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Events of Note

March 14, 2024
The Longevity Imperative: A Conversation with Andrew Scott

RSVP Required

Tuesday, April 23, 2024
5:30 p.m. – 6:45 p.m. EDT
Location: Medical Center New Research Building Auditorium

We live at a unique time in human history. We need to ensure lives are not just long, but healthy, productive, and engaged for longer. Now that global life expectancy is over 70 years old, the first longevity revolution, in which the majority can expect to live a long life, is coming to an end. A second longevity revolution must emerge, focusing on changing how we age. That means shifting away from an “aging” society narrative towards a “longevity” society agenda aiming to make the most of the extra years we have gained.

The Longevity Imperative: Building a Better Society for Healthier, Longer Lives (2024) by Andrew Scott outlines the fundamental changes needed in our health system, the economy, and the financial sector in order to seize the advantages of longer lives. In this conversation, Georgetown University Professor Carole Roan Gresenz and author Andrew Scott will discuss some of the changes needed and consider how investing in our new longer futures can achieve better outcomes and stimulate economic growth.

This event is co-sponsored by the Global Economic Challenges Network, the Center for Healthy Aging, and the Center for Economic Research at Georgetown University.

Featured

Andrew Scott is professor of economics at London Business School, a research fellow at the Centre for Economic Policy Research, and a co-founder of the Longevity Forum. His research focuses on the economics of longevity and aging, and he is published in a wide range of leading academic journals. He has advised a variety of governments, institutions, and companies. His award-winning book The Hundred Year Life (2016) is a global bestseller having sold one million copies, and his new book The Longevity Imperative will be published in March 2024. He holds a Ph.D. from Oxford University and has previously held positions at Oxford University, Harvard University, and the London School of Economics.

Carole Roan Gresenz is a professor in the McCourt School of Public Policy and the Bette Jacobs Endowed Professor in the School of Health’s Department of Health Management and Policy at Georgetown University. She previously served as senior advisor for strategic health initiatives in the Office of the President and as interim dean of the School of Nursing and Health Studies at Georgetown University. Her current research examines the financial consequences of mild cognitive impairment and undiagnosed Alzheimer’s disease and related disorders. She serves on the editorial boards of Health Services Research, Medical Care Research and Review, and Transforming Care. She holds a Ph.D. and M.A. in economics from Brown University and a B.A. in economics from Loyola University Maryland.

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March 4, 2024
Announcement of 2023-2024 Distinguished Visitor Series

We are pleased to announce the following three prominent scholars will be the GCER Distinguished Visitors for the 2023-2024 academic year.

Alessandra Voena is a labor and development economist whose research focuses primarily on the economics of the family and the economics of science and innovation.

Dr. Voena is a Research Affiliate at CEPR, a faculty research fellow at NBER, and served as a Ruffolo Post-Doctoral Fellow at Harvard University’s Kennedy School. She received a PhD and MA in economics from Stanford University in 2011 and a bachelor’s degree from the University of Torino in Italy in 2005. She was awarded a Sloan Research Fellowship in 2017 and the Carlo Alberto Medal in the same year.

Alessandra will visit the economics department the week of March 11-14.

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Mark Bils is a macroeconomist and the Hazel Fyfe Professor of Economics at the University of Rochester.

Bils obtained his PhD in economics from MIT in 1985 and BA in economics from Ohio State University in 1979. He has taught at the University of Chicago GSB and has also been a long-term consultant in the Research Department at the Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond. He is currently a NBER Associate and on the editorial board of multiple journals.

Mark will visit the economics department the week of April 15-19.

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Jeff Woolridge is the Walter Adams Distinguished Faculty Professor in Economics at MSU, where he has taught since 1991. From 1986 to 1991, Dr. Wooldridge was an Assistant Professor of Economics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

He received his doctorate in economics in 1986 from the University of California, San Diego. He is a fellow of the Econometric Society and of the Journal of Econometrics and currently serves on the editorial boards of multiple journals.

Jeff will visit the economics department the week of April 23-26.

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February 22, 2024
Professor John Haltiwanger will deliver the Razin Policy Lecture on March 14, 2024.  

The Georgetown Center for Economic Research and the GU Economics Department are pleased to announce Professor John Haltiwanger will deliver the 2024 Razin Lecture. The keynote lecture will take place on Thursday, March 14, 2024 at 4:00 p.m. in the Fisher Colloquium within the McDonough School of Business Building at Georgetown University.

John C. Haltiwanger is a Distinguished University Professor in the Department of Economics at the University of Maryland. He is also the first recipient of the Dudley and Louisa Dillard Professorship in 2013. He received his Ph.D. from the Johns Hopkins University in 1981. After serving on the faculty of UCLA and Johns Hopkins, he joined the faculty at Maryland in 1987. In the late 1990s, he served as Chief Economist of the U.S. Census Bureau. He is a Research Associate of the National Bureau of Economic Research, and a Fellow of the Society of Labor Economics and the Econometric Society.

He has played a major role in developing and studying U.S. longitudinal firm-level data. Using these data, he has developed new statistical measures and analyzed the determinants of firm-level job creation, job destruction and economic performance. The statistical and measurement methods he has helped develop to measure and study firm dynamics have been increasingly used by many statistical agencies around the world.

