkopf
Feit: Info Feit: Info
kwantitatieve richting en affiniteit met financiële markten. Uitmuntende analytische vaardigheden en 0 tot 3 jaar werkervaring. Je bent van nature een teamplayer, innovatief, resultaatgericht en je wilt graag het maximale uit jezelf halen. Voor meer informatie kun je terecht bij Margo Nederhand, Recruiter (020-7988512). Een rekentest en/of development test kunnen onderdeel uitmaken van de selectieprocedure.
Trading globally
IMC (International Marketmakers Combination), Strawinskylaan 377, 1077 XX Amsterdam, www.imc.nl
Nekst 4 - June 2008
37
EINSTEIN’S PRINCIPLE OF R E L AT I V I T Y SPECIAL
Wij bieden je
landre del dignim zzriliquat vel cidunt dipis InleidingUt A conceptual irilrevolution dunt duipsus that has changed vulluptat. notions space tat. and Core time min asut well velas ulla of feuisi. matter and energy. gait, our velisDuismodolute doloboreof dipit lamet, comvelessit aliquat ad magnibh er simThe del aliquatummy num vel eros auguero
molo rtincilit lutat velenissi blaoreros
dolorem autem iriuscidunt nos eros
Lortisim end the nisassumption dignit, conof vel ether iusciduisl and the dolore solution venit, tosione tat.of Uscinit the greatest nullamet scientifi wis dunt c debates. nosaut enit estienonsed dunt odip of el in henissed dolobore conse ver num ilisi. aliquis eum loririusto sit aliquisit sum nos autat, vel dolor sit alisse fac-
Idunt augait wisl et, vel ulputat, sim
tatin henim enit wis ent eum velit lo-
niam, si.Ditnostie volorem odDignis ilis augait auguer autet nullummy nullandit nim cum quatet facillaverosto commy nulip etuer et duntalit velendre modio nos con hendre bor wis se feuismod magna con henisi
Dat wil niet zeggen dat je van Mars moet komen Als afgestudeerde wil je graag direct aan de slag. Bij ORTEC
Vanwege onze constante groei is ORTEC altijd op zoek
hoef je hier niet lang op te wachten. Je wordt direct op
naar enthousiaste studenten en afgestudeerden die de
projecten ingezet en krijgt veel eigen verantwoordelijkheid.
ruimte zoeken om zich te ontwikkelen en willen bijdragen
Bij ORTEC werken veel studenten. Sommigen schrijven bij
aan de volgende generatie optimalisatietechnologie.
ons een afstudeerscriptie, anderen werken enkele dagen per week als studentassistent.
Hiervoor denken we aan bèta’s in de studierichtingen: • Econometrie
Maar je staat er nooit alleen voor. Je kunt rekenen op
• Operationele Research
de expertise van je collega’s: stuk voor stuk experts
• Informatica
op het gebied van complexe optimalisatievraagstukken in
• Wiskunde
A0662
diverse logistieke en financiële sectoren. Hoogopgeleide, veelal jonge mensen die weten wat ze doen en jou naar een
Kijk voor vacatures en afstudeerplaatsen eens op
hoger niveau zullen brengen. Samen met je collega’s help je
www.ortec.com/atwork. Zit jouw ideale functie of afstu-
klanten gefundeerde beslissingen te nemen. Dit doe je met
deerplek er niet bij, stuur dan een open sollicitatie of
gebruik van wiskundige modellen en het toepassen van
scriptievoorstel naar
[email protected].
simulatie- en optimalisatietechnieken.
EPROFESSIONALS IN PLANNING
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It was Facinim iriusci ulput tis ut del tummolortio Dui euissi. blandreros nonsed dipit am clear that the scientific Laconse feuipsustiowas core puzzled conullummy digna sisis facilis ilisit exdolorpe eugue raestoAlisl utpat, andnulpuonly dolor ad ciliquam mod tie dolum consequisis niat estissim dolenim volore dolum in vendignacommunity ta tionsequisl eraessis augiam quat. duismodigna facinibh num dote consiusci blamcommod few anticipated that negative result. dolesto eum iure vullaoressim ercidunt atie temquat. in henim ming et alisim Igna diam, acilit lamcons eqMinminhent ullandr eriliqui blandre riusci do erit alit wis loreet lumacilluptat. iuscill aortisl ipis lamet,volorpe The strong supporters of the ether nulputpat ex elit Iduisit volendipit uislriurem dunt ilitnonsenit lor sim velit la feuisl estrud exquate elestin cidunt er summy eros nulput lore velis autat niscil dignitluptat cidui tried incil to explain the nulput result consendrem illuptatet aut eros veraesto lute min velsusto irit lorodolorperat sed elit ac-accumhypothesis blaor vent venismodolor incilisit faccumm delesse quamet ver si. assuming that the Earth la drags the prat. cum veliquis eugait nosto doloremnos velesequat estie conuldolobor se by eril utat olobore min volorperat. Ip et nisisis Equat. Ut utpat. Dui exero el dolor aulaore duiscipit, volenibh ex eugue min
Nekst 4 - June 2008
39
x - vt 1 - (v 2 / e 2)
x’ = z’ = z y’ = y
t - vx/c 2 1 - (v 2 / c 2)
t’ =
ether with it, as it drags the atmosphere. Therefore, close to the Earth’s surface the ether should be at rest relative to the Earth and thus the velocity of the ether drag would manifest itself in other phenomena connected with light propagation, such as the change in the direction of light coming from stars as the Earth moves along its orbit. Despite the great effort, such phenomena were never observed, so this solution was abandoned. 1905 was the year that the foundations of modern physics were established. After eight years of discussions and debates about the existence of the ether, the speed of light and the movements of stellar objects a 26 years old scientist working as a teaching assistant in the Swiss Patent Office, postulated the most revolutionary theory of the previous century rejecting the notion of the ether and generalizing the Newton’s theory of gravitation and mechanics.
40
Albert Einstein introduced the theory of relativity which can be summarized in the following sentences (in bold): Light travels though a vacuum at a constant speed c that is independent of the motion of the light source. So, regardless the direction of the propagation the velocity of light has a constant value and it does not depend on the relative movement of Earth. The laws of physics are the same for all inertial reference frames. In other words, the laws of physics are the same in all frames where the first Newton’s law of motion is applicable (frames with uniform linear motion under constant velocity and zero acceleration). After the postulation of his principle, Einstein extended the use of transformations developed by the Dutch astronomer Lorentz to study the relativistic effects. By introducing two reference frames, one with velocity equals zero and the other that moves
with constant velocity ν with respect with the fixed frame at direction x (so both satisfy the first law of Newton) and using the Cartesian system of coordinates we can write the transformation equations of the coordinates from the moving frame to the fixed one (the well known Lorentz transformations). From the above equations we can conclude that in the case that our test particle or object moves with velocity that approaches the velocity of light c, some effects (relativistic
If the length L 0 = x’ 2 - x’ 1 is measured in the moving reference frame, then L = x 2 - x 1 can be calculated using the Lorenz transformation. But since the two measurements made in the fixed frame are made simultaneously in that frame, t 2 = t 1, and:
effects) become important that are not present to the Newtonian theory. One important effect of relativity is the length contraction: The length of any object in a moving frame will appear foreshortened in the direction of motion, or contracted. The amount of contraction can be calculated from the Lorentz transformation. The length is maximum in the frame in which the object is at rest (fixed frame). Where γ is the Lorentz factor, indicative of the importance of relativistic effects. The closer the velocity ν to c is, the greater the γ is, and so the contraction is also greater.
