Dear Social Network: Season’s Greetings, happy holidays and a healthy & confident start into the New Year 2020! Many thanks to all friends and partners for the very many exciting experiences in 2019. Best regards Klaus F. Zimmermann
Under political pressure of the Hungarian Government, the Central European University (CEU) has left this year Budapest for Vienna. Leaving behind a wonderful and perfect infrastructure, the university has found an attractive new place in Austria’s capital. The matter represents an important chapter in the global fight for academic freedom and evidence-based policy-making. The Global Labor Organization (GLO) had early on first followed and later on reflected the issue, always supportingCEU‘s case. CEU’s Martin Kahanec gave GLO’s Klaus F. Zimmermann an interview about the current state of this development.
Martin Kahanec, a prominent European economist, is currently Mercator Senior Visiting Fellow at Bruegel, Brussels, and was just selected by the Board of Trustees of Academia Europaea, the European Academy of Humanities, Letters and Sciences, as a member of its Section Committee of Economics, Business and Management Sciences. He is a Professor and former Acting Dean (2017-2019) of the School of Public Policy at the CEU. He is also Founder and Scientific Director of CELSI, Bratislava, a GLO Fellow, and a former Chairperson of the Slovak Economic Association (2016-2018).
Klaus F. Zimmermann is the GLO President, and has been the George Soros Chair at the School of Public Policy, in Spring 2019 in Budapest. Kahanec and Zimmermann have worked and published together over a longer period.
GLO: What can we learn from the CEU experience for academic freedom?
Kahanec: Let me mention three key lessons from this experience. First, never take freedom, and academic freedom in particular, for granted. Second, do not rely on politicians for its protection, it has become just one of the many tokens they are playing with. And there are many tokens they value more, such as political support in the European Parliament, or a military deal. Even worse, for some types of politicians an attack on an academic institution wins voters’ support. Third, we might lose a battle or two, but we will prevail as long as we do not give up nurturing and defending academic freedom. Free, open societies provide for innovation, critical thinking, and the pursuit of happiness and prosperity, and as such are more competitive and prevail in the long run.
GLO: How will this affect academic capacity building in Eastern Europe?
Kahanec: As the Hungarian government is trying to convince the general public that the expulsion of CEU is not a loss for Hungary, it downplays its academic excellence and invests in domestic capacity building – but including pro-Orban institutions only. It also facilitates the opening of branches of foreign schools – from carefully selected countries – in Hungary. For example, PM Orban recently personally supported the opening of Shanghai’s Fudan University campus and an elementary and high school connected to Turkish President Erdogan in Budapest.
But many of the
prominent academics are leaving Hungary and yet more will decide not to come or
return to, or cooperate with, Hungary. As many prominent Hungarian academics
realized early on, the attack on academic freedom was not to be confined to CEU
– it has affected the Hungarian Academy of Sciences and many Hungarian
universities. In the long run, this will be a huge blow to the Hungarian
academe. As the attack on CEU in several ways follows the script already
applied in Russia and Turkey, it is clear there are negative spillovers. How
the contagion will spread to the rest of Europe will also depend on how the
European political elites will respond. So far they have a worryingly poor track
record.
GLO: Will there be a chance for CEU to return back?
Kahanec: We are determined not to abandon Hungary and keep the Budapest campus. We will use it for non-teaching activities. As for our degree programs, my personal opinion is ‘never say never’.
GLO: How supportive is the EU and its Commission for CEU?
Kahanec: Some attempts to save CEU have been made, but they all have been eventually utterly ineffective. The EU has very limited instruments to protect democracy and freedom, let alone academic freedom, in its member states. The EU treaties did not really foresee, let alone provide safeguards against, rogue governments in its member states.
GLO: How well can CEU adjust in Vienna?
Kahanec: This will not be trivial, but we take this crisis as an opportunity to reinvent the university and to update its mission in order to even more strongly respond to the deep challenges societies around the globe are facing. We are opening new programs in Vienna, and I am proud to have stood, as the dean of CEU’s School of Public Policy, at the cradle of the new Masters’ program in International Public Affairs – the first graduate degree program that Central European University accredited in Austria to establish CEU in its new home in Vienna. And I must say, I am deeply impressed by, and grateful for the support from Austrian academics and institutions. There will be many challenges, but I am confidently looking forward to CEU’s future in Austria.
Posted inInterview, News, Science|Comments Off on CEU Left Budapest to Move to Vienna! Interview with former CEU School of Public Policy Dean Martin Kahanec about the background.
