At the recent 2012 International Association of Maritime Economists Conference (IAME 2012 Taipei), A/P Anthony Chin from the Department of Economics, together with Dr Raymond Ong Ghim Ping (Faculty of Engineering) and Dr Dong Yang (Centre for Maritime Studies), was awarded the Hanjin Prize for Best Paper. The Hanjin Prize was established in 1998 by Hanjin Shipping and IAME with the aim of supporting scholars and academic development of shipping and logistics. The prize is awarded to the best paper at the IAME every year.

For IAME 2012, 284 papers by scholars from 54 nations were submitted and out of these papers, A/P Chin’s paper, “An Exploratory Study on the Effect of Trade Data Aggregation on International Freight Mode Choice” clinched the prize. The paper explores the use of trade data in mode choice analyses and how it can be effectively utilised to aid economists and transportation planners in formulating effective maritime freight strategies.

A/P Chin’s research areas include Mobility, land use and location economics; Consumer choice and pricing analysis: housing, new and used cars, cell phones, industrial and commercial property; Financing and privatisation of infrastructure; Demand management and strategic planning of transportation and hub analysis, travel behaviour modelling; Economics of crime and deception, behavioural methods and fMRI.

The IAME 2012 was held from 6 – 8 September in Taipei, Taiwan and was organised by the Shipping, Port, and Logistics Research Center (SPLRC) of Kainan University and Chinese Maritime Research Institute (CMRI) in Taiwan, and Jungseok Research Institute of International Logistics and Trade (JRI) of Inha University in Korea. It provided a unique global conference for academics, key industry practitioners, and policy makers from diverse backgrounds and interests to meet, discuss and debate critical and challenging issues that will affect the future direction of international shipping, port and logistics research and practice.