If the time interval T 0 = t 2 - t 1 is measured in the moving reference frame, then T = t 2 - t 1 can be calculated using the lorentz transformation. t’ 2 - vx’ 2/c 2 - t’ 1 + vx’ 1/c 2 T = t’ 2 - t’ 1 = 1 - v 2/c 2 The time measurements made in the moving frame are made at the same location, so the expression reduces to:
T = T0 / (
1 - v 2/c 2
x 2 - vt 2 - x 1 + vt 1 L 0 = x’ 2 - X’ 1 = 1 - v 2/c 2 L = L0
1 - v 2/c 2
) = T 0/γ
Another important effect that proves the famous phrase ‘The time is relative’ is the time dilation: A clock in a moving frame will be seen to be running slow, or ‘dilated’ according to the Lorentz transformations. The time will always be shortest as measured in its rest frame. The time measured in the frame in which the clock is at rest is called the ‘proper time’. The third famous effect of relativity is that events that are simultaneous to one observer need not be simultaneous to another. Whether or not two things are simultaneous depends upon your frame of reference. The time order of events that are close together in time but distant in space can be different in different frames. Apart from the answers the theory of special relativity provides, it triggers further questions, something necessary for the scientific development. Some of those questions lead to paradoxes and extensive discussions in order to explain them. The most famous paradox related to special theory of relativity is the ‘Twin Paradox’: To begin with, we describe the situation with respect to the reference frame on Earth. The story is that one of a pair of twins leaves on a high speed space journey during which he travels at a large fraction of the speed of light while the other remains on the Earth. Because of time dilation, time is running more slowly in the spacecraft
as seen by the earthbound twin and the traveling twin will find that the earthbound twin will be older upon return from the journey. On the other hand, if we use as our reference frame that of spacecraft, the moving frame is that of Earth, so, Earth is moving with velocity that approaches the speed of light while the spacecraft is in fixed position. So, according to time dilation, the twin stayed on Earth should be the youngest one. So, different definition of reference frames leads to different results. But, who is right? The observer on the Earth or in the spacecraft? The scenario is complicated by the fact that the traveling twin must be accelerated up to traveling speed, turned around, and decelerated again upon return to Earth. So the first law of Newton is not applicable to the moving frame and the special theory or relativity is not sufficient to explain this paradox. The principle of relativity or better the theory of special relativity opened new horizons to research and explained many open questions of that time. It was a new theory that replaced the Newtonian theory and set the foundations of modern physics. It is the only theory eligible to describe high energetic particles and stellar objects with extremely high gravitational pressure like White dwarfs, Neutron stars and Black holes. [GP]
= L 0/γ
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41
DRUMMING AND ‘H E T L A N D VA N Q ’ L U S T R U M S P E C I A L A N D T H O M A S Z E L D E R S ’ PA S S I O N
This year, Tilburg University celebrates its 80th anniversary. This is the reason for a full year of special activities ranging from exhibitions and conferences, to parties and sports events. These activities are organized by and for students and employees as well as others that have an involvement or interest in Tilburg University. Also students of Econometrics play their part in these events, not only as visitors, but also as active participants.
Name: Thomas Zelders Begin studies: 2004 Passion: Playing drums
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The festive season started with the opening of the academic year 2007/2008 in September 2007. This marked the opening of the activities on the occasion of the 16 th lustrum of Tilburg University. Soon afterwards the first activities were held, among which was a masterclass by Michael Sandel on the subject ‘Should we strive to create the perfect man?’ Later on in the year several parties organized conferences on a variety of subjects. There were conferences on ‘Methodology of Law and Legal Research’ (organized by the Tilburg University Faculty of Law), ‘New Notes on the Definition of Western Culture’ (organized by the Nexus Institute), ‘The Magic of Body Language’ (Faculty of Humanities) and ‘The Connected Customer’ (Marketing Department of the Faculty of Economics and Business). Among the activities there were sportive events as well. One of those was an attempt to a World Record at blind simultaneous draughts by former world champion Ton Sijbrands. This activity was accompanied by lectures organized by Studium Generale. The attempt was a success when after more than 28 hours of play, Sijbrands’ last opponent gave in. Out of the 25 games that Sijbrands played simultaneously he managed to win 21. The other four ended in a draw. Also the cultural societies had planned a special activity on the occasion of the university’s 80 th anniversary. Like five years ago, a musical theatre production has been written especially for this occasion. The story has been developed by Margriet Dantuma, who was also in charge of the production in the occasion of the university’s 75 th university in 2003. Together with five other professional coaches she has been working with the cast and the band to prepare a show that was performed five times in May. The story is about Kyra, who has just graduated and is trying to find out what she really wants. Lately she has been making decisions based
on what her friends and family would do, but she feels like she should do what she herself wants. The title ‘Het Land van Q’ (the Land of Q) refers to the world in her head that she enters when she starts thinking about what she really wants. In this production there are also two students of Econometrics and Operations Research. One of them is Annick Traa. She is part of the ensemble, which means she does not have a very big role but a lot of little things to do in the background as well as a lot of parts to sing with the other members of the ensemble. The entire cast consists of about twenty people, all of very different backgrounds. Some are very experienced in acting, singing or dancing, others have hardly any background in this at all. Even though the intention was to mainly have students and employees of Tilburg University in the cast, there were many other successful candidates as well.
Supporting the cast with live music, the band plays an important role as well. Thomas Zelders, who is a fourth year student of Econometrics & OR, is the drummer of the band. His teacher pointed out to him on a certain afternoon that at the same day, there
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was an audition for the band of ‘Het Land van Q’. Thomas regarded it as rather short notice, but he decided to do the audition nonetheless. Looking back, he is very happy to have done so, because he would not have want to miss this experience for the world. When Thomas was four years old he started playing the djembe (a skin covered hand drum, meant to be played with bare hands). His mother played this instrument as well, and it had always fascinated him when he was little. He played this either alone or in a group with other kinds of African instruments. When he was nine years old, Thomas decided it was time for something else; another instrument, with more possibilities. He was not much into any of the melodically sounding instruments, he felt more for rhythm. Drums was the logical next step. Thomas has been drumming for thirteen years now. He has not been taking lessons all this time, but recently he has taken up classes at ‘Kubus’. Including his lessons, he spends about two hours a week at the drums, although recently he needed more time because he needed extra time to practice for ‘Het land van Q’. Before he lived in Tilburg, he had a specially isolated room in the house of his parents where he could practice as long and as wildly as he wanted. There were times when he would practice several hours each day. During those days he made great progress. Unfortunately, his parents moved and he was forced to move his drums somewhere else. He considered selling the drums but then his housemates in Tilburg then suggested he could take them to their house in Tilburg. They are not bothered by Thomas playing the drums, as long as he does not play before 1 pm, because they want some peace and quiet while they are waking up. Because Thomas does not want to disturb his housemates and the neighborhood, he does not
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play as much as back in Nijmegen. Thomas’ favorite styles to play range from jazz and latin, to pop and hiphop. The best thing is that those styles can easily be combined, for example one can give a rock song a reggae flavor. According to Thomas, Steve Gadd is a genius in mixing different styles. Other examples for Thomas are Dave Weckl and Vinnie Colaiuta.
When he was sixteen years old, he was part of a band for a while. They had several performances, but they broke up after two years. After that he had not played together with other musicians until the possibility as drummer in the band for ‘Het land van Q’ crossed his path. It was great to work together with some great (both personally as well as musically) other musicians, to create the music to the production. The composer for this production, Joop van Dijk, did not just present the music on paper to the musicians, but he would describe to them what he had in mind and everyone in the band would give their own creative input. This had its disadvantages because often it took a long time before the improvisations, that sometimes were very chaotic in the beginning, turned into the pieces of music that fitted the picture that Joop had in mind. Until short before the performances were
held for the public, many parts had not been completely finished yet. And with the deadline coming up, this was not a very comfortable feeling. Even though the creative process might have been with some bumps and turns, Thomas thinks this way of working contributed to why the audience responded so well to the music. Because they created the music together, the band really formed a whole instead of just a group of separate musicians, each playing their part. During rehearsals, the band was really close. They would often spend another hour together after rehearsal was over, just to do some jamming together. Thomas really enjoyed this and they managed to create some great things. Now that ‘Het land van Q’ is over, Thomas and two other musicians of the band have formed a new band together with Stefanie Vatta, who was a member of the cast in ‘Het land van Q’. Thomas is very impressed by the songs that Stefanie writes so he is really looking forward to working with them in the future. Their first performance has already taken place at the singer/songwriter contest at Paradox (Tilburg). It is a contest for students that make their own music. They were the only band participating in this area, so this means they automatically passed to the next round in Eindhoven which is where the winners from all other participating cities will compete against each other for the title. Altogether, Thomas has really enjoyed working on ‘Het land van Q’. Not only for the musical experience that he gained, but also because the cast and the band formed a wonderful group to work with. He is happy that by being in this production he got to know some other enthusiastic musicians that he is still playing with in the new band.In the end, over six hundred people have seen the production and the cast, as well as the band and the creative team were more than satisfied with the result. [AT ]
43
W O R K I N G AT T H E S K Y L I N E O F TILBURG
Wat doe je? als je weet
EXCURSION LIFE INSURANCE
dat de beroepsbevolking steeds kleiner wordt
One of the most well-known buildings in Tilburg is the Westpoint, the second largest and most well-known is definitely the Interpolis building. Many residents of Tilburg pass by these buildings every day, as do many students. This does not necessarily mean that students are aware of the work done inside the building or the special way of working at Interpolis Tilburg.
De Nederlandse bevolking vergrijst, mensen leven gemiddeld langer en er worden minder kinderen
In addition to the possibility of visiting the company by bike instead of using public transport, this was one of the reasons to visit Interpolis with a group of thirty students from the Life Insurance course. The purpose of the day was to see how Life Insurance is used in practice at Interpolis, meet the people there and get a taste of the atmosphere on the floor. Passing through the big glass gateway brought us into the lobby of the building. The revolving doors are the only things that make you aware of the change from outside to inside the building because the walls and floors are the same on both sides of the glass.
geboren. Dit betekent dat de pensioenlasten zullen stijgen. Dit heeft ook ingrijpende gevolgen voor een verzekeringsmaatschappij. Binnen Achmea is de actuaris de aangewezen persoon om te berekenen en uit te leggen wat de vergrijzing betekent: wat zijn de financiële effecten van wet- en regelgeving? En wat betekent dit voor de prijs en premiestelling van producten? En hoe gaan we de in- en externe rapportage hierover zo efficiënt mogelijk inrichten?
