Europe's Political and Economic Challenges

Jan Svejnar, Director of the International Policy Center at the Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy; Everett E. Berg Professor of Business Administration; and Professor of Economics and Public Policy; and former candidate for president of the Czech Republic. He is also a founder and Chairman of CERGE-EI in Prague (an American-style Ph.D. program in economics that educates the new generation of economists for Central-East Europe and the Newly Independent States). He serves as the Chairman of the Supervisory Board of CSOB Bank and Co-Editor of the Economics of Transition. He is also a Fellow of the European Economic Association and Research Fellow of the Center for Economic Policy Research (London) and Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA, Bonn).

As the financial crisis and economic recession become deeper, a manifest European-US leadership is becoming indispensable to prevent a major worldwide crisis. While the US approach to the crisis has many flaws, it is more internally consistent than the partial and mostly uncoordinated initiatives observed in Europe. A large-scale joint European-US approach is needed to reverse the downward spiral. A key aspect is how to provide a better supervision and regulation of the financial sector, while not over-constraining the world economy.

From 1996 to 2004, Professor Svejnar was the Executive Director of the William Davidson Institute at the Ross School of Business. From 1992 to 1997 he served as the Founding Director of the Economics Institute of the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic. He also served as Co-Director of the Transition Programme at the Center for Economic Policy Research in London, President of the Association for Comparative Economic Studies, President of the International Association for the Economics of Labor-Management, Associate Editor of the Journal of Economic Perspectives, Governing Board member of the European Economic Association, and advisor to numerous policy makers, institutions and firms.

Professor Svejnar received his BS from Cornell University's School of Industrial and Labor Relations and his MA and PhD in Economics from Princeton University.

Hosted as part of Conversations on Europe Lecture Series. Co-sponsored by CES-EUC, CREES, IPC and WCED.