Emeritus Professor Joyce Dargay
Colleagues will be sorry to learn of the death, on 9th October 2024, of Emeritus Professor Joyce Dargay.
Joyce was a distinguished scholar, brilliant teacher, and a warm, wise, and generous friend and colleague.
Born and educated in New Jersey, USA, Joyce obtained a BSc in Mathematics in 1971 from Drexel University, Philadelphia. Under a Royal Society studentship, she studied Chemistry and Crystallography at Summerville College, University of Oxford, before a career switch to Economics and a move to Sweden, with positions at the Institute for International Economic Studies and the Department of Economics at the University of Stockholm, and the Industrial Institute for Economic and Social Research, Stockholm.
After a brief sabbatical in the USA, as a Visiting Research Associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research in New York between 1981 and 1983, Joyce returned to her position as Research Fellow at the Energy Systems Research Group in the Department for Economics at University of Stockholm. She obtained her PhD on the subject of the Demand for Factors of Production in Swedish Manufacturing at the University of Uppsala. A particular emphasis of this research, and a feature which would distinguish Joyce internationally throughout her career, was the incorporation of dynamics in the modelling of economic behaviour.
In 1988, Joyce took up a position as Research Fellow at the Oxford Institute for Energy Studies and Energy Research Fellow at St Antony’s College, University of Oxford. During this period she carried out research into energy demand with particular emphasis on the question of irreversibility and the asymmetric response of demand to price or income changes. Her contribution in this area was widely recognised in the energy field, and later in transport.
In 1993, Joyce was recruited to the Transport Studies Unit at the University of Oxford by Professor Phil Goodwin, who recognised the importance of dynamics in transport modelling and Joyce’s ability to tackle these issues in a transport setting. Joyce was appointed Deputy Director of the ESRC funded Transport Studies Unit, firstly at Oxford and subsequently at University College London, and led the modelling aspects of the Centre’s work with distinction. Her contribution remains the Centre’s most lasting legacy.
Joyce was recruited to a position of Reader in Transport Demand Analysis in the Institute for Transport Studies (ITS) at the University of Leeds in March 2006, and was awarded a personal chair, as Professor of Transport Econometrics, in 2008.
Although Joyce’s research always had a firm basis in dynamics, she also advanced other significant avenues of research, for example her pioneering work addressing reversibility and asymmetry in behavioural response, which challenged mainstream economic thinking. She was also justly renowned for her innovative work on pseudo-panel modelling, allowing the estimation of dynamic models on the basis of repeated cross-section data; and her research into car ownership and use and commuting patterns attracted widespread international interest and a host of lecturing invitations.
Joyce was an extremely prolific publisher in the leading journals in transport and energy economics, with an enviable citation record. Her work with Mark Hanly on the demand for urban bus travel in Great Britain, published in 1999, remains the seminal publication in this area and to this day underpins the Department of Transport’s recommendations. Her research into fuel price elasticities had a major bearing on the Department’s official recommendations. More recently, and whilst at ITS, significant research was undertaken for the Independent Transport Commission and various parts of the UK rail industry.
Joyce enjoyed extensive international collaborations with well-known energy and transport specialists at universities in the USA, France, Finland, Germany and The Netherlands. In addition, her academic expertise and experiences were put to good use in advising government agencies and private companies in the energy and transport sectors in the UK, Sweden, France, Finland, Colombia, the Netherlands and the USA, as well as the OECD, EU and IEA.
With Joyce, there was very rarely a dull moment. A sharp and insightful mind but never confrontational or condescending, generous in her assistance and appreciation of others, and a great sense of humour. Joyce worked in numerous esteemed universities, but regarded ITS as the best work environment she had experienced, and she will be greatly missed by friends and colleagues in ITS.