Actuaris
Achmea
Natuurlijk houdt de actuaris zich binnen Achmea
Het motto van Achmea luidt: Achmea ontzorgt.
niet alleen met dit vraagstuk bezig, maar ook
Om dat waar te kunnen maken, hebben we
met alle andere relevante maatschappelijke
medewerkers nodig die verder kijken dan hun
vraagstukken. Als (aankomend) actuaris binnen
eigen bureau. Die oog hebben voor wat er
Achmea kan jij je op verschillende vakgebieden
speelt. Maar vooral: mensen die zich inleven in
ontwikkelen. Als grootste actuariële werkgever in
onze klanten en dat weten te vertalen naar
Nederland bieden we veel mogelijkheden in
originele oplossingen. Achmea onderscheidt
jouw vakgebied op verschillende locaties.
zich door haar maatschappelijke betrokkenheid.
van ons personeelsbestand een afspiegeling te
Heb jij een actuariële achtergrond? Of heb je
laten zijn van de maatschappij. Wij zijn ervan
een bèta studie als wis/natuur/sterrenkunde of
overtuigd dat diversiteit in culturen bijdraagt
econometrie voltooid en wil je actuaris worden?
aan zakelijk en persoonlijk succes.
Dan maken we graag kennis met jou! Wij vragen nadrukkelijk ook parttimers om te solliciteren.
Meer weten? Voor meer informatie over de functie kun je
Wat we bieden
bellen met Joan van Breukelen, recruiter,
Wij bieden een afwisselende baan in een
(06) 20 95 7231. We ontvangen je sollicitatie
moderne en enthousiaste organisatie.
graag via www.werkenbijachmea.nl.
The afternoon closed with an interactive, risk management game. After a short explanation by Ramon van Oppen, the groups role played the management of a life insurance company. Several measures could be taken to increase the performance of the company in terms of market share and profit. These measures included launching a marketing campaign or differentiating the premiums of smokers and non-smokers. The initial results were based on pure expected value and risk was not taken into account, this made increasing the amount of risky assets in the portfolio
The group gathered inside the spacious lobby and an Interpolis employee led us to a smaller conference room in which several presentations were scheduled for the afternoon. One of the windows in the room looked out on to the Spoorlaan. After an introduction by Jan den Boer about life as an actuary within Interpolis/Achmea, we were presented with a fine lunch. Participants had enough time to eat and chat with some of the Interpolis employees as well as to prepare for the following presentations and a guided tour through the building.
Het streven van Achmea is om de samenstelling Wat we vragen
the concept is used in practice.
De arbeidsvoorwaarden zijn uitstekend: bijvoorbeeld een13e maand, een pensioenvoorziening en een marktconform salaris.
CENTRAAL BEHEER ACHMEA
Bovendien kun je rekenen op veel mogelijk-
FBTO
heden tot persoonlijke en professionele
AV É R O A C H M E A
ontwikkeling.
INTERPOLIS Z I LV E R E N K R U I S A C H M E A
Niels van der Kammen gave a presentation about rate differentiation in risk insurers. Questions came up about tariffs for smokers and non-smokers. Smokers have a higher risk of dying earlier so it would be unfair to charge them the same premiums as non-smokers. Ethics seemed to be an important issue in risk management. Two tour guides gave a presentation about ‘Helder Werken’, the concept that has been used by Interpolis for several years. This means that nobody (except for one person, the company doctor) has his or her own desk. Employees have a notebook and a phone which they can pick up from their personal locker in the morning. With these items they can sit down at any desk in the building and work there. Any desk is really any desk, it is even possible to sit down in the corner where the executive board works, but that might raise some eyebrows and eventually lead to a request to find another desk. This concept is really special, every day there are guided tours of the building and many companies are interested to see how
worthwhile. In the second round risk was included and increasing the variance of the portfolio decreased its value immediately so other measures had to be taken to achieve better results. Numbers were hardly used, so most of the participating econometricians had to make a mental switch to reasoning instead of calculating. This seems inevitable when working in an actuarial position. All in all, the excursion provided insights into the work done in one of the most prominent buildings of the Tilburg skyline and the practical side of the Life Insurance course. [KM]
O n t z o r g e n i s e e n wer k wo o rd Nekst 4 - June 2008
45
P I Z Z A AT R U U D ’ S THE TEACHER LIVING IN LODGINGS
“It is just over four kilometers to the Langeboom pub,” Ruud Hendrickx said. Normally a student would not be surprised to hear such a remark, but to hear your lecturer say it is of course far more interesting. Ruud
to come over and play another game, such as ‘De kolonisten van Catan’ or Risk. Until just a few years ago he was also an enthusiastic chess player.
Hendrickx is not only a well-known teacher, he is also a fascinating man living in Tilburg West and enjoying life. Ruud Hendrickx is known as the teacher who knows nearly every EOR student by name. He confesses that this special trick was very hard this year because of the extraordinary large group of freshmen. Ruud Hendrickx is also known as the only teacher present at almost every TEV drink. But most of all, Ruud is known for all the coffee he drinks on the fifth floor of the Koopmans building. “Oh, by coffee you mean the brown stuff that comes out of those machines?”
Name: Ruud Hendrickx Begin studies: 1996 Size: 82 square meters Costs: 380 euro’s Adress: Azuurweg 94 Roommates: None From: 6 november 2001 Until: Infinitive time 46
Ruud started his studies econometrics at Tilburg in 1996. In 2000 he graduated and began his PhD. Since he is not a nine-to-five person, he opted out of a career in the business world. After he finished his doctorate, he started working as an academic lecturer in the department. Usually PhDs from Tilburg are not allowed to work in the department. Ruud has received an now grant (the NWO is the Dutch Organization for Scientific Research) and is thus able to work for the department. Ruud divided his time between education (30%) and research (70%). However he sees the supervision of theses as research too. He is specialized in game theory and works together with several colleagues on the fifth floor. This summer he will go to Poland with several colleagues for a conference on game theory. He will be accompanied by Marloes, Edwin and Henk and will present some of his own research. He will also make a trip to Chicago for an international conference on game theory this summer. This conference is held once every three years and he will leave for Chicago with John and Gerwald. The costs of both conferences will be subsidized by the university on account of their distance and the subject of the conference. These conferences are for everyone interested in game theory, but will mostly provide an overall view of
the current research progress instead of an elaboration of theory. Ruud thinks these conferences will be very useful for getting an indication of current research. Considering the contemporary state of academia, Ruud’s opinion of the current EOR level is promising. Econometrics and Operations Research is as difficult today as it was ten years ago. Nowadays, the main difference is the inability to choose your own courses. He would have liked to have seen that slightly different. “However, this is not my responsibility,” he comments somewhat relieved. Ruud has got a good relationship with most of the people in the department. He likes to chat with his colleagues and drink some coffee, “preferably espresso”, during breaks. We should also mention all the activities the department organizes, such as dinners and bungee soccer at the Voltage. The university also organized a staff party at the Efteling for all UvT departments and student assistants in May.
If Ruud is alone at home he likes to listen to classical music. He has got a huge collection of CDs: 998 to be precise. Because he does not like any composer in particular, his collection is very broad and large. He listens to Mozart, Bach and Beethoven. “My choice is based on my mood at that time.” Ruud watches a lot of opera too. He obviously likes classical music. “I am a passive musician: I only listen to the music.” Since the two sections Living in Lodgings and The teacher are melted together in this article, there are of course some must-knows about Ruud’s apartment. Before he began his studies in Tilburg, he lived with his parents
in Venlo. During his studies he lived near the Piushaven. Unfortunately, he had to leave this location during his studies because the owner died. Thus he moved to near the Bredaseweg. When he finished his studies he moved to the apartment he currently lives in. His apartment is situated in Tilburg West, almost twenty minutes from the city center. He has had this apartment for over six years now and returns to his parents in Venlo once every six weeks. When Ruud moved here his uncle and sister gave him a hand. He has a few Asian statues, which he received from his grandmother from her trip to Sri Lanka. Ruud confesses he is not a traveler himself, despite all the professionrelated trips mentioned above. He does like Italy which he knows well including the south where the mafia is very well entrenched. “You notice that the people are very reserved and less friendly.” The man living next to Ruud is very kind and he enjoys listening to his other neighbor play the piano. Compared to a student flat, this apartment is extremely peaceful. During the interview Ruud served risotto and later pizza, both of which were delicious. An econometrician for twelve years, Ruud still knows where to find the TEV drink. He almost always attends and likes to chat with students. He was not pleased with the last three drinks, however, because of the absence of the traditional ‘bitter balls’. Despite this, all TEV members will certainly welcome him as a familiar face next time. [FF]
Ruud Hendrickx’s choices: Bert or Ernie: Cookie Monster Chess or Bridge: Bridge Black or white: Black Tilburg or Venlo: Venlo Zero or infinite: Zero Kolonisten or Risk: Kolonisten Korte Heuvel or Piusplein: Piusplein Kebab or Pizza: Pizza Esplanade or Mensa: Mensa Logit or Probit: Logit Benno or Billy (IKEA): Billy
After a day of hard work Ruud is still vital enough to play a game of bridge in the evening several times a week. And if he is not out for a game of bridge, he asks people
Nekst 4 - June 2008
Nekst 4 - June 2008
47
WITH A GOLDEN TOUCH ECONOMIC BUSINESS WEEK TILBURG
April 1, 2008, 8 pm, La Vida, Tilburg. After a year of hard work with seven others, the moment had finally arrived: the kick-off of the Economic Business week Tilburg 2008. To celebrate the EBT’s tenth anniversary, guests enjoyed a glass of cava before the show.