His recent research has focused on the changing patterns of business dynamism and entrepreneurship in the U.S. His research has been recognized in his being awarded the Julius Shiskin Award for economic statistics in 2013, the Roger Herriott Award for innovation in federal statistics in 2014, the Global Entrepreneurship Research Award in 2020, and Society of Labor Economics Award for Contributions to Data and Measurement in 2021. He has published more than 150 academic articles and numerous books including Job Creation and Destruction (with Steven Davis and Scott Schuh, MIT Press).

The Razin Lecture is accompanied by the awarding of the Razin Prize for best research paper by an advanced graduate student in Economics. The 2024 Razin Prize was awarded to Tianshi Mu.

Tianshi Mu’s paper entitled  “The Dynamic Effects of Renewable Subsidies in the Green Energy Transition” was chosen as the best research paper this year. We extend our congratulations to Tianshi’s thesis advisor, Professors John Rust and Nathan Miller.

More on the Razin Prize and Policy Lecture, its background, and history can be found here. The recording of the event and past Razin Lectures can be accessed by visiting our Georgetown University Economics YouTube Channel.

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December 5, 2023
Our Global Economy: How to Move from Inequality to Shared Prosperity?

RSVP Required

Thursday, December 14, 2023
6:00 a.m. – 11:00 a.m. EST

Location: Online and in-person at Thon Hotel EU, Brussels (12:00 p.m. – 5:00 p.m. CET)

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What are the root causes of economic inequality? How did it evolve since the golden sixties? Did it take new forms? What can and should we do about it? These are some of the key questions that will be addressed during this half-day conference. In the first part of the conference, leading academics will present research focused on various aspects of income and wealth inequality. A roundtable discussion on shared prosperity will follow the academic presentations.

This event is co-sponsored by the Georgetown University Global Economic Challenges Network, Centre for Economic Policy Research (CEPR), and Solvay Brussels School of Economics and Management (Université Libre de Bruxelles) – Public Policy House.

Featured

Micael Castanheira (panel moderator) is director for research of the Fonds National de la Recherche Scientifique and a professor of economics at the European Center for Advanced Research in Economics and Statistics, which is part of the Université Libre de Bruxelles. He is also a research fellow at the Centre for Economic Policy Research (CEPR). Castanheira obtained his Ph.D. in economics from the Université Libre de Bruxelles, and has been a post-doctoral fellow at Innocenzo Gasparini Institute for Economic Research (IGIER) at Bocconi University, Milan and a visiting scholar at New York University.

Paula Gobbi is a professor at the European Center for Advanced Research in Economics and Statistics and the Solvay Brussels School of Economics and Management at the Université Libre de Bruxelles and a research affiliate at the Centre for Economic Policy Research (CEPR). Gobbi was awarded the prestigious European Research Council starting grant in 2020. She holds a Ph.D. in economics from the Université Catholique de Louvain. Her research focuses on the economic determinants of fertility, gender issues, and intra-household decision models for childcare arrangements and has appeared in leading journals including the American Economic Review, the Journal of the European Economic Association, and the Economic Journal.

Chinhui Juhn is the Henry Graham Professor of Economics at the University of Houston. She is a research associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research and is slated to be president of the Society of Labor Economists from 2024 to 2025. Juhn has served as co-editor of the American Economic Review and contributed pioneering research on U.S. wage inequality. Her papers have examined the role of skill prices on the evolution of wage inequality, as well as the racial wage gap. She has written on family labor supply, earnings instability, and the impact of trade liberalization policies on gender inequality. Her work has been published in top journals such as the Journal of Political Economy, Quarterly Journal of Economics, and American Economic Review.

Luigi Pistaferri is the Ray Lyman Wilbur Professor of Economics at Stanford University and the Ralph Landau Senior Fellow at the Stanford Institute for Economic and Policy Research. He is also research associate of the National Bureau of Economic Research, the Centre for Economic Policy Research (CEPR), and Institute of Labor Economics (IZA). His research focuses mainly on household choices: consumption, saving, portfolio allocation, labor supply, and time use. His papers have appeared in the American Economic Review, Econometrica, the Review of Economic Studies, the Quarterly Journal of Economics, and the Journal of Political Economy among others. He was a co-editor of the American Economic Review from 2012 to 2017. In 2016 he was elected fellow of the Econometric Society.

André Sapir is professor emeritus at Université Libre de Bruxelles and senior fellow of Bruegel. He has worked for the European Commission as economic advisor to the director-general for economic and financial affairs from 1990 to 2001 and to president Romano Prodi from 2001 to 2004. Afterwards, he was external advisor to president José Manuel Barroso and member of the general board of the European Systemic Risk Board (ESRB), Europe’s financial stability oversight body 2011-2015. He has taught at the University of Wisconsin, the Graduate Institute in Geneva, the College of Europe in Bruges, and the University of Louvain, and was visiting fellow at the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the World Bank, and the World Trade Organization (WTO). Sapir has written extensively on European integration, international trade, and globalization. In 2004, he published An Agenda for a Growing Europe, a report by a group of independent experts that is known as the Sapir report. He received a Ph.D. in economics from the Johns Hopkins University in 1977.

