Although Lu Zhou did occasionally communicate with some scholars who studied economics when he was in Princeton in the past, he was not so familiar with everyone.

You can't talk to him, he has to remember people's names, right?

What's more, Princeton is so big, he has only been there for so many years, and he may not have seen this benevolent brother.

Carefully searching for the names in his memory, Lu Zhou really didn't find anyone who could match him, until he logged on to the academic query website and typed in the name, and then he found out who this benevolent brother was.

I don't know if I don't search for the results, but it's not small to find out.

Krugman!

08 Nobel Laureate in Economics!

Expert in international trade, exchange rates and macroeconomics!

The most brilliant stroke of his academic resume is the successful prediction of the Asian financial crisis in 1997 in 1994, which made his position in the field of economics rise after the outbreak of the Asian financial crisis, and directly led to his Nobel Prize in 08.

But what made Lu Zhou wonder was why he contacted him.

The gist of the email was probably to ask him when he had time and wanted to talk to him about academic matters in person.

Although he was not very interested in economics, after thinking for a while, Lu Zhou edited a reply letter and sent it over.

[Today at eight o'clock in the evening Beijing time, if you are free, we can talk. 】

After all, fellow Nobel Prize scholars still have to give a little face.

Anyway, he's on vacation, and he's idle when he's idle......

……

Eight o'clock in the evening.

At the agreed time, Krugman appeared in the footage of the video call.

The professor who met for the first time even omitted a greeting to introduce himself, and said in an impatient tone almost as soon as he connected to the video call.

"You don't know how important your research is!"

Confused by this sudden statement, Lu Zhou was slightly stunned: "...... I really don't know, or even quite sure, which result you're referring to...... Can you tell me about it? ”

Taking a deep breath, Krugman explained.

"The Bewley model has been at the forefront of macroeconomics, and your improved model ...... I will call it the Lu-Bewley model for the time being, which not only solves the problem of the large amount of computation and cumbersome steps of the Bewley model, but also reduces the random error of the model! ”

The Bewley model?

It turned out to be Xiaotong's paper......

After listening to Professor Krugman's description, a sudden expression finally appeared on Lu Zhou's face.

However, it was only a moment, and there was no look of interest that Professor Krugman had expected.

Seeing that Lu Zhou didn't speak, Professor Krugman thought that he didn't understand what he meant, so he cleared his throat and continued.

Let's put it this way, peeling back all the complex research, there are only two ultimate goals of economics, one is to optimize the efficiency of resource allocation, and the other is to coordinate the interests of society! If we can get an accurate model, even as accurate as possible, we can optimize the allocation of resources to the maximum from the height of civilization! From a personal point of view, we can even predict the future through economic activity! ”

Finally having a little reaction to the word predicting the future, Lu Zhou leaned back in his chair.

"It sounds incredible."

Smiling and looking at Professor Krugman on the other end of the video call, Lu Zhou continued, "I don't know much about the principles of economics, but for chaotic systems...... It seems that no mathematical model has ever been able to predict 100% of the time. Even if I give you any example, how did you predict the birth of controlled fusion technology? And how can we predict its impact on the global economy before it is born? ”

"I can't answer that question, but that's not the point," Krugman shook his head and continued, "I can tell you that technological progress can theoretically be summarized in the model by several parameters such as R&D investment, GDP ratio, etc., even if you can't understand it, I can tell you unequivocally that this is a Nobel Prize-level discovery!" As long as you continue to work on the mathematical improvement of the Bewley model, I am sure that the Nobel Prize in Economics will belong to you! ”

"But...... I've already won the Fields Medal," Lu Zhou shrugged his shoulders and continued, "I've won one Nobel Prize. ”

The atmosphere in the video was embarrassed for a while.

Professor Krugman coughed lightly and persuaded him.

"Don't you want to take another one? This is the Nobel Prize......"

"For me, the Nobel Prize is not as attractive as it used to be," Lu Zhou sighed and said, "You know what? Can you understand the feeling that I'm still interested in the hard enough to be fascinating rather than the accolades? Dear Professor Krugman, ”

“……”

Krugman didn't want to answer.