Name: Kim Weistra Function: Vice chairman EBT
The eight of us were all proud and excited that the event we worked on so hard would finally start and it was nice to see so many familiar faces in La Vida. The night started off with a word of welcome from Ireen, chairman of the EBT. Then the floor was given over to Jan Terlouw who gave an interesting speech on choices and responsibilities when entering the labor market. After this Rob van der Geer, chairman of the first EBT in 1999, talked about the initiation of the EBT and the process of organizing the event for the first time. Now it was time for some serious comedy; the Comedy Café Amsterdam presented a tailor-made comedy show. The MC and three comedians created a fun and relaxed atmosphere and the associations and people within the EBT organization were obviously the target of and inspiration for parts of the show. The night was a great success and the next day we started our career event at Tilburg University with the Training Day. After a good but brief night of sleep, we arrived at the university at 7 am to have breakfast together and go over the day’s script. Every morning breakfast was prepared by two chairmen from the participating organizations which was a good way to start the day. The first day was Training Day, the day with the most companies, most students and most different locations, so we knew it was going to be fun, but tough. The training sessions varied from application training to training on how to dress formally and one session even included a little magic. During lunch and the informal drink we received a lot of enthusiastic reactions from both companies and students which was great to hear. It was a long and busy day but above all a successful first day at the university. On Thursday morning the Small and Medium sized Enterprises (SME) presented
48
themselves. We started the day with eight workshops in different disciplines in, for example, marketing and finance. These workshops were small, interactive sessions during which companies presenting themselves to the students and the students proved their skills while working on a company case. After these workshops there was a lecture by Jorg Altenburg, co-founder of Mise en Place, on entrepreneurship and the history of Mise en Place. Jorg proved to be a great speaker and everyone in the auditorium enjoyed the lecture very much.
From left to right: Kim Weistra, Mike Vermunt, Marije Alblas, Thijs Rops, Pauline Geertman, Thijmen Carelsz, Ireen Geerbex and Thijs Rops The afternoon was reserved for the Informal Activity, a new part of the program. Students could introduce themselves to Delta Lloyd during a finger food workshop and those interested in accounting enjoyed a comedy show by Wilco Terwijn and a luxurious dinner at Villa de vier Jaargetijden with the Big4. Since it was the first time that the Informal Activity was part of the program, it was exciting to see how both companies and
Nekst 4 - June 2008
students evaluated it. The two activities were very different but both were reviewed positively so let’s hope that next year the EBT gets the opportunity to take this activity to the next level. While the students and companies enjoyed these activities, we organizers had to gather all our bags, gifts, banners, laptops and all our other stuff and move it from the university to the Willem II Conference Center where our Assessment Center would take place the following day. Arriving at the Willem II Conference Center on the morning of April 4, the EBT flag was already flying above the entrance. When all the students and companies had arrived and were enjoying a nice cup of coffee, we started the program with a lecture on assessments by Wouter Lucassen from Meurs HRM. He talked about assessments in general and discussed the results from the online test every participant had taken beforehand. At the end of the lecture each student received their test results and it was time to start with the first round. During the day each student had a workshop with three different companies to discuss three different aspects of an assessment. Where some workshops incorporated a game, others were more formal and the workshop programs varied from role-playing to ‘bad-news conversations’. The day ended with an informal social and then it was time to go home to rest up over the weekend. Monday, April 7, was the first of the company presentation days. During this second week of the EBT, 58 companies presented themselves in a variety of ways. The week was filled with company presentations, workshops, high teas and dinners with on April 8 the Case Day. Companies from all sectors of the economy were present and the activities permitted students
Nekst 4 - June 2008
to come into contact with companies in different ways; they could go to presentations for orientations or they could make individual appointments to arrange internships or even a job. On Tuesday the Case Day took place in the Willem II Conference Center. The program consisted of a company case in the morning and early afternoon; after this ‘formal’ part of the day it was time for a more informal activity with the company via ‘Old Dutch games’. Students and recruiters enjoyed themselves with all sort of games like ‘sjoelen’ and ‘muismeppen’ and for the people who were not into these games there could taste wines or just enjoy an informal drink. Then it was time for the etiquette dinner. Willem II arranged a luxurious dinner and Baron van Voorst tot Voorst talked us through the dinner with facts and tips on etiquette. At the beginning of the dinner we took a mini-test and nobody managed to get all answers correct so we all acquired some new and interesting information from Mr. van Voorst tot Voorst.
After the Case Day there were two more exciting and busy company presentation days. During the informal drink on Thursday the eight of us switched off our telephones and then it hit us: this was it! For a year we worked together so intensively to get these eight days as perfect as possible and when we started on April 1st it felt like we had so much ahead of us and now we had done it; it was over, we had created eight wonderful, exciting and interesting days. That evening the chairmen of the associations organized a great party for us at LaSalle and at the end of the evening we gathered together to share out mixed feelings. We were proud of what we had accomplished, but also sad because it was over. Looking back we gladly note that the EBT 2008 was a great success and we hope everyone enjoyed it as much as we did. But all good things come to an end, so that was it for the tenth edition of the Economic Business week Tilburg. Let’s look forward to next year!
49
DE WERKNEMERS ZIJN HET VERSCHIL
TITEL
B E D R I J F S I N T E R V I E W P R I C E WAT E R H O U S E C O O P E R S
INTERVIEW
Op een zomerse lentedag, waarop de rest van studerend Nederland letterlijk haar vrijheid viert, hebben
InleidingPerilis duismolobor sed do od te tetuerci tet volorperiure facil enim dolenibh ese digna commodipit,
twee redactieleden de missie om werknemers van ‘one of the big four’ te interviewen. Het bedrijf in kwestie
sequat.
luistert naar een combinatie van namen die PricewaterhouseCoopers vormt, ook bekend als PwC. En het
Lorperaesto od molorero do et lumsandit wis nisissequis doloreetue tie velis dolore delit velenim vullutpat
blijkt dat vrijheid ook binnen dit bedrijf erg leeft.
aliqui tat. Ecte tat, quiscidunt vent ver iliquis ad ero dolor
Een hele delegatie PwC’ers staat ons op te wachten. Als eerste is daar Jacques de Swart van de afdeling Quantitative Analysis (QA) en als tweede zal Jaap Groen toelichten wat econometristen op de afdeling Pensions Actuarial and Insurance Services (PAIS) zoal kunnen doen. Maar voordat we daadwerkelijk aan het interview beginnen, worden we geïntroduceerd in de wereld die PwC NL heet.
