The University of Pretoria invites you to an open lecture by Prof Stephane Hess, Professor of Choice Modelling at the Institute for Transport Studies and Director of the Choice Modelling Centre, University of Leeds, UK.

Topic: ‘Can behavioural science help in guiding policy decisions? A modeller’s view’

Date and time: Friday, 6 March 2015, 13:30−15:00

Venue: Room 1-2, Engineering 1 Building (Tower), Hatfield Campus, University of Pretoria

Parking is available in the public parking area (use the University Road entrance).

Please forward this invitation to others who may be interested.

RSVP: Hayley Boks at [email protected] or on 012 420 2925

Choice modelling is one of the most active fields of economic research, and areas of research include transport, health and environmental economics. Choice models are routinely used to advise policy makers in the evaluation of different schemes such as infrastructure or legislation. Examples include new rail investments, road pricing and greenhouse gas taxation. In South Africa, choice modelling informs future Gautrain extensions, bus rapid transit (BRT) deployment and future applications of electronic tolling. The models are, however, also routinely criticised as being abstract and lacking in realism. This presentation looks at the insights that behavioural science can potentially give in this context.

Stephane Hess is Professor of Choice Modelling at the Institute for Transport Studies and Director of the Choice Modelling Centre at the University of Leeds. He is also Honorary Professor of Choice Modelling at the Institute for Transport and Logistics Studies at the University of Sydney, and affiliated Professor of Demand Analysis at KTH Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm. Hess holds a PhD in transport demand modelling from Imperial College London and an MPhil in Statistical Science from Cambridge University. He works on the analysis of human decision-making using advanced discrete choice models, and he is active in the fields of transport, health and environmental economics. Hess has made significant contributions to the specification, estimation and interpretation of such models, notably in the context of the valuation of travel time reduction. He has also published extensively on the benefits of advanced structures in actual large-scale transport analyses. His contributions have been widely recognised and he received the 2014 Outstanding Young Member award of the Transportation Research Board for exceptional achievements in transportation research and policy. In 2010 he received the Fred Burggraf award from the Transportation Research Board. He is the founder and editor-in-chief of the Journal of Choice Modelling, the founder and steering committee chair of the International Choice Modelling Conference, and the co-chair of the 14th International Conference on Travel Behaviour Research to be held in London in 2015.

(The speaker is also presenting a short course on Discrete Choice Analysis at the University of Cape Town from 9 to 13 March 2015. Details are attached.)