He even wanted to throw the pen at hand on the screen.

A young man in his twenties told him that he had no pursuit of honor.

Well, even if this guy does have the qualifications to say so, it's really infuriating!

Taking a deep breath, he tried to persuade.

"Isn't the Bewley model enough to pique your interest? Again, this is an important enough puzzle! And hard enough! I can tell you responsibly that he can directly change the world more than any purely mathematical research—"

"Not necessarily," interrupted Professor Krugman, Lu Zhou smiled and continued, "Also, improve the Bewley model...... Or as you said, the Lu-Bewley model only took me an hour in total, and no matter how you look at it, it doesn't look like it's very difficult. ”

One hour ......

Krugman froze.

Instinct told him it was absolutely impossible, but looking at the person on the other side of the video, it didn't look like he was joking or lying.

To put it bluntly, what's the benefit of lying to him?

However, it took an hour to improve the Bewley model to such an excellent extent......

It's horrible!

"That's all right," Seeing that Professor Krugman couldn't say a word, Lu Zhou looked at his watch and yawned, "I'm sorry, but I can't help you too much." There are a lot of good math professors in Princeton, maybe you can take my model and ask them for help. ”

"Goodbye, then."

The video call is over.

Looking at the blackened screen, Krugman was silent for a long time, stretched out his slightly trembling fingers, and removed the glasses on the bridge of his nose.

Watching the old man's call with Professor Lu from the sidelines, his student Wissell swallowed and spoke.

"Professor?"

Krugman sighed, shook his head, and said.

"I'll have to find another way."

Princeton does have many excellent professors of mathematics, but there are not many professors interested in economics, especially those who are engaged in theoretical research, and many people still have a lot of prejudice against applied disciplines, thinking that studying these things is a waste of time.

Finally, a big bull in the field of mathematics entered this field and made a little bit of results, where is he willing to let it go easily.

It's like a giant panda that slipped into a zoo and can still let you go?

Krugman fell into deep thought, and at that moment, his heart suddenly moved.

At this time, it suddenly occurred to him that there seemed to be another author in the paper.

It's not Foster who put it in one piece.

He hadn't heard of this name at all, and he probably had shit luck.

But the name of the second work......

His eyes grew brighter, and Krugman looked at his student and spoke immediately.

"Wisel!"

Suddenly called, Wisel immediately responded.

"I'm ...... What do you command? ”

"Help me write an email, I'll give you the email address in a moment, just fill in my name, the recipient's name......" After a pause, Krugman muttered to himself, "If things go well, you should be able to catch up." ”

Although the voice of this sentence was not loud, it happened to be heard by Wisel, who was busy editing the email.

I saw that he was stunned for a moment, and then subconsciously asked.

"What can you catch up with?"

"Fill out the volunteers, or choose a mentor, or whatever," Krugman continued, after a pause, "remember the paper I asked you to read?" Although the brilliant part of the paper was only the mathematical model, it was a rare quality to be able to sort out the theoretical part in its entirety and have such an important study done by a mathematician who knew nothing about economics...... If I'm not mistaken, she hasn't decided where to do her PhD yet! ”

Wisel hesitated for a moment, and made a hypothesis.

"But what if she doesn't plan to continue on the academic path?"

Krugman flatly denied it.

"Impossible!"

"To be able to write such an excellent paper, if she had not planned to go down the academic path, it would have been absolutely impossible! Just to graduate, there is no need to do it to this extent! ”

"You just have to send the email as I asked."

"Yes......" Looking at the boss with a serious face, Wisel could only nod his head, turned on the computer and began to edit the email.

Immersed in editing the email, this doctor in his thirties couldn't help but sigh in his heart.

Every graduation season, others are all kinds of magnetic requests for recommendation letters, and they want to get the recommendation of the big cow with their heads cut. However, this lucky guy is good, let alone any recommendation letters, the Nobel Prize boss personally sent an email to invite her to study for a doctorate......

There is no one with such treatment.

It was even the first time he had heard that there was such a good thing.

Thinking about it, thinking of his own school experience, Wisel's heart was like a lemon, and the sour smell that overflowed almost soaked into the email......

Fack!

What a envy!