Naam: Jaap Groen Leeftijd: 27 jaar Afdeling: PAIS afdeling Functie: Consultant Advies
50
PwC heeft drie lines of service, te weten Assurance, Advisory en Tax & Human Resource Services. QA valt onder Advisory en PAIS onder de laatste line of service. Jaap Groen werkt dus op een van de twee econometristenafdelingen. Hij studeerde actuariaat aan de Universiteit van Amsterdam en was tevens actief bij de Algemene Amsterdamse Studenten Roeivereniging Skøll, waar hij zelfs in het bestuur zetelde als penningmeester. Tijdens dat jaar is hij ook voor twee dagen in de week werkstudent geweest als vervolg op zijn stage die hij bij PwC gelopen heeft. “Het beviel mij uitstekend binnen PwC dus besloot ik om na mijn scriptie over schadeverzekeringen te solliciteren voor een baan als werkstudent,” licht Jaap toe. Sinds 1 januari 2006 werkt hij op de afdeling PAIS, samen met zestig andere mensen. Het auditseizoen is het zwaartepunt van het jaar voor PAIS: “Binnen PwC zijn we de enige afdeling die pensioenberekeningen kan controleren. Aangezien er op onze afdeling een man of dertig zich richt op deze controles en we accountantsopdrachten binnenhalen met drieduizend accountants, kan het in die periode vrij druk worden omdat bijna alle pensioenberekeningen langs ons komen.” De rest van het jaar voert Jaap ook zelf
pensioenberekeningen uit of adviseert over de risico’s rondom de pensioenvoorziening bij een eventuele fusie of overname. Een ander type project waar Jaap regelmatig bij betrokken is, is het beschrijven van de berekeningen die verzekeraars uitvoeren en het opzetten van controlemaatregelen hierin, zodat klanten een beter inzicht krijgen in en controle krijgen op hun berekeningen. Jacques de Swart, die al iets langer op de arbeidsmarkt rondloopt, studeerde in Utrecht. Numerieke Wiskunde was de studie die hij na zes jaar in 1993 afrondde. Tijdens zijn studententijd was hij lid van
het Utrechtsch Studenten Corps en na zijn studie besloot hij om te promoveren op het gebied van differentiaalvergelijkingen. Nu is hij dus werkzaam bij de afdeling Quantitative Analysis, waar meer dan de helft van de ongeveer vijftien werknemers econometrie gestudeerd heeft. Op deze afdeling is men vooral bezig met data, modellen en rekenen. De interviewers zijn niet bekend met dit soort afdelingen dus een duidelijke uitleg volgt: “Wij leggen data vast, schonen deze op en proberen hierover verslagen te schrijven. Wij analyseren modellen, sleutelen er aan en maken ook zelf modellen.” Een duidelijk voorbeeld zijn spreadsheets met in oorsprong eenvoudige rekenmodellen. Deze groeien vaak uit tot enorme, onoverzichtelijke spaghettimodellen. Het is voor een bedrijf van het grootste belang om te weten of deze modellen nog betrouwbaar zijn en zo niet, om ze te verbeteren en overzichtelijker te maken. Adviseurs van QA kunnen in dit proces van toegevoegde waarde zijn door hun vakkennis en praktijkervaring te koppelen en te projecteren op een apart bedrijf. Binnen PwC wordt er veel samengewerkt tussen QA en PAIS. Als er een opdracht binnenkomt, wordt er door de afdelingen altijd even gekeken of het mogelijk is om samen te werken. “Als een verzekeraar naar ons toekomt met berekeningen voor actuarissen, kan het best zijn dat de datasystemen ook geanalyseerd dienen te worden,” ligt Jaap toe. Daar komt misschien het eerste verschil naar boven tussen PwC en andere actuariële kantoren. Natuurlijk zijn er ook nog andere verschillen. De werknemers van PwC zijn, vergeleken met de andere kantoren, waarschijnlijk het grootste verschil. “Binnen
Nekst 4 - June 2008
Nekst 4 - June 2008
PwC is er voldoende kritische massa om het nodige rekenwerk te kunnen verrichten, maar dien je ook open te staan voor het multidisciplinaire samenwerken,” vertelt de oudste van de twee. Het van oudsher Londense kantoor herbergt in Nederland ruim 4500 werknemers verdeeld over zeventien kantoren. Op twee van deze kantoren, in Amsterdam en Utrecht, kun je met grote zekerheid econometristen tegenkomen. Een andere eigenschap die PwC onderscheidt van anderen is het studiebudget. Dat is namelijk het hoogste van allemaal. Binnen PAIS worden econometristen aangemoedigd om door te studeren tot actuaris. “Je krijgt een dag in de week studieverlof en toch de helft van deze dag doorbetaald,” verklaart Jaap de soepele studieregeling binnen PwC. Lesgeven doen weinig mensen op de afdeling van Jaap. Diegenen die dit wel doen, zijn veelal actief binnen het Actuarieel Instituut. Op de afdeling van Jacques is de binding met de wetenschap een stuk groter. Zelf geeft hij les in Rotterdam, op het NivRA en in Amsterdam. Ook is het altijd mogelijk om een afstudeeronderzoek te begeleiden. “Wij vinden het zeer belangrijk om met de theorie bezig te zijn,” vertelt Jacques, “aangezien het niveau van onze afdeling dan stijgt.” Een laatste duidelijk verschil is de gelijke behandeling van mannen en vrouwen. Als eerste bedrijf in Nederland biedt PwC mannen een tiendaags ‘papa-verlof ’ aan, voor mannen wiens partner bevallen is. Wettelijk zijn maar twee vrije dagen verplicht. Ook na deze tien dagen is het altijd mogelijk om gedeeltelijk thuis te werken of vrij te krijgen voor je kinderen. Jacques is bijvoorbeeld ook een ochtend in de week voorleesouder op de basisschool van zijn kinderen.
Naam: Jacques de Swart Leeftijd: 39 jaar Afdeling: Quantative Analysis Functie: Director Performance Improvement
51
Vrijheid is voor sommige personen een probleem, aangezien je voor je eigen uren én je functioneren zelf verantwoordelijk bent. “Maar de personen die deze verantwoordelijkheid niet aan kunnen zijn bijna niet te vinden binnen dit bedrijf. Ons interne HR-management is namelijk vooral gericht op het afremmen van té gemotiveerde collega’s,” stelt Jaap ons gerust. Op de afdeling QA is de vrijheid misschien nog groter, omdat deze PwC’ers meer dan de helft van de werktijd bij de klant over de vloer zijn. Ondanks de ambititie die binnen PwC leeft, heerst er geen ellebogen- maar juist een platte cultuur. Dit heeft verschillende redenen. Ten eerste is de up-orout cultuur grotendeels verdwenen omdat er steeds meer seniors nodig zijn om de complexer wordende materie te begrijpen. Ook is men voor de doorgroei niet afhankelijk van vacatures op meer seniore posities: iemand kan altijd zijn eigen afdeling beginnen. Daarnaast worden er binnen PwC en ook daarbuiten meerdere niet-werkgerelateerde activiteiten georganiseerd. Natuurlijk is er de traditionele vrijdagmiddagborrel, waar een heel kantoor gezellig samenkomt, maar er zijn ook unieke activiteiten. Zo zetelt Jaap in een klankbordgroep die discussieert over
deelname van PwC in projecten voor de samenleving en roeit hij in de bedrijfsacht, een nationale competitie tussen verschillende bedrijven met een roeiteam. Op de afdeling wordt er iedere dag rond half vier voor tien minuten het werk neergelegd en een potje gevoetbald. “Reken maar dat je mee gaat doen als die bal alweer jouw kantoor binnenvliegt,” lacht Jaap. Binnen QA is een wedstrijdje voetbal iets moeilijker te organiseren omdat het grootste deel van de afdeling bij een klant op kantoor is. “Maar daarom gaan wij wel met de hele groep skiën in de winter,” reageert Jacques. PwC is ook voorstander van gezonde werknemers. Nu zal iedere werkgever dit zijn, maar hier wordt er echt aan gewerkt. Jacques traint momenteel met een PwC-groep voor de marathon van Chicago. Een deel van de gemaakte kosten worden door PwC betaald. En ook voor de huidige student kan PwC enorm interessant zijn. Binnen de afdeling PAIS, in Utrecht en in Amsterdam, is er altijd plaats voor een werkstudent. Daarnaast is het mogelijk om stage te lopen en je scriptie te schrijven, voor een periode varierend van drie tot zes maanden. Ook meeloopdagen zijn geen probleem op deze afdeling. De laatste mogelijkheid op deze afdeling is een project dat de
naam ‘Perfecte Vakantiebaan’ draagt. Kortweg werk je twee weken op het kantoor van PwC en maak je kennis met allerlei verschillende personen en disciplines. Binnen QA is de situatie iets ingewikkelder, aangezien er minder standaard werk is. Werkstudenten zijn dan ook niet aanwezig op deze afdeling. Stages zijn daarentegen wel mogelijk. Als laatste mogelijkheid wordt een traineeship genoemd, dat niet onder een specifieke line of service valt. Dit traineeship is nog in ontwikkeling maar zal binnenkort van start gaan. Omdat PwC bijna in iedere sector werkzaam is, is het mogelijk om overal mee te kijken. “Na een tijd meegelopen te hebben in verschillende lines of service kunnen mensen beter een keuze maken welke richting het beste bij hen past dan wanneer zij dat direct bij binnenkomst doen,” legt Jaap het doel van het traineeship uit. Ook een switch naar het buitenland behoort tot de mogelijkheden binnen PwC. Jaap: “Dat is een verrijking voor de werknemer en dus ook goed voor het bedrijf. Zelf wil ik ook wel van deze vrijheden gebruik maken.” Vanuit QA zijn er momenteel twee medewerkers uitgezonden naar buitenlandse PwC vestigingen. Eén naar London en één naar Auckland. [BH]
of weet jij* een betere plek voor het echte werk? www.werkenbijpwc.nl Assurance • Tax • Advisory
*connectedthinking 52
Nekst 4 - June 2008
©2007 PricewaterhouseCoopers. Alle rechten voorbehouden.
“TIKI, JIJ BENT HEM”
Bedenk jij de formule voor de toekomst?
M E M B E R S D AY
The location for this year’s TEV members day was Duinrell! Looking back, this was a great choice because the weather, the swimming and the atmosphere among the participants made this a wonderful day.