Francis Vella (academic conference chair) is the Edmond V. Villani Professor at Georgetown University and a research associate of Centre for Microdata Methods and Practice (CEMMAP), Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS), and Institute of Labor Economics (IZA). He is an elected fellow of the Econometric Society and the International Association for Applied Econometrics. He is a co-editor of the Journal of Applied Econometrics.

Margrethe Vestager is executive vice president of the European Commission for A Europe Fit for the Digital Age and Competition (currently on leave). She is the Danish government’s candidate for the position as president of the European Investment Bank. She previously served as commissioner for competition from 2014 to 2019, minister for economic affairs and the interior from 2011 to 14, and minister for education from 1998 to 2001 of Denmark. She was political leader of the Danish Social Liberal Party from 2007 to 2014, and has worked for the Danish Ministry of Finance from 1993 to 1995. Vestager holds a master of science in economics from the University of Copenhagen.

Gabriel Zucman is professor of economics at the Paris School of Economics, associate professor of economics at the University of California, Berkeley, and founding director of the EU Tax Observatory. He is the author of articles published in journals such as the Quarterly Journal of Economics, the American Economic Review, the Review of Economic Studies, and of two books. His research focuses on the accumulation, distribution, and taxation of global wealth and has renewed the analysis of the macroeconomic and distributional implications of globalization. Zucman was named an Andrew Carnegie Fellow in 2021, and received the John Bates Clark medal of the American Economic Association in 2023. He was awarded the Bernacer Prize and a Sloan Research Fellowship in 2019, the Best Young French Economist Prize by Le Monde and le Cercle des Economistes in 2018, and the Excellence Award in Global Economic Affairs by the Kiel Institute for the World Economy in 2017.

Schedule

6:00 a.m. – 9:30 a.m. EST (12:00 p.m. – 3:30 p.m. CET) | Academic Conference on the Multiple Facets of Inequality
•    Chinhui Juhn, University of Houston, “Gender Inequality in Sorting into Top Jobs”
•    Paula Gobbi, Université Libre de Bruxelles, “Inheritance, Demographics, and Economic Development”
•    Luigi Pistaferri, Stanford University, “Assortative Mating and Wealth”
•    Francis Vella (chair), Georgetown University

10:00 a.m. – 11:00 a.m. EST (4:00 p.m. – 5:00 p.m. CET) | Policy Roundtable and Q&A on Pathways to Shared Prosperity in Europe
•    Margrethe Vestager, European Commission (currently on leave)
•    André Sapir, Bruegel and Université Libre de Bruxelles
•    Gabriel Zucman, University of California, Berkeley and Paris School of Economics
•    Micael Castanheira (moderator), Université Libre de Bruxelles

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November 7, 2023
Conference on Aging

When: Friday, November 17, 2023
3:00 a.m. – 2:00 p.m. EST

Location: Online and Bank of Spain, Madrid (9:00 a.m. – 8:00 p.m. CET)

Many economies are confronting the economic and social realities accompanying an increasingly older population and workforce. While many of these factors are associated with funding retirement and pensions, there are also the social costs associated with the difficulties resulting from loss of professional identity and economic security, as well as the financial burden of providing and funding health care for the elderly.

This all-day conference will bring together some of the world’s leading experts on the economic issues related to aging. Eight academic presentations will address trends and drivers in the inequality of mortality; retirement security and health insurance; workforce aging, skill decline, and the organization of work; and a macro perspective on aging and growth. The presentations will be followed by a panel discussion moderated by Ángel Gavilán, director general for economics, statistics and research at the Bank of Spain.

In-Person Registration

Please register to attend the in-person event here.

Virtual Registration

Please register to watch the livestream here.

This event is co-sponsored by Bank of Spain – Center for Monetary and Financial Studies (CEMFI) and the Georgetown University Global Economic Challenges Network.

Featured

Katharine G. Abraham is a distinguished university professor at the University of Maryland. She served as commissioner of the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics from 1993 through 2001 and as a member of the President’s Council of Economic Advisers from 2011 through 2013. She currently serves on standing academic advisory committees convened by the U.S. Congressional Budget Office, Bureau of Economic Analysis, and Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago. Abraham is a research associate of the National Bureau of Economic Research and a research fellow of the Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA), a member of the National Academy of Sciences and of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, a distinguished fellow of the American Economic Association, and an elected fellow of the American Statistical Association and of the Society of Labor Economists.

James Banks is professor of economics at the University of Manchester and senior research fellow at the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS). He joined the IFS as a full-time research economist in 1990. While employed by the IFS he directed research into consumption and savings from 1992 to 1999, completed a part-time Ph.D. in economics at University College London (UCL), and served as deputy director of IFS from 1997 to 2002. In 2002 Banks became deputy research director of IFS and joined the economics faculty at UCL, where he was professor of economics. He moved to Manchester in 2010. He received his B.S. from Bristol and M.S. from the London School of Economics.

Tito Boeri is professor of economics at Bocconi University, Milan, and acts as scientific director of the Fondazione Rodolfo Debenedetti. He was senior economist at the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development from 1987 to 1996. He was also a consultant to the European Commission, International Monetary Fund, International Labour Organization, World Bank, and the Italian government. Currently, Boeri is a research fellow at the Centre for Economic Policy Research, Institute for the Study of Labor, and Igier-Bocconi. He is the founder of the economic policy watchdog website Lavoce.info and VoxEU and the scientific director of the Festival of Economics.

