Ragnar Arnason, born in 1949, graduated in economics and politics from the University of Iceland and in economics and econometrics from the London School of Economics before completing his Ph.D. in economics from the University of British Columbia, specialising in the mathematical modelling of fisheries. A Professor of Fisheries Economics at the University of Iceland and the author of many academic papers on fisheries management, he has served on the supervisory board of Iceland’s Central Bank since 2009. He has also been an adviser on fisheries management to governments around the world and to international organisations. His recent academic publications include “Efficiency Advantages of Grandfathering in Rights based Fisheries” (as co-author) in Annual Review of Resource Economics 2011, “Fisheries Management and Operations Research” in European Journal of Operational Research in 2009, “Climate Change and Fisheries” in Natural Resource Modeling in 2007 and “The Norwegian Spring-Spawning Herring Fishery: A Stylized Game Model” in Marine Resource Economics (as co-author) in 2007. He edited (with Hannes H. Gissurarson) Individual Transferable Quotas in Theory and Practice in 1999 and (with Birgir Thor Runolfsson) Advances in Rights Based Fishing. The Role of Property in Fisheries Management 2008. In 2011, Ragnar Arnason received the Freedom Prize of the Young Independents. He gave a paper on the distribution of rents in fisheries at the international conference on sustainable and profitable fisheries organised by the RNH 6 October 2012 which can be accessed here. He gave a paper on myths about fisheries management at a conference in Reykjavik 29 August 2016 which can be accessed here.
Hannes H. Gissurarson, born in 1953, graduated in history and philosophy from the University of Iceland before completing his D.Phil. in politics at the University of Oxford, where he was the R.G. Collingwood Scholar at Pembroke College. He has been an Institute for Humane Studies Scholar and a Fulbright Scholar (twice) in the US and a Sasakawa Scholar in Japan. A Professor of Politics at the University of Iceland and the author of many books, he served on the supervisory board of Iceland’s Central Bank 2001–2009 and on the board of the Mont Pelerin Society 1998–2004. He was the director of the Jon Thorlaksson Institute 1983–1994 and is now the academic director of RNH, the Icelandic Research Centre for Innovation and Economic Growth. His two most recent books are Islenskir kommunistar 1918–1998 (Icelandic Communists 1918–1998) in 2011, of which an extract is to be found here and The Icelandic Fisheries: Sustainable and Profitable in 2015, which can be read here. He was the Icelandic translator and editor of The Black Book of Communism, published in 2009. His works in English include Hayek’s Conservative Liberalism (doctoral dissertation) in 1987 and Overfishing: The Icelandic Solution in 2000. In 2012, Hannes H. Gissurarson received the Freedom Prize of the Young Independents. He gave a paper on Icelandic communists 1918–1998 at the international conference organised by RNH 22 September 2012, on the controversy about Mao’s biographers 2 November 2012, on “Liberty and Capitalism in Iceland” at a special meeting at the University of Iceland 19 February 2013 (on his sixtieth birthday), on “The Invisible Hand” at an international conference in Porto Alegre 9 April 2013—which can be watched here—on “The International Financial Crisis and the Collapse of the Icelandic Banks” at a social sciences conference in Bifrost 3 May 2013, and on similar topics in Vilnius 12 September, Cambridge 22 September, Stockholm 29 October—which can be watched here—and Budapest 15 November—which can be watched here. He gave a talk on his personal recollections of three modern thinkers, Friedrich von Hayek, Karl Popper and Milton Friedman, in Berlin 2015, which can be watched here.
Birgir Thor Runolfsson, born in 1962, graduated in economics from Lewis & Clark College and George Mason University before completing his Ph.D. in economics at George Mason University where he wrote his doctoral dissertation on the Decline and Fall of the Icelandic Commonwealth, from an economic perspective. An Associate Professor of Economics at the University of Iceland, he has published many papers on fisheries management and public choice, including “Fencing the Oceans: A Rights-Based Approach to Privatising Fisheries” in Policy 1998. He edited (with Ragnar Arnason) Advances in Rights Based Fishing: Extending the Role of Property in Fisheries Management in 2008. Professor Runolfsson blogs regularly on economic affairs for the web journal Eyjan.is. He is a substitute member of the supervisory board of Iceland’s Central Bank.
- Photograph of Ragnar Arnason: Vb-Birgir Isl. Gunnarsson
- Photograph of Hannes H. Gissurarson: Mbl-Ragnar Axelsson
