VOA慢速英语 2007 0511a

This is the VOA Special English Economics Report.

Susan Athey, an economics professor at Harvard University, has won the John Bates Clark Medal. The American Economics Association awards the Clark Medal to the most promising¹ economists². And it may be even harder to win than a Nobel Prize in economics. The Clark Medal is given every two years. And the winner has to be under the age of forty.

Susan Athey is thirty-six years old and the first woman to win the Clark Medal in its sixty year history. No woman has yet won the Nobel economics prize which has been awarded since nineteen sixty-nine.

Professor Athey came to Harvard in Massachusetts last year. Before that she was at Stanford University in California for five years. And before that she taught at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology for six years.

Past winners received the Clark Medal for a single area of research. But Susan Athey was honored for her work across several areas of economics. Her work has dealt with both applied³ theory and empirical studies. In other words, it has dealt both with the complex methods that help economists do their jobs and with economic problems in the real world.

One of the real-world situations that she has studied is government auctions⁵. Auctions can be used to sell something like the right to cut down trees on public forest lands. Or they can be used to buy something that a government agency needs, like computers. In both cases, bidders⁶ compete against one another to win the auction⁴.

For five years, Susan Athey worked with the British Columbia Ministry⁷ of Forests in Canada to design a system for timber auctions. That system has helped the Canadians collect over one billion dollars. It has also helped ease a trade dispute. The United States accused Canada of providing unfair support to its timber industry.

Professor Athey has also studied how bidders in an auction can suppress competition. One pays the others to offer losing bids. This, of course, defeats the purpose of an auction. Susan Athey showed that requiring businesses to make secret bids could increase competition.

The John Bates Clark Medal has been given every two years since nineteen forty-seven, except for nineteen fifty-three. That year no prize was awarded. Among thirty winners of the medal, eleven have won the Nobel prize in economics.

And that's the VOA Special English Economics Report, written by Mario Ritter. I'm Steve Ember.

1 promising   

adj.有希望的，有前途的

参考例句：

• The results of the experiments are very promising.实验的结果充满了希望。
• We're trying to bring along one or two promising young swimmers.我们正设法培养出一两名有前途的年轻游泳选手。

2 economists   

n.经济学家，经济专家( economist的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The sudden rise in share prices has confounded economists. 股价的突然上涨使经济学家大惑不解。
• Foreign bankers and economists cautiously welcomed the minister's initiative. 外国银行家和经济学家对部长的倡议反应谨慎。 来自《简明英汉词典》

3 applied   

adj.应用的；v.应用，适用

参考例句：

• She plans to take a course in applied linguistics.她打算学习应用语言学课程。
• This cream is best applied to the face at night.这种乳霜最好晚上擦脸用。

4 auction   

n.拍卖；拍卖会；vt.拍卖

参考例句：

• They've put the contents of their house up for auction.他们把房子里的东西全都拿去拍卖了。
• They bought a new minibus with the proceeds from the auction.他们用拍卖得来的钱买了一辆新面包车。

5 auctions   

n.拍卖，拍卖方式( auction的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• They picked up most of the furniture at auctions in country towns. 他们大部分的家具都是在乡村镇上的拍卖处买的。 来自辞典例句
• Our dealers didn't want these cars, so we had to dump them at auctions. 我们的承销商都不要这些车子，因此我们只好贱价拍卖。 来自辞典例句

6 bidders   

n.出价者，投标人( bidder的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Bidders should proceed only if they intend on using a PayPal account to complete payment. Bidders的唯一形式，应继续只当他们在使用贝宝帐户，以完成付款打算。 来自互联网
• The other bidders for the contract complained that it had not been a fair contest. 其他竞标人抱怨说该合同的竞标不公平。 来自《简明英汉词典》

7 ministry   

n.(政府的)部；牧师

参考例句：

• They sent a deputation to the ministry to complain.他们派了一个代表团到部里投诉。
• We probed the Air Ministry statements.我们调查了空军部的记录。