David Canning is the Richard Saltonstall Professor of Population Science and professor of economics and international health in the Department of Global Health and Population at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. His research focuses on the role of demographic change and health improvements in economic development. Canning served as associate director of the Harvard Center for Population and Development Studies (HCPDS) from 2008 to 2017, where he was principal investigator on the Welfare Effects of Balancing the Federal Social Security and Health Care Budgets project.

Ángel Gavilán (panel moderator) is the director general for economics, statistics, and research at the Bank of Spain. He is a member of the executive commission of the Bank of Spain and alternate to the governor on the Governing Council of the European Central Bank. He is also a member of the Monetary Policy Committee of the European System of Central Banks. He has a Ph.D. in economics from the University of Chicago and began his professional career at the Bank of Spain in 2005. Between 2012 and 2016 he worked at Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria (BBVA). From 2016 to 2018 he was deputy head of the economics and market analysis division in the European Stability Mechanism (ESM). At the end of 2018 he rejoined the Bank of Spain as the head of the financial analysis division and executive coordinator and deputy director of the economic developments department.

Pablo Hernández de Cos (welcome remarks) is governor of the Bank of Spain and member of the Governing and General Council of the European Central Bank (ECB). He is chair of the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision, chair of the Board of Governors of the Center for Latin American Monetary Studies, and chair of the Advisory Technical Committee of the European Systemic Risk Board. He is member of various European and international committees including the ESRB, the Financial Stability Board, the Bank for International Settlements Group of Governors and Heads of Supervision, and the Advisory Board of the Financial Stability Institute. He is also vice-chairman of the Board of the Spanish Macroprudential Authority Financial Stability Board (AMCESFI). He holds a Ph.D. in economics from Complutense University in Madrid, a degree in economics and business studies from CUNEF, and a degree in law from Universidad Nacional de Educación a Distancia.

Carol Popper is professor of economics at Imperial College Business School in the Department of Economics and Public Policy. Between 2016 and 2019 she was also vice dean for faculty and research at Imperial College Business School. She is a past president of the Royal Economic Society. In 2021 she was a member of French President Emmanuel Macron’s expert commission on major economic challenges. In 2021 she was made a Dame Commander of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire for her services to public health and economics; she previously was awarded a Commander of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire for her services to social science in 2010. She is a fellow of the British Academy, the U.S. National Academy of Medicine, Centre for Economic Policy Research, and the Academy of Social Sciences.

Christopher J. Ruhm is a professor of public policy and economics at the University of Virginia. He received his doctorate in economics from the University of California at Berkeley in 1984. During the 1996-1997 academic year he served as senior economist on President Bill Clinton’s Council of Economic Advisers, where his main responsibilities were in the areas of health policy, aging, and labor market issues. He is currently a research associate in the health economics, health care policy, and children’s programs of the U.S. National Bureau of Economic Research and a research fellow at the Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA) in Germany.

Hannes Schwandt is an associate professor in the School of Education and Social Policy at Northwestern University, associate director at the Buehler Center for Health Policy and Economics at the Northwestern Feinberg School of Medicine, and a research associate at the U.S. National Bureau of Economic Research. His research has been published in leading economics, medical, and general science journals such as the Review of Economic Studies, Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA), Science, and Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), and his work is frequently covered by leading media outlets including the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, and the Economist. In 2020, Schwandt was selected to Capital’s Top 40 Under 40 list, which recognizes Germany’s most important talents from business, politics, and science.

Andrew J. Scott is professor of economics at the London Business School, a research fellow at the Centre for Economic Policy Research, and a consulting scholar at Stanford University’s Center on Longevity. He was managing editor for the Royal Economic Society’s Economic Journal and non-executive director for the United Kingdom’s Financial Services Authority from 2009 to 2013. He has been an advisor on policy to a range of governments. He is currently on the advisory board of the United Kingdom’s Office for Budget Responsibility, the Cabinet Office Honours Committee (Science and Technology), co-founder of the Longevity Forum, a member of the National Academy of Medicine’s International Commission on Health Longevity, and the World Economic Forum council on Healthy Ageing and Longevity.

Schedule

9:00 a.m. – 9:30 a.m. | Welcome Remarks

•    Pablo Hernández de Cos, Governor of Bank of Spain

9:30 a.m. – 11:00 a.m. | Session 1: Trends and Drivers in Inequality of Mortality
•    Hannes Schwandt, Northwestern University, “The American Death Problem”
•    Christopher J. Ruhm, University of Virginia, “Mortality Trends in the United States: the Roles of Education and Despair”

11:00 a.m. – 11:30 a.m. | Coffee Break

11:30 a.m. – 1:00 p.m. | Session 2: Retirement Security, Health Insurance
•    James Banks, University of Manchester, “The Accumulation and Decumulation of Private Retirement Wealth: Policy Issues”
•   Carol Popper, Imperial College, “Pension Reforms and National Health Service Doctors”

1:00 p.m. – 3:00 p.m. | Lunch

3:00 p.m. – 4:30 p.m. | Session 3: Workforce Aging, Skill Decline, and the Organization of Work
•    Tito Boeri, Bocconi University, “Retirement, Aging and Migration: Connecting the Dots”
•    Katharine G. Abraham, University of Maryland, “Self-employment at Older Ages”