Het financiële speelveld is complexer dan ooit. En het verandert nog elke dag. Dat vraagt
On May 7 at 9.45 am we gathered at Tilburg Central Station. Luckily this was too early, which gave each of us some time left to make sure we had not forgotten our swimsuits. We left for Wassenaar by bus. The journey there was a party in itself and even the bus driver joined in. We were slightly delayed because every roundabout was taken twice.
om jong talent met een flexibele geest. Professionals die op basis van hun cijfermatige inzicht, kennis en gezond verstand, adviezen geven waar toekomstige generaties op kunnen bouwen. Waarmee bijvoorbeeld het pensioen van miljoenen Nederlanders optimaler wordt gefinancierd.
Junior investment consultants m/v Mercer biedt je een werkplek waar dit kan. De sfeer is informeel en inhoudelijk. Terwijl je werkt binnen een internationale organisatie die staat voor financieel-strategische dienstverlening op het hoogste niveau. En er is ook alle ruimte voor jouw toekomst. Meer weten? Neem dan contact op met Danielle Raalte, 020-5419469 of
[email protected]
During the first part of the day we visited the amusement park that is part of Duinrell. With lunchbox in hand, the TEV members stormed the park. After a short sanitary stop, we quickly walked past minitrains, swinging chairs and a giant wheel, in search of the real stuff. We wanted to go on the Goliath first and were slightly disappointed that we had to settle for the ‘kikkerachtbaan’. Fortunately, the warm sunlight on our faces, made even this ride a true adventure. After finishing the first ride, we jumped on the toboggan run which really got things going! The ‘Splash’ was a perfectly refreshing ride. We sat in little boats and were pulled upwards. Once we reached the top we flew down and caused a big splash that not only cooled us down, but also anyone standing on the bridge watching us. We were very glad
that the organizing committee had ordered a lot of sunshine; it made our wet and sticky jeans dry in no time at all. In the afternoon we visited the ‘Tikibad’. Once we got into the water the little kids in us came to life again. We even challenged each other to go down the slide as fast as possible and to go down the slide with as many people at the same time as possible without being tossed out of the pool. These econometricians tried to distinguish themselves even on Members Day, a day organized to relax and get some rest! We were happy that none of the other people in the Tikibad realized who we were and how hard we study. We were just part of a typical group of students. Swimming works up a real hunger and the TEV knew this. Around five o’clock we left for Breda by bus to enjoy a panga fish, ham off the bone or a vegetable quiche with a salad and french fries. It was a delicious ending to a wonderful day! After this sunny day of splashing and fun, I left my doubts regarding the infamous TEV pun behind me. The TEV Members Day is definitely VET! Let me introduce another one: “Tiki, jij bent hem.”
Name: Stephan van Stalborch Begin studies: 2007 Feit: Info
IT’S TIME TO CALL MERCER www.werkenbijmercer.nl RETIREMENT • HEALTH & BENEFITS • INVESTMENT CONSULTING • HUMAN CAPITAL AMSTELVEEN • ARNHEM • GRONINGEN • ’s-HERTOGENBOSCH • ROTTERDAM
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ALL THE INGREDIENTS ARE THERE
THE NETHERLANDS WILL BE THE EUROPEAN CHAMPION IN SOCCER
COMITTEE PROFILE BUSINESS RESEARCH PROGRAM 2008
OPINION POLL
The Business Research Program committee 2008 started just before the last Business Research Program
This summer the Netherlands will participate in the European soccer championships in Austria and
(BRP), that is, in the fall of 2007. Lots of meetings, treats and discussions helped BRP 2008 start to become
Switzerland. The entire country will turn orange and we will all be cheering for our national team. A few
more and more concrete.
econometricians express their view on our odds.
The BRP committee 2008 consists of five members. First we have our chairman Mathijs Jansen, Manon Geertsen is our treasurer, Tim Thijssen and Thomas Zelders take care of Public Relations and Nicole van Reij is secretary. The first couple of meetings were mainly about finding a participating company. We started with a list of eight possible companies that had notified the TEV they might be interested in participating. The BRP in 2007 was related to Operations Research and Management Science, so this year we decided it would be good to have a company in the fields of Quantitative Finance and Actuarial Sciences. After a lot of hard work by our two PR-members, we found Deloitte to be our participating company. In principle Deloitte does not participate in study tours, but luckily they made an exception for the TEV. After finding Deloitte we then had to come up with a destination. Because Deloitte is located in New York, the United States was an obvious choice. In addition we thought it would be a great extra to visit another city. There were three possibilities: Philadelphia, Boston and Washington, D.C. Because one of the committee members had visited Philadelphia and one Washington D.C., Boston was
eliminated. Philadelphia was not that much fun according to the person who had been there, so the choice was easy and Washington D.C. it would be. It took quite some effort to find eightteen similar tickets at a good price and with good flight times. Fortunately Tilburg lies directly between Amsterdam, Brussels and Dusseldorf which increased our flight options. Compared to Brussels and Dusseldorf, Amsterdam is much more expensive. Finally we found a direct, round-trip flight from Dusseldorf to New York. It is very practical not to have a transfer along the way, especially with a group. On Monday, April 28 a public drawing took place to determine the student participants. A total of seventeen people were hoping to be part of the lucky thirteen to participate. It was nerve wracking for the people who were there. Unfortunately four people were inevitably going to be disappointed. Among the chosen was international member Georgios. He will be the first international member to participate in a BRP. The BRP 2008 will take place October 12-26, 2008. During that time the group will visit Deloitte and work on a case presented by the company. The location we will visit is near ground-zero and Wall Street. The students will be divided in four subgroups. Every group is going to work on the same case that consists of three assignments. Knowledge of corporate finance, game theory, time-series analysis, IFRS, Markov analysis and common sense is needed to solve this complex case. In addition to working on the case, there will be plenty of time for excursions, sightseeing and hitting the bars. One of the participants will turn 21 during the tour, so that will be a good excuse to have a major party, American-style.
From left to right: Thomas Zelders, Manon Geertsen, Mathijs Jansen, Nicole van Reij (author) and Tim Thijssen
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Excursions might include a visit to a television show, a sporting event or a theater performance. The committee is also trying to arrange a guided tour of the White House. We are really hoping we can pull this off. We will arrange the excursions over the next couple of months. Other things that need to be done are booking a hostel in New York, sorting out transportation and making a program booklet. With all this the BRP 2008 is bound to be a success! Now the only thing we have to hope for is great weather.
Nekst 4 - June 2008
Alex Leung, first year student: The Netherlands are definitely going to win the coming EC! I admit it will take some effort to survive the group stage, but after the group stage it should be a piece of cake. First of all, I admit that the road to the EC was very bumpy. Just think of the match against Austria. But I can assure you we won’t see that again during the main tournament. The atmosphere and excitement is so different during a ‘real’ match that an outcome such as that of the earlier match against Austria won’t occur. Secondly, I want to draw a parallel with the start of the EC in 1988. The qualification was very similar to this qualification. Both teams had a really tough time, but as we all know the Netherlands was the victor in 1988. Thirdly, recent changes that Van Basten has made in tactics will make a big difference. Before these changes there were many complaints about the Dutch defense. It wasn’t solid enough. Now that Van Basten uses the 4-4-2 system instead of the 4-3-3 system the center is more stable so they’ll lose possession less frequently. Thus the defensive problems are taken care of! Finally, I want to mention the fact that the line-up hasn’t changed that much since the last WC. In other words, the group that was ‘molded’ together then has matured, gained more experience, their individual capabilities are greater and above all their teamwork is better than four years ago. I hope I’ve convinced you that the Netherlands is going to win the EC. I mean, what on earth could go wrong? Even if we have to take on Italy, France and Romania respectively. Well, if you aren’t convinced, speak to me directly! John Kleppe, lecturer of BEM: Since I don’t like to be wrong I have to disagree with this preduction, but this would not be any different if ‘the Netherlands’ were replaced by any of the other fifteen competing national teams. You don’t have to be into football or an econometrician to understand that disagreeing with
Nekst 4 - June 2008
such a statement results the highest probability of being right. I also think the probability of the orange squad winning is below average. With players like Van Nistelrooij, Van Persie, Sneijder and Robben, the Dutch frontline is among the best in Europe. However, with the exception of goalkeeper Van der Sar, the defense part of the team is definitely not on the same level. I can’t imagine strikers like Ronaldo, Torres or Toni being afraid of Mathijsen, Ooijer, Heitinga or Bouma, or that midfielders like Ribery, Gerrard or Ballack loose any sleep over playing against De Zeeuw, Landzaat or Van Bronckhorst. But who knows? Maybe if the team plays as boldly as their coach’s new hairdo there’s a change we can all jump on some houseboats in Amsterdam’s canals on June 30. Noani Meijboom, fourth year student: I have no knowledge of football, especially of the different teams. So as to whether the Dutch team will win the European Championship, I really don’t know. Of course, like almost everyone in the Netherlands, I hope the Dutch team will win the European Championship because then it is party time!