The Second GLO – Renmin University of China Conference on Labor Economics in Beijing took place in the North Hall, Century Hall, RUC, 7-8 December 2019. More details: Report 1 and Report 2. The full program and further conference pictures are below.
Keynote speakers of the event were GLO FellowsShi Li of Zhejiang University and Xi Chen of Yale University. Conference organizers were GLO Fellows Corrado Giulietti and Jun Han.GLO Director Matloob Piracha also gave a paper, and GLO Fellow Zhong Zhao and GLO President Klaus F. Zimmermann had addressed the conference. The event is part of the GLO China Research Cluster, which is lead by Corrado Giulietti, who is also a GLO Research Director.
Conference activists from the left : Zhong Zhao, Shi Li, Klaus F. Zimmermann, Jun Han, Matloob Piracha, Corrado Giulietti & Xi Chen.
Zhao, Li, Zimmermann
Han, Piracha, Giulietti
Chen
Saturday, December 7, 2019: First day
Morning, speakers, conference openings and keynote
Giulietti, Zimmermann of GLO and Zhao, Han of Renmin University of China
Keynote of Shi Li on wage gap changes in China between urban and rural migrant workers
Morning Speakers From the left: Jing Wu, Tobias Haepp and Chuhong Wang
Debate
Afternoon, keynote and session speakers Corrado Giulietti & Xi Chen
Afternoon speakers from the left: Zhangfei Jin, Yunqi Zeng, Xiangiang Zou, Jun Han & Zhuang Hao
Sunday, December 8, 2019: Second day
Speakers Li Dai, Wang Yue & Matloob Piracha
Debate and farewell Chuhong Wang, Klaus F. Zimmermann & Corrado Giulietti
A new GLO Discussion Paperis providing evidence that heterogeneity in populism does not follow a left/right divide.
The Global Labor Organization (GLO) is an independent, non-partisan and non-governmental organization that functions as an international network and virtual platform to stimulate global research, debate and collaboration.
Author Abstract: We present an exploratory machine learning analysis of populist votes at municipality level in the 2018 Italian general elections, in which populist parties gained almost 50% of the votes. Starting from a comprehensive set of local characteristics, we use an algorithm based on BIC to obtain a reduced set of predictors for each of the two populist parties (Five-Star Movement and Lega) and the two traditional ones (Democratic Party and Forza Italia). Differences and similarities between the sets of predictors further provide evidence on 1) heterogeneity in populisms, 2) if this heterogeneity is related to the traditional left/right divide. The Five-Star Movement is stronger in larger and unsafer municipalities, where people are younger, more unemployed and work more in services. On the contrary, Lega thrives in smaller and safer municipalities, where people are less educated and employed more in manufacturing and commerce. These differences do not correspond to differences between the Democratic Party and Forza Italia, providing evidence that heterogeneity in populism does not correspond to a left/right divide. As robustness tests, we use an alternative machine learning technique (lasso) and apply our predictions to France as to confront them with candidates’ actual votes in 2017 presidential elections.
A new GLO Discussion Paper firstly measures poverty among refugees.
The Global Labor Organization (GLO) is an independent, non-partisan and non-governmental organization that functions as an international network and virtual platform to stimulate global research, debate and collaboration.
Author Abstract: The increasing growth of forced displacement worldwide has led to the stronger interest of various stakeholders in measuring poverty among refugee populations. However, refugee data remain scarce, particularly in relation to the measurement of income, consumption, or expenditure. This paper offers a first attempt to measure poverty among refugees using cross-survey imputations and administrative and survey data collected by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees in Jordan. Employing a small number of predictors currently available in the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees registration system, the proposed methodology offers out-of-sample predicted poverty rates. These estimates are not statistically different from the actual poverty rates. The estimates are robust to different poverty lines, they are more accurate than those based on asset indexes or proxy means tests, and they perform well according to targeting indicators. They can also be obtained with relatively small samples. Despite these preliminary encouraging results, it is essential to replicate this experiment across countries using different data sets and welfare aggregates before validating the proposed method.
In the morning of December 12, the Beijing-based Center for China and Globalization (CCG), a leading non-governmental think tank in China dedicated to the study of globalization, received GLO President Klaus F. Zimmermann. CCG President Henry Wang (also a GLO Fellow) and his staff discussed cooperation issues of joint interest. With immediate effect, CCG joins the group of supporting institutions of GLO.
After the talk, Zimmermann moved back to Germany. During his one week visit in the Chinese capital, he had given six speeches at public events and in academic seminars and discussed various academic and policy oriented collaborations. Details.