4:30 p.m. – 5:00 p.m. | Coffee Break

5:00 p.m. – 6:30 p.m. | Session 4: The Macro Perspective: Aging and Growth
•    Andrew J. Scott, London Business School, “A Longevity Economy”
•    David Canning, Harvard University, “Policy Responses to Population Aging: a Welfare Approach”

6:30 p.m. – 6:45 p.m. | Break

6:45 p.m. – 8:00 p.m. | Panel Discussion
•    Ángel Gavilán (moderator), Bank of Spain

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September 13, 2023
CEME Conference for Young Econometricians

GCER is very pleased to be hosting this year’s Conference on Econometrics and Mathematical Economics (CEME) for Young Econometricians on the 15^th and 16^th September in the McGhee Library in the Intercultural Center on the Georgetown University Main Campus. This workshop, managed by the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER), has the express purpose of providing an informal venue for interaction between advanced junior and young senior Econometricians. The conference is supported by the National Science Foundation and Georgetown Center for Economic Research and this year it is being organized by Professors Tim Christensen (UCL), Matt Masten (Duke), and Alexandre Poirier (Georgetown).

The conference program can be found here.

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June 22, 2023
Economic and Social Challenges in the Digital Age, An Academic Conference and Policy Panel Discussion

Thursday, June 22, 2023
8:00 a.m. – 1:15 p.m. EDT

RSVP Required

The increasing presence of technology in the digital age has led to a proliferation of unprecedented challenges. The harvesting and abuse of personal data, the damaging misinformation campaigns, and the surge in digital addiction risk the physical safety of online users, compromise the privacy of individuals and companies, and undermine democratic institutions.

Leading scholars will discuss the most pressing threats associated with the next generation of the web and present solutions during the academic conference, which will be followed by a moderated policy discussion combining a number of these scholars with a group of policymakers.

For more information, please visit the event page.

This event is co-sponsored by Sciences Po, the Georgetown University Global Economic Challenges Network, and the McCourt Institute.

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March 24, 2023
Harvard Professor Raj Chetty will deliver the Razin Policy Lecture on March 24, 2023.  

The Georgetown Center for Economic Research and the GU Economics Department are pleased to announce Professor Raj Chetty will deliver the 2023 Razin Lecture. The keynote lecture will take place on Friday, March 24, 2022 at 4:00 p.m. in the Riggs Library within Healy Hall at Georgetown University.

Raj Chetty is the William A. Ackman Professor of Economics at Harvard University and the Director of Opportunity Insights, which uses big data to study the science of economic opportunity: how we can give children from all backgrounds better chances of succeeding?  Chetty’s work has been widely cited in academia, media outlets, and policy discussions in the United States and beyond.

Chetty received his Ph.D. from Harvard University in 2003 and is one of the youngest-tenured professors in Harvard’s history. He has received numerous awards for his research, including a MacArthur “Genius” Fellowship and the John Bates Clark medal, given to the economist under 40 whose work is judged to have made the most significant contribution to the field.

The Razin Lecture is accompanied by the awarding of the Razin Prize for best research paper by an advanced graduate student in Economics. The 2023 Razin Prize was awarded to Gretchen Sileo

Gretchen Sileo’s paper entitled “Proactive and Reactive Infrastructure Investment” was chosen as the best research paper this year. We extend our congratulations to Gretchen’s thesis advisor, Professors John Rust and Nathan Miller.

More on the Razin Prize and Policy Lecture, its background, and history can be found here. The recording of the event and past Razin Lectures can be accessed by visiting our Georgetown University Economics YouTube Channel.

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March 2, 2023

Rebuilding Ukraine
Principles, Policies, and the Role of the European Union?

Thursday, March 2, 2023
11:00 a.m. – 12:30 p.m. EST
Location: Online via Zoom

Registration Required

February 24, 2023 marks one year since the Russian invasion of Ukraine. The reconstruction of Ukraine cannot be about rebuilding the country to its pre-war state; rather, it should strive for a deep modernization of the country. All critical elements of the economy and society will have to undergo reforms to help Ukraine escape the post-Soviet legacy and become a full-fledged democracy with a modern economy, strong institutions, and a powerful defense sector. This presentation and discussion, based on the CEPR Paris Report: Rebuilding Ukraine: Principles and Policies (2022), will address opportunities and challenges in this effort. 

For more information, please visit the event page. 

This event is co-sponsored by the Centre for Economic Policy Research, Solvay Brussels School of Economics and Management (Université Libre de Bruxelles) – Public Policy House, and Global Economic Challenges Network at Georgetown University.

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February 28, 2023
Announcement of the 2022-2023 GCER Distinguished Visitors

We are pleased to announce the following three prominent scholars will be the GCER Distinguished Visitors for the 2022-2023 academic year.

Hamish Low is the James Meade Professor of Economics at the University of Oxford and a Professorial Fellow at Nuffield College. Hamish will visit the economics department the week March 13-17.

Charles (Chad) Jones is The STANCO 25 Professor of Economics at Stanford Graduate School of Business and a research associate of the National Bureau of Economic Research. Chad will visit the economics department the week of March 27-31.

Manuel Arellano is a Professor of Economics at CEMFI in Madrid. He has held appointments at the University of Oxford and the London School of Economics. Manuel will visit the economics department the week of April 17-21.

For more information, please click here.