57
A GOLDEN FUTURE SPECIAL: INTERVIEW WITH WILLEM MIDDELKOOP
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The ‘old per ounce (31ciliquam grams). Due dumpingAlisl utpat, modo do cons nonsequam doloreetue digna facilis ilisit toexgold eugue niat estissim gold’ amounts metric tons per volorperatie magnim digna at the entire gold industry South faccum duismodigna facinibh essimin num do Africaiusci blamcommod temsixin hundred henim diam, year and thenonsenit central banks still sell thousands threatened to collapse. In reaction this, thevolorpe nibh ea consequam, quis nulla at niam do erit alit loreet lum iuscill aortislto ipis riurem volendipit dunt ut la con exerci euipsus ciduisci eros nulput lore velis autat eros niscil luptat lute min vel irit lor sed elit ac-
edition, was reader. dolobore after conse it ver sumpublished nos autat, in velthe conference num ilisi.
Onze visie op een glanzende loopbaan
Vanuit dit pand handelen onze Traders wereldwijd op vrijwel alle internationale optiebeurzen. Spannend werk, want Traders vormen de tegenpartij voor beleggers op de beurs. Onze Traders hebben diverse achtergronden en nationaliteiten. Wat zij gemeenschappelijk hebben is hun superieure rekenvaardigheid, stressbestendigheid en besluitvaardigheid. Daarnaast dragen zij veel verantwoordelijkheid. Hoe ga je daarmee om? Dat leer je tijdens de interne opleiding van 4 tot 5 weken. Daarnaast moet je een aantal eigenschappen hebben die niet aan te leren zijn: een competitieve geest, een resultaatgerichte instelling en een heel goed analytisch inzicht. Wij zoeken Traders: initiatiefrijke academici met een excellent cijfermatig inzicht – relevante werkervaring is niet vereist.We verwachten een grote zelfwerkzaamheid want je blijft leren gedurende je
loopbaan binnen Optiver. Je moet hier zelf veel tijd en energie in steken maar er staat ook veel tegenover: Optiver biedt je de kans om jezelf te ontplooien binnen een professionele, internationale handelsorganisatie. Heb jij een sterke drive om te winnen en ben je niet bang om verantwoordelijkheid te dragen? Ga naar www.optiver.com voor meer informatie over de vacatures en om te solliciteren. Optiver handelt in derivaten, aandelen en obligaties vanuit het Amsterdamse hoofdkantoor en vanuit de filialen in Chicago en Sydney.
Optiver, Shemara van den Heuvel (Recruiter Trading), De Ruyterkade 112, 1011 AB Amsterdam,T 020 - 5319000
Optiver zoekt Traders Acquisitie n.a.v. deze advertentie wordt niet op prijs gesteld.
Nekst 4 - June 2008
59
THE SOCIAL LADDER PUZZLE
of tons of gold per year. This happens despite the Washington Agreement. Because central banks’ gold stocks will eventually be tapped out, this shortfall will grow. Investors who have a short position in gold are more and more nervous because its price is increasing and hedge funds have increasing long positions in gold. This trend makes gold even expensive. An unlimited increase is possible, because the total amount of gold hardly increases anymore.” What do you think of investing in other commodities? “Commodities are very interesting investments. Commodities are divided into three categories: precious metals, basic materials and energy commodities. Each submarket has its own characteristics. If a depression is forecast for the near future, then investing in precious metals is very interesting. During a depression basic materials will not perform well and energy prices will decrease. On the other hand precious metals will outperform during a depression. The reason to invest in precious metals is one way to handle a depression in portfolio management. Besides investing in gold, investing in silver also is attractive. At the moment, silver increases even faster than gold because the total amount of silver is shrinking. Silver is used up. It is used for example in mobile phones and is not re-extracted.” Is it possible to prevent loss in capital by investing in gold and silver? “Complete protection against capital losses is possible by using alternatives correctly. To protect capital you have to invest in gold and silver. There is no
60
other way. Since the credit crunch I’ve been advising investors to invest 50% of their liquid assets in gold or silver. gold and silver have been showing an increase of 40% since the beginning of the credit crunch (August 2007). So by investing in gold people realized a return of 40% while other capitals have decreased. When we look at investment fund returns over the past twelve months gold funds have performed best. Gold stocks are a safe investment. Pure gold and silver have an even higher return and with these investment you don’t face any risk. Gold does not devaluate like money. The Old and New Testament document the number of loaves of bread one could buy for one gram of gold. That number is equal to the number of loaves of bread people can buy for one gram of gold nowadays. So the current purchasing power of gold is the same as the purchasing power of gold more than two thousand years ago. From a risk and return point of view it is wise to invest in pure gold and silver.” What is your opinion about investing in pure gold in relation to investing in gold related products? “Pure gold must be the base of an investment portfolio. The amount must increase when the probability of a system crash grows. When the system risk becomes significant, between 25% and 50% of the capital must be invested in pure gold. If this probability is limited, this component can be smaller and one can invest more in other gold related products. If gold keeps rising, then stocks and futures are more interesting. But the base of the portfolio must be pure gold.”
If the dollar devaluates, the gold price in dollars increases. But how can ‘euro investors’ optimally take advantage of this? “Say the dollar devalues by half and gold increases by 50%, the price of gold in euros stays the same. So gold is the perfect hedge for a dollar position. If you expect the dollar to decrease even more, you can optimally take advantage of the decreasing dollar and the increasing price of gold. The optimal strategy is then to take a short position in dollars and a long position in gold. Over the last seven years gold has been increasing more than the dollar has been devaluating. On balance, gold in euros is worth more every year. In the current situation the gold market is very tight and therefore the price of gold, in currencies other than the dollar as well, increases dramatically. Not one gold investor has seen a decrease in his gold investments in euro during the last seven years.” How do you see the future of gold investments? “The price of gold will never peak. The unique situation will be that in ten years there will be no paper money anymore. This means that at the end, the dollar will lose that much of his value such that the price of gold, expressed in dollars, will end at an extreme level. Because the gold market is very small, if only a fraction of the created money flows to the gold market this will result in extreme increases in the price of gold. Right now we are at the beginning of this movement. The smart investor has no reason to invest in anything other than gold or silver because their prices can rise even further.” [BH]
Nekst 4 - June 2008
As most students, Goos Kant also had a small job during his study Computer Science at Utrecht University. Econometrics, OR and Computer Science all have to do with logical thinking. Therefore his paid job was to construct ‘Logigrammen’ for Denksport©. Below you will find one of his puzzles. Thanks to Denksport© for the copyright support to present this one. Three months ago, the number of registrations for Econometrics and Operations Research was going up. Everybody became enthusiastic and the whole situation was going up, including the use of the elevator. Unfortunately the situation has completely changed. The number of registrations dropped dramatically and even the elevator did not work anymore. As a result, people must use the stairs, which leads to a very busy stairwell. On a certain day at 10am sharp, just after the coffee break, five employees start at the same time to pick up three packages each at three different colleagues simultaneously. These colleagues are also mentioned below in the diagram. Traveling between two consecutive floors takes 25 seconds. Searching for the right room on a floor and picking up the package takes all together one minute. Every person has its room on a different floor.
1. Everyone has to take at least five stairs until he or she will be on the floor where the third package has to be picked up. For every person goes that when he or she has arrived on the floor of the third package, the difference between all climbed and descended stairs is two at the most. 2. Mr. Haemers, who is the last person to show up for the final package, arrives 25 seconds later at the first package than Mr. van Gulick. 3. Mss. Quant meets Mr. Hendrickx on the floor of her first package. They have a talk within the given time limits. Mss. Quant’s room is situated one floor beneath the room of Mr. Norde. Please send in your solution of the Logigram via
[email protected] before October 1. For the winner there will be a crate of beer or a ‘vlaai’. The winner of the previous puzzle is Edwin Lohmann. He found the best solution for the, because of a mistake, slightly ‘infeasible’ puzzle.
Employee
Room
1st package
2nd package
3rd package
Mr. van Gulick
Floor1
Floor 1
Floor 1
Floor 1
Mr. Haemers
Floor 2
Floor 2
Floor 2
Floor 2
Mr. Norde
Floor 3
Floor 3
Floor 3
Floor 3
Mr. Hendrickx
Floor 4
Floor 4
Floor 4
Floor 4
Mss. Quant
Floor 5
Floor 5
Floor 5
Floor 5
Nekst 4 - June 2008
Name: Goos Kant
Feit: Info Feit: Info
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T E V O N H O L I D AY TS UI MTMEE RL P H O T O C O N T E S T
7AT ALS HAAR PENSIOEN LEEFTIJD SAMENVALT MET EEN BEURSKRACH
The Nekst is excited to announce the first TEV photo contest. The contest will gather pictures from around the world on the theme of you and your favorite TEV promotion article. The most original picture will win one week of tuition fees.*
The rules are simple: email us a picture of you with an edition of Nekst or with your favorite TEV promotion article such as the TEV triangle, the TEV weekend case or the TEV jacket. The submission deadline is September 1, 2008. The winning photo will be published in the October edition of Nekst. Rules for entry: •
Entries must be received before September 1, 2008 via
[email protected]. Entries should contain an object with a clearly visible TEV logo. It is forbidden to edit your submission with Photoshop or any other photo-editing program. Entries will be assessed for originality by this year’s and next year’s editors-in-chief. All other TEV members, including members of the Department of Econometrics and Operations Research, may join the competition. No correspondence will be entered into. Entering a submission to this competition constitutes acceptance of these rules.
