Life as a mineral economist
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Life as a mineral economist John E. Tilton 1
# Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature 2020
No one as a child dreams of growing up and someday becoming a mineral economist. Yet, for some of us, as we finish our education and begin working, random but fortunate events conspire to guide us into this field. In my case the first such event occurred in graduate school. I was searching for a dissertation topic in field of international trade. Béla Balassa, my thesis advisor, was not particularly thrilled by what I thought were several brilliant suggestions. He proposed instead that I examine international trade patterns in non-ferrous metals. Why non-ferrous metals? Apparently, he had done a bit of research on this topic the previous summer while working at OECD Headquarters in Paris. Otherwise, he had no particularly interest in metals—non-ferrous or otherwise—but rather was intrigued by how former colonial bonds and corporate ownership ties distorted trade flows among countries. The topic allowed us to obtain funding for my thesis from Resources for the Future, a wellknown non-profit research think tank in Washington, DC. Once my thesis was finished, I left the mineral sector behind as I fulfilled a 2-year military commitment studying manpower problems in Pentagon, spent 3 years at the Brookings Institution writing a book on the international diffusion of semiconductor technology, and then 2 years with the Economics Department at the University of Maryland teaching industrial organization. While at Maryland, John Ridge, the head of the Department of Mineral Economics at the Pennsylvania State University, called. He was looking for an economist interested in metals and other non-fuel mineral commodities to join his department. At that time, few academic economists were actually doing research on minerals, even the energy minerals. He had gotten my name from Resources for the Future and was clearly pretty desperate.
* John E. Tilton [email protected] 1
Division of Economics and Business, Colorado School of Mines, Golden, CO 80401, USA
The move to Penn State was the next of those random but fortunate events. At first, it was somewhat tentative at least on my part. Did I really want to be a mineral economist rather than a more traditional economist specializing in the conventional field of industrial organization? Though not sure, I figured that focusing on the metal industries for several years would probably enhance my credentials as an industrial organization economist. But, the tentativeness soon evaporated. The department attracted outstanding graduate students from around the world. As a junior faculty member, I was soon directing dissertations for five or so PhD students. I was expected to develop a strong research program, publish in peer-reviewed professional journals, and attract outside funding to support my research and the graduate students working with me. Fortunately, the Department and the College of Earth and Mineral Sciences provided generous support—startup funds, critical gui
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