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January 5, 2023
Honoring the Life and Career of Professor Martin Ravallion

With extraordinary sadness, we announce the tragic passing of our colleague Professor Martin Ravallion on Saturday, December 24, 2022. 

The following obituary was written by Professor Garance Genicot. Professor Ravallion joined the department in 2013 as the Edmond D. Villani Professor of Economics after 24 years at the World Bank. Prior to joining Georgetown in 2013, he was the World Bank’s Acting Chief Economist after a long stint as the Director of the World Bank’s research department, the Development Research Group.

For more information, please click here.

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December 5, 2022
The Law and Economics of Web 3.0

Monday, December 5, 2022
11:15 a.m. – 12:45 p.m. EST

Location: Online and in-person at Amphithéâtre Claude Érignac (13 rue de l’Université, 75507, Paris, France)

RSVP

Confronting the abuse, exploitation, and manipulation of personal data collected via internet use is one of society’s great challenges. The legal and economic issues related to the property rights of these harvested data have implications for topics including personal safety, firm profitability, and consumer welfare. Moreover, targeted misinformation campaigns which exploit such data, combined with the web’s unparalleled capacity to reach and influence a specified audience, represents a danger to the world’s democracies. As we prepare for generation 3.0 of the web, a panel of experts will discuss many of the extraordinarily urgent questions which will accompany its arrival.

For more information, please visit the event page. 

This event is co-sponsored by the Georgetown University Global Economic Challenges Network, Sciences Po, and the McCourt Institute.

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October 5, 2022
Economic Stabilization and Reform Options for Argentina

Wednesday, October 12, 2022
2:00 p.m. – 5:45 p.m. EDT
Location: Leavey Center-Leavey Program Room

Inflation in Argentina is estimated to reach 95% by the end of 2022, and economists forecast that it will hit a three-digit mark by the beginning of 2023—the third highest expected inflation in the world according to the International Monetary Fund (IMF). GDP per capita has been stagnant for the last decade and poverty is anticipated to reach 40% in 2022. Once one of the richest nations on the continent, Argentina has experienced a long process of economic decline as the country has been plagued by decades of economic crisis, 22 IMF emergency financial programs, nine debt defaults, and growing poverty rates.

How can Argentina’s leaders reduce inflation to match the inflation rates faced by neighboring countries? Should Argentina abandon the peso and make the U.S. dollar its official currency or follow a more traditional stabilization program like in Brazil, Chile, Colombia, and Mexico? What policies can be implemented to foster inclusive and sustainable economic growth? How can Argentina strengthen its ties with the international economy? To discuss these issues, the Georgetown Americas Institute is hosting three-panel discussions with leading economists and policymakers to analyze potential alternatives for economic reform in Argentina. 

For the schedule of the event and the speaker bios, please click here.

This event will be livestreamed on Youtube (new window).

This event is co-sponsor by the Georgetown Americas Institute and the Georgetown Center for Economic Research (new window).

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September 7, 2022
3rd Annual DC-MD-VA Econometrics Workshop

The Georgetown Center for Economic Research is pleased to announce that the 3rd Annual DC-MD-VA Econometrics Workshop will be held at Georgetown University on Saturday, September 17, 2022. This is the first in-person installment of an annual event that was launched in 2020 by the DC-MD-VA Econometrics community (GU, GWU, JHU, and UVA). The workshop, held annually on the third Saturday in September, is meant to gather faculty and graduate students working in Econometrics for a one-day event. 

For more information about the workshop, please click here.

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August 23, 2022
UCSD Professor Renee Bowen will deliver the Razin Policy Lecture on September 19, 2022  

The Georgetown Center for Economic Research and the GU Economics Department are pleased to welcome back Professor Renee Bowen who will deliver the 2022 Razin Lecture. The keynote lecture will take place on Monday, September 19, 2022 at 4:00 p.m. in the Fisher Colloquium within the McDonough School of Business at Georgetown University.

For more information, please click here.

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August 18, 2022
Informality and Wage Setting Policies in Latin America

Event Information
Date: Tuesday, September 20, 2022
Time: 9:00 a.m. – 6:30 p.m. EDT

Location: Off Campus (Insper Learning Institution, São Paulo, Brazil) and Online via Zoom/YouTube

This daylong event is an in-person academic conference and policy discussion at the Insper Institute of Education and Research in São Paulo, Brazil; the event will also be livestreamed. Please continue to check this event page for the most up-to-date information.

For decades, many Latin American economies have displayed low rates of economic growth and stagnant labor productivity accompanied by high and increasing levels of income and wage inequality.

These economies are also characterized by costly and burdensome labor regulations that are imperfectly enforced, which led to the high and persistent levels of informality observed in the region. While this increases the level of flexibility, it may also induce less investment in human capital, higher earnings volatility, greater misallocation of resources across firms and sectors, and result in lower aggregate productivity and growth. Moreover, informal workers typically do not have access to social security and unemployment insurance, and they are not covered by minimum wage legislation.

Leading scholars will discuss issues related to wage setting and labor market informality in Latin America during the academic conference, which will be followed by a moderated policy discussion combining a number of these scholars with a group of policymakers with specific expertise for this region.

How to RSVP

Online: For those who wish to join online, please RSVP via Zoom. The event will also be livestreamed on YouTube.