• • •
• •
* Based on the tuition fees for students from the EEA for the academic year 2008-2009.
*E KUNT ER NIET VROEG GENOEG MEE BEGINNEN 7ANT VOOR EEN BEETJE PENSIOEN MOET JE BEHOORLIJK LANG SPAREN :IJ KAN ZICH ER NOG NIET DRUK OM MAKEN %N DAT IS MAAR GOED OOK -AAR WAT ALS OVER JAAR HAAR PENSIOENFONDS IN lNANCIÑLE NOOD VERKEERT %N DAARMEE HAAR ZORGVULDIG OPGEBOUWDE PENSIOEN IN GEVAAR KOMT $AAROM HOUDT DE .EDERLANDSCHE "ANK $." TOEZICHT OP DE SOLIDITEIT VAN lNANCIÑLE INSTELLINGEN 7E STELLEN EISEN AAN PENSIOENFONDSEN BANKEN EN VERZEKERAARS EN HOUDEN DE VINGER AAN DE POLS 4OEZICHT HOUDEN IS NIET DE ENIGE TAAK VAN $." !LS ONDERDEEL VAN HET %UROPESE 3TELSEL VAN #ENTRALE "ANKEN DRAGEN WE OOK BIJ AAN EEN SOLIDE MONETAIR BELEID EN EEN ZO SOEPEL EN VEILIG MOGELIJK BETALINGSVERKEER :O MAKEN WE ONS STERK VOOR DE lNANCIÑLE STABILITEIT VAN .EDERLAND 7ANT VERTROUWEN IN ONS lNANCIÑLE STELSEL IS DE VOORWAARDE VOOR WELVAART EN EEN GEZONDE ECONOMIE 7IL JIJ DAARAAN MEEWERKEN +IJK DAN OP WWWWERKENBIJDNBNL
An example of a TEV dad on holiday with his favorite TEV promotion article.
PLANNING TO CONCLUDE
June 17 Soccer tournament and announcement drink
September 9 General Members Meeting and drink
The prospects for good weather are very good and so is the expectation of fun if you participate in the soccer tournament. Afterwards there will be a barbecue and the party will be continued in the pub where we’ll watch the Netherlands-Romania game. After the orange lions win, the new candidate board will be announced.
On the second Tuesday of the new academic year the candidate board will be inaugurated. They will share their plans for the upcoming year. Afterwards their will be a drink in our favorite pub Café Joris.
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7ERKEN AAN VERTROUWEN Nekst 4 - June 2008
(NO) NONSENSE Q U AT S C H !
The editorial staff of Nekst is very happy that many of you sent some striking and sensational quotes you heard at any place related to the study of Econometrics or related to the activities organised by the TEV. Below you can find a selection of these remarkable quotes.
English quotes Mister ten Raa during Auctions and Public Sector Economics: “If you are a very productive guy or girl, then your S is very big.”
Harold van Heijst in gebouw K: “Wij hadden de snellift en jullie de stoplift.” Paul Peters tijdens het ALW: “Hé, wat een mooie boom.”
Dirk van Dooren enters the class room five minutes late while his teammates are already giving a presentation on production planning in which he also has to participate. Mister Ashayeri: “Now this is Just-In-Time.” Dutch quotes: Harold van Heijst na het tentamen Analyse 3: “En toen kreeg je zo’n wortel. Ik weet alleen niet wat voor een wortel het was.”
Bijzonder accuraat
Harold van Heijst: “Ik moet Klaas Vaak om meer slaap vragen.” Frans Fonville: “Wie is Klaas?”
Ernst & Young is een organisatie van
Sjoerd Timmermans tijdens de congresborrel: “Ik ben niet zat, ik ben eh... hoe heet dat ook alweer?”
juristen en adviseurs. Met ruim
accountants, belastingadviseurs,
4.500 medewerkers verspreid over Paul Peters tijdens de NITVA: “Maar vegetariërs eten toch wel gewoon kip?”
29 kantoren zijn we een van de grootste adviesorganisaties in Nederland. Er is
Gert Nieuwenhuis tijdens Oriëntatie Econometrie: “Dat is allemaal heel ingewikkeld en technisch uitgelegd in je boek. Dat weet ik ook niet.” Evelien Kerkmeijer tijdens een gecombineerde vergadering van de Lustrum- en Almanakcommissie: “Wij hebben gelijk, toch Emile?” Emile van Elen: “Nee, we hebben het fout.” Gert Nieuwenhuis tijdens Oriëntatie Econometrie: “Als je het op de computer invoert, dan zegt-ie ook: ‘Huh, dat gaat niet goed’.”
Gert Nieuwenhuis tijdens Oriëntatie Econometrie: “Ik lijk wel een Limburger.” Marleen Balvert luistert naar het nummer ‘Apologize’ van One Republic. “Mijn zusje is hier fan van. Ze is eens naar een concert van Enrique Iglesias geweest.”
bij ons altijd ruimte voor deskundige professionals met een bijzonder scherp oog voor de belangen van onze cliënten.
Rens Nissen en Manon Geertsen in een gesprek over het congres. Rens: “Hoe heet die minister van Defensie ook alweer? Oh, ik weet het al: Van Middelkoop.” Manon: “Misschien is hij familie van Willem Middelkoop.” Rens: “Nee, deze meneer heet VAN Middelkoop.” Manon: “Ja daarom juist!”
Harold van Heijst: “De eerstejaars eten als kool.” Gert Nieuwenhuis tijdens Oriëntatie Econometrie: “Luister even naar mijn plezierige stem.” Meisje van de MAK: “Jullie zijn toch econometristen, oké?!” Kay en Bas hebben een discussie tijdens de bestuursvergadering: “In het Engels wordt voor dit kledingstuk de term sweatpants gebruikt,” aldus Kay. Bas: “Oh, pants in sweatpants staat voor broek, dan staat ‘-er’ in sweater voor trui.” Manon: “Echt waar?” Emile van Elen als opdrachtgever over de Zelfstandig Modelleren opdracht van Brenda en Maaike: “Maar ik zou jullie sowieso aannemen hoor, al is het alleen om jullie uiterlijk.”
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Stefan Damen terwijl hij gekeerd wordt op ALW: “Doe eens normaal man, met dat keren! Ik was al bezig met mijn REMslaap!” Linda Vos toen ze net te laat was met de telefoon opnemen op de TEV-kamer: “Oh, gelukkig kan ik nog zien wie er gebeld heeft: Philips.” (merk van de telefoon, red.) Servaas van Bilsen: “Ik woon op nummer 43 ofzo.” Emile van Elen in ‘the middle of nowhere’ tijdens ALW: “Dit is wel een pad, er is alleen al heel lang niet meer op gelopen!” If you have heard a remarkable quote, please send it to
[email protected]
Nekst 4 - June 2008
Ernst & Young Actuarissen BV is de grootste actuari‘le adviesgroep bij een multidisciplinaire dienstverlener en is via een wereldwijd netwerk actief verbonden met actuarissen van Ernst & Young. Onze werkzaamheden bestaan uit het zowel beleidsmatig als actuarieel en financieel adviseren en begeleiden van financierings- en waarderingsvraagstukken bij pensioenfondsen en verzekeringsmaatschappijen, particulieren, non-profit- en overheidsinstellingen en andere financi‘le instellingen. Voor onze kantoren in Amsterdam en Utrecht zijn wij op zoek naar:
www.ey.nl
(Aankomend) actuarissen m/v - standplaats: Amsterdam of Utrecht Ben je gedreven, leergierig, analytisch en adviseer je liever dan dat je wordt geadviseerd, dan heb jij de instelling die wij zoeken. Ben je ge•nteresseerd in een carri‘re als adviseur bij Ernst & Young Actuarissen BV? Op zoek naar een stageplaats of baan (ook als werkstudent)? Voor meer informatie kun je bellen naar Joost Csik, tel. 030 -2592124. Sollicitaties met cv kunnen worden gestuurd naar Ernst & Young, t.a.v. Anita Huijmans, HR-consultant, Postbus 7883, 1083 HK Amsterdam. Een e-mail sturen kan ook:
[email protected] Voor algemene informatie kun je kijken op www.ey.nl
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