Søren Johansen is a distinguished Danish econometrician whose pioneering work has profoundly shaped the analysis of economic time series. He currently serves as Professor Emeritus at the University of Copenhagen's Department of Economics, maintaining an active scholarly presence despite his formal retirement. Johansen began his academic career at the University of Copenhagen's Institute of Mathematical Statistics in 1964, achieving the rank of full professor in 1989, and has remained affiliated with the institution throughout his remarkable career. In addition to his position at Copenhagen, he has held appointments at the European University Institute in Florence from 1996 to 2001 and currently maintains a part-time affiliation with CREATES at Aarhus University. Born in Denmark in 1939, Johansen has established himself as one of the most influential figures in modern econometrics through decades of rigorous theoretical development and practical application.
Johansen's most significant contribution is his groundbreaking work on cointegration theory, developed in collaboration with Katarina Juselius, which revolutionized the analysis of nonstationary economic time series. Their development of the vector error correction model and associated statistical methods provided economists with powerful tools to analyze long-run economic relationships while accounting for short-term dynamics. This methodological innovation became the standard approach in macroeconomic modeling and forecasting, with widespread adoption in both academic research and central banking institutions worldwide. Remarkably, Johansen was identified as the most cited researcher in economic journals globally during the period 1990 to 2000, a testament to the profound impact of his theoretical contributions on economic practice. His statistical framework for cointegrated vector autoregressive models has enabled more accurate policy analysis and forecasting in monetary economics, international finance, and other areas of macroeconomic research.
Beyond his technical contributions, Johansen has received numerous prestigious honors including the University of Copenhagen Gold Medal in 1967, the Dir. Ib Henriksens Fund Award for outstanding research in 1997, and an honorary doctorate from Aarhus University in 2017. He is a respected member of The Royal Danish Academy of Sciences and Letters and was elected to the Academia Europaea in 2010, recognizing his exceptional scholarly contributions to the field. Johansen's influence extends through his mentorship of generations of econometricians and his continued engagement with current research challenges in time series analysis. His methodological innovations remain foundational to modern econometric practice, with applications spanning central banking, financial markets, and economic policy formulation across the globe. Even in his emeritus status, Johansen continues to contribute to scholarly discourse, ensuring his theoretical frameworks maintain relevance in addressing contemporary economic challenges.