In-person: For those who wish to attend in person, please RSVP via email to Mayara Almeida Pedro at mayaraap@insper.edu.br. The in-person event will take place at Insper Learning Institution, R. Quatá, 300 – Vila Olímpia, São Paulo – SP, 04546-042, Brazil.

Participants Include

Professor David Card is the Class of 1950 Professor of Economics at the University of California, Berkeley and the recipient of the 2021 Nobel Prize in Economics.

Professor Pinelopi Goldberg is the Elihu Professor of Economics at Yale University and was the chief economist of the World Bank Group from 2018 to 2020.

Ilan Goldfajn is the former president of the Central Bank of Brazil and current director of the International Monetary Fund’s Western Hemisphere Department.

Santiago Levy is a nonresident senior fellow with the Global Economy and Development Program at the  Brookings Institution and served as the vice president for sectors and knowledge at the Inter-American Development Bank from 2008 to 2018.

Mauricio Cárdenas is visiting senior research scholar at the Center on Global Energy Policy at Columbia University SIPA and former minister of finance and public credit and minister of mines and energy of Colombia.

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August 17, 2022
A Monetary and Fiscal History of Latin America, 1960 – 2017

Event Information
Date: Friday, August 26, 2022
Time: 12:50 p.m. – 2:50 p.m. EDT
Location: Off Campus – Instituto Tecnológico Autónomo de México, Mexico City (11:50 a.m. CDT – 1:40 p.m. CDT) and Online via Zoom/YouTube

What went wrong with the economic development of Latin America over the past half-century? Along with periods of poor economic performance, the region’s countries have been plagued by a wide variety of economic crises. In A Monetary and Fiscal History of Latin America, 1960–2017 (2021), editors Timothy J. Kehoe and Juan Pablo Nicolini bring together leading economists to explore the economic performance of the 10 largest countries in South America and Mexico, with a comprehensive look at six decades of macroeconomic policies. The contributors advance the hypothesis that, despite different manifestations, the disappointing economic performance has been the result of poorly designed or implemented fiscal and monetary policies. 

To further explore the book’s themes, this online event features Kehoe and Nicolini, along with contributor Felipe Meza, in conversation with key scholars, former government officials, and financial industry leaders. The event will be held in Spanish and take place in person in Mexico City; it will also be livestreamed on YouTube with simultaneous translation to English. 

This event is hosted by the Economic Department of Instituto Tecnológico Autónomo de México (ITAM) with the Georgetown Americas Institute (GAI) and the Center for Economic Research (GCER) at Georgetown University.

Online: For those who wish to join online, please RSVP via Zoom. The event will also be livestreamed on YouTube.

In-person: For those who wish to attend in person, please RSVP via email to fabiola.bustamante@itam.mx. The in-person event will take place at Auditorio Raúl Baillères, Río Hondo #1, Col. Progreso Tizapán, CP. 01080. Alc. Álvaro Obregón, Ciudad de México, Mexico.

Schedule

12:50 a.m. EDT / 11:50 a.m. CDT | Welcome

1:00 p.m. EDT / 12:00 p.m. CDT | Book Presentation and Discussion: A Monetary and fiscal History of Latin America, 1960-2017

Timothy J. Kehoe, University of Minnesota
Felipe Meza, Instituto Tecnológico Autónomo de México
Juan P. Nicolini, Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis / Universidad Torcuato Di Tella
Jaime Serra Puche (moderator), SAI Law and Economics

2:00 p.m. EDT / 1:00 p.m CDT | Current Challenges in Monetary and Fiscal Policy in Latin America

Lorenza Martinez, Actinver
Alexandre Tombini, Bank of International Settlements
Alexander Werner, Georgetown Americas Institute
Ana M. Aguilar (moderator), Bank of International Settlements

2:40 p.m. EDT / 1:40 CDT | Q&A

Featuring

Ana M. Aguilar joined Bank of International Settlements (BIS) in January 2019 as a senior economist. Before that, she worked at the Bank of Mexico from 1998 to 2018, and for most of that time Aguilar oversaw monetary policy analysis as the head of the Directorate of Economic Studies. She holds a Ph.D. in economics (2004) from the University of California, Los Angeles. She has been a lecturer at the Mexico Autonomous Institute of Technology (ITAM), from which she received her bachelor’s degree in economics.

Timothy Kehoe is a Distinguished McKnight University Professor at the University of Minnesota, where he has been a professor in the Department of Economics since 1987. In addition, he is an adviser to the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis. His research and teaching focus on the theory and application of general equilibrium models, especially in macroeconomics and international trade. Originally from Newport, Rhode Island, he received his B.A. in economics and mathematics from Providence College in 1975 and his Ph.D. in economics from Yale University in 1979. He has held teaching positions at Wesleyan University, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and the University of Cambridge in the United Kingdom. 