GLO President Klaus F. Zimmermann has a history of three decades of collaborations with Chinese academic researchers, has published frequently in Chinese and is since 2006 a Honorary Professor at Renmin University of China in Beijing. During his recent visit to Beijing from December 5 – 12, he first provided a keynote speech to a large international conference on “Vocational Education and Training Development” and spoke at the “Second GLO – Renmin University of China Conference on Labor Economics” (First Day && Second Day). He took office at Renmin University of China, and provided a number of seminar presentations to top Beijing Universities and met a number of researchers for research talks:
December 9, Renmin University of China: Seminar on “Publishing in Top Research Journals” with a large group of participants including Deputy Dean and GLO Fellow Zhong Zhao, and GLO Fellows& ProfessorsLiqiu Zhao and Xianqiang Zou.
December 9, Renmin University of China: Meeting with GLO Fellow & Renmin Professor Xiangquan Zeng and his research team discussing a seminar presentation of Shuai Chu.
December 10, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences: Seminar speech on “Arsenic in Drinking Water: Health Challenges and Responses” with a large group of participants including host Academia Europaea Member & Professor Desheng Wu and many members of his research team.
December 10, Beijing Normal University (BNU): Seminar speech on “Economic Preferences Across Generations” with a large group of participants including host and GLO Fellow & Professor Chunbing Xing, GLO Fellow & Professor Shi Li (Zhejiang University) and many faculty professors and students of the BNU Business School.
December 11, Peking University, China Center for Agricultural Policy: Seminar speech on “Global Labor Challenges & the B&R Initiative” with a large group of participants including host and GLO Fellow & ProfessorHongmei Yi and many faculty professors and students .
December 9, Renmin University of China
Partners and friends for two decades: Zimmermann & Xiangquan Zeng
Zeng & Zimmermann with Shuai Chu
With Xianqiang Zou after the seminar on “Publications in Top Journals”
December 10, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences
Desheng Wu (right of Zimmermann) & seminar participants
December 10, Beijing Normal University
From the left: Chengyu Yang, Xiaobing Wang, Li Shi, Zimmermann, GLO Fellow Desheng Lai, Minbo Xu & GLO Fellow Chunbing Xing
December 11, Peking University
Hongmei Yi (left of Zimmermann) and seminar participants
Posted inEvents, News, Travel|Comments Off on Academic exchange in top Beijing Universities: Renmin University of China, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing Normal University, and Peking University.
A new GLO Discussion Paper shows that in Portugal employee representatives foster firm performance through increased training of workers.
The Global Labor Organization (GLO) is an independent, non-partisan and non-governmental organization that functions as an international network and virtual platform to stimulate global research, debate and collaboration.
Author Abstract: Employee representatives in firms are a potentially key but not yet studied source of the impact of unions and works councils. Their actions can shape multiple drivers of firm performance, including collective bargaining, strikes, and training. This paper examines the impact of union rep mandates by exploiting legal membership thresholds present in many countries. In the case of Portugal, which we examine here, while firms employing up to 49 union members are required to have one union rep, this increases to two (three) union reps for firms with 50 to 99 (100-199) union members. Drawing on matched employer- employee data on the unionized sector and regression discontinuity methods, we find that a one percentage point increase in the legal union rep/members ratio leads to an increase in firm performance of at least 7%. This result generally holds across multiple dimensions of firm performance and appears to be driven by increased training. However, we find no effects of union reps on firm-level wages, given the predominance of sectoral collective bargaining.
A new GLO Discussion Paper shows that the China-drivenfall in IT prices has increased the demand for high wage occupations and reduced the demand for low wage occupations.
The Global Labor Organization (GLO) is an independent, non-partisan and non-governmental organization that functions as an international network and virtual platform to stimulate global research, debate and collaboration.
Author Abstract: I use data from the World Input-Output Database and show that trade in information technologies (IT) has a significant contribution to the growth in foreign intermediate goods in 2001-2014 period. China has become one of the major foreign suppliers of IT and has strongly contributed to the rise in trade in IT. The growth in IT imports from China is associated with lower IT prices in sample European countries. The fall in IT prices has increased the demand for high wage occupations and reduced the demand for low wage occupations. From 20 to 95 percent of the variation in the demand for occupations stemming from the fall in IT prices can be attributed to the trade with China.