Lorenza Martinez is CEO of Actinver and general manager of its digital unit, one of the few women in Mexico to head a large financial services business. She is spearheading Actinver’s efforts to grow its digital channels client base to over 100,000. Previously she worked at Accenture as managing director from 2019 to 2022, she also served as general manager of Banco de Mexico’s payments and corporate services arm for more than five years. Martínez has a doctorate in economics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Felipe Meza is director at the Centro de Análisis e Investigación Económica (CAIE) and a professor of economics at ITAM. As director of CAIE he works on analyzing and forecasting the short and medium-term evolution of the Mexican economy. Meza has published in international peer-reviewed academic journals such as the Journal of International Economics, Review of Economic Dynamics, and Economics Letters. His awards include the Kenneth J. Arrow Prize for Junior Economists by the Berkeley Electronic Press (2009) and second place in the Premio Banamex de Economia (2015). He has been a member of the Sistema Nacional de Investigadores of Mexico (2010-2016) and since 2020 a member of México, ¿cómo vamos?, a Mexican think tank. Meza earned his undergraduate degree in economics from ITAM and his Ph.D. in economics from the University of Minnesota.

Juan P. Nicolini is a senior research economist with the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis. Prior to joining the Fed in 2009, Nicolini taught at ITAM, the Universitat Pompeu Fabra in Barcelona, and the Universidad Torcuato Di Tella in Buenos Aires, where he holds a part-time position. In addition, he served as chairman of the Economics Department (1994–1999) and president (2001–2009) of Universidad Torcuato Di Tella. In 2006 and 2007, he was Tinker Visiting Professor in the Economics Department and the Center for Latin-American Studies at the University of Chicago. He has also been a visiting researcher at the Banco de Portugal and in the Monetary Stance Division of the European Central Bank. Nicolini studied economics at the Universidad Nacional de Tucumán in Argentina and earned M.A. and Ph.D. degrees in economics from the University of Chicago. The focus of his research centers on monetary theory and policy and on bounded rationality in macroeconomics. 

Jaime Serra Puche is a former Mexican government official, having served from 1986 to 1994 in roles including undersecretary of finance, secretary of trade and industry, and secretary of finance. As secretary of trade and industry, he led the negotiation and implementation of NAFTA; headed the negotiations of free-trade agreements with Chile, Colombia, Venezuela, Bolivia, and Costa Rica; and promoted the creation of the Federal Competition Commission in Mexico. He is currently the chairman of SAI Law and Economics, a Mexican consulting firm. He is also the founder of the Arbitration Center of Mexico, the NAFTA Fund of Mexico, and electronic auctions company Aklara. Serra is a graduate of Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México. He earned a master’s degree in economics at El Colegio de Mexico and a Ph.D. in economics at Yale University. He has been a professor of economics at El Colegio de Mexico, Stanford University, Princeton University, and New York University. 

Alexandre Tombini has served as chief representative of the Bank of International Settlements Office for the Americas since September 2019. Before joining BIS, he was executive director of the board at the International Monetary Fund for Brazil, Cabo Verde, the Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Guyana, Haiti, Nicaragua, Panama, Suriname, Timor-Leste, and Trinidad and Tobago. Previously, he was with the Central Bank of Brazil, where he served as governor after deputy governor positions in financial system regulation and in economic research. He was also a BIS board member and chairman of the Standing Committee on Budget Resources of the Financial Stability Board. Tombini holds a Ph.D. in economics from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

Alejandro Werner is the founding director of the Georgetown Americas Institute and a non-resident senior fellow at the Peterson Institute. He recently completed almost nine years as director of the Western Hemisphere Department at the International Monetary Fund. Prior to that appointment, he rose to undersecretary in Mexico’s Finance Ministry and taught at leading universities in Mexico, Spain, and the United States. He earned his Ph.D. in economics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1994.

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July 18, 2022
The Impact of the Russian Invasion on the Ukrainian, Russian, and Global Economies: A Conversation Revisited
Monday, July 18, 2022
10:00 a.m. – 11:00 a.m. EDT
Location: Online (4:00 p.m. – 5:00 p.m. Brussels)

In March 2022, leading economists and regional experts Sergei Guriev and Tymofiy Mylovanov discussed the economic implications (new window) of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, launched on February 24, 2022. Their highly illuminating discussion considered the complexities of supply chains, global food security, the two countries’ economic futures, and more. Four months later, with the economic toll on the world’s economies and the humanitarian cost imposed on Ukraine and the surrounding regions continuing to grow, we reunite these two experts to share their views of the current status of this crisis. Alejandro Werner, founding director of the Georgetown Americas Institute, will moderate the conversation.

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April 26, 2022
The Ukrainian Refugee Crisis
Tuesday, April 26, 2022
11:00 a.m. – 12:15 p.m. EDT
Location: Online (5:00 p.m. – 6:15 p.m. CEST)

The Russian invasion of Ukraine and the associated conflict has resulted in a major exodus from the country as individuals seeking safety attempt to escape the horrors of war. UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, has recently estimated that in excess of four million Ukrainians have left their country (with over seven million internally displaced), resulting in an extraordinary crisis with major humanitarian and economic implications. This webinar will feature four leading economists discussing the impacts of this ongoing refugee crisis and its implications for Ukraine and the rest of Europe.

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April 22, 2022
4th Annual Washington Area Labor Economics Symposium (WALES) hosted by the Georgetown Center for Economic Research (GCER)

Welcome, DC labor economists! We are pleased to invite you to the fourth annual Washington Area Labor Economics Symposium (WALES), which will be held at Georgetown University on Friday, April 22, 2022.

WALES is a one-day labor conference economics conference that brings together researchers from many DC institutions. The goal is to provide an outlet to share recent or ongoing research and get to know other researchers.

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