Gautam Hazarika (University of Texas Rio Grande Valley), Chandan Kumar Jha (Le Moyne College, Madden School of Business), and Sudipta Sarangi (Virginia Tech) will receive the 2020 Kuznets Prize for their article (please click title for FREE READ LINK)
which was published in the Journal of Population Economics (2019), 32(4), pp. 1101-1123. The annual prize honors the best article published in the Journal of Population Economics.
The award will be given to the authors during the ASSA 2020 meeting in San Diego, USA, at a reception on Friday, Jan. 3, 2020, 6:00 PM – 8:00 PM, at the Marriott Marquis San Diego, Coronado Room, hosted by the Institute for Economic and Social Research (IESR) of Jinan University.
Biographical Abstracts
Gautam Hazarika is presently Associate Professor of Economics at
The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley, the newest branch of the University
of Texas system. He completed his undergraduate education at the University of
Delhi’s St. Stephen’s College, and his Ph.D. at the University of Rochester. His
research has spanned labor and development economics. He is presently conducting
research in economic anthropology. Dr. Hazarika’s research has appeared in such
journals as American Journal of
Agricultural Economics, Review of
Income and Wealth, the Journal of
Development Studies, and, recently, the Journal
of Population Economics.
Chandan Kumar Jha is an Assistant Professor of
Finance at the Madden School of Business, Le Moyne College. He holds a Ph.D.
and an M.S. from Louisiana State University. His research interests lie in the
areas of economic growth and development, political economy, and finance and
development. His current research topics include corruption, gender inequality,
financial risk, and economic and financial reforms. He has published several
research articles in many reputed journals such as the Journal of Economic Behavior &
Organization, the Journal of Population Economics, International Review of
Finance, and Information
Economics and Policy.
Sudipta Sarangi is currently
Department Head and Professor of Economics at Virginia Polytechnic Institute
and State University. His research interests range from network theory to
development economics. He studies how gender differences affect economic
activity, as well as the origins of gender inequality. His work on networks
focuses on the strategic formation of social and economic networks and how
participation in multiple networks affects social outcomes. He is a research
associate of DIW Berlin, GATE, University of Lyon-St. Etienne and the Lima
School of Economics. He serves on the editorial boards of Journal of
Economic Behavior and Organization, Journal of Public Economic Theory
and Studies in Microeconomics.
Hazarika
Jha
Sarangi
Abstract of the Winning Paper
“This paper examines the relationship between
ecological endowments in antiquity and contemporary female to male sex ratios
in the population. It is found that there are proportionately more missing
women in countries whose ancestral ecological endowments were poorer. This
relationship is shown to be strong even after ancestral plough use, the timing
of the Neolithic Transition, and many other potentially confounding factors are
controlled for. Similar results are also obtained using district-level data
from India.”
About the Kuznets Prize
The Journal of Population Economics awards the ‘Kuznets Prize’ for the best paper published in the Journal of Population Economicsin the previous year. Starting from 2014 the Prize has been awarded annually. Papers are judged by the Editors of the Journal.
Simon Kuznets, a pioneer in population economics, Professor Emeritus at Harvard University and the 1971 Nobel Prize laureate in economics, died on July 10, 1985. Professor Kuznets was born 1901 in Pinsk, Belarus, and came to the United States in 1922. He earned his Bachelor of Science in 1923, a Master of Arts degree in 1924 and his doctorate in 1926, all from Columbia University. During World War II he was Associate Director of the Bureau of Planning and Statistics on the War Production Board, and he served on the staff of the National Bureau of Economic Research from 1927 to 1960. Mr. Kuznets was a faculty member at the University of Pennsylvania for 24 years and Professor of Political Economy at Johns Hopkins University from 1954 until he joined Harvard University in 1960. He retired in 1971 and was given the title of George F. Baker Professor Emeritus of Economics. He was a former president of the American Economic Association and the American Statistical Association.
Previous Winners
The Kuznets Prize (please click titles for READ LINKS FOR FREE) has previously been awarded to:
2016: Loren Brandt (University of Toronto), Aloysius Siow (University of Toronto), and Hui Wang (Peking University) for their article “Compensating for unequal parental investments in schooling,” Journal of Population Economics 28: 423-462.
Period 2010-2012: Richard W. Evans (Brigham Young University), Yingyao Hu (Johns Hopkins University) and Zhong Zhao (Renmin University) for their article “The fertility effect of catastrophe: US hurricane births“, Journal of Population Economics 23: 1-36.
Posted inEvents, News|Comments Off on 2020 Kuznets Prize of the Journal of Population Economics Awarded on January 3, 2020 at the ASSA Meeting in San Diego/USA.
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