Klaus F. Zimmermann

19 May 2016; Brussels, Berlaymont. The EU Commission launches an important step to strengthen the instruments to judge and improve EU policies. The successful “Centre for Research on Impact Evaluation” (CRIE) will become the “Competence Centre on Microeconomic Evaluation” (CC-ME).

The initiative is discussed and presented at a workshop on

“The role of microeconomic evaluation in ex-post impact quantification of EU policies”

For the program and the list of high – ranked speakers and participants see the website.

Klaus F. Zimmermann (Bonn Graduate School of Economics, Harvard University and UNU-MERIT) will speak in the session on “The practice of policy impact evaluation outside the European Commission”.

The purpose of this half day event is to bring together policymakers, analysts and researchers from the European Commission, international organizations, think tanks and academia, to discuss the role of quantitative, ex-post evaluation of policy impacts in the European policy process.

The event will also see the launch of the European Commission’s Competence Centre on Microeconomic Evaluation. The Commission’s focus on quantification of EU policy results generates on the one hand demand for transversal, robust, objective and transparent impact evaluation tools; on the other hand it calls for an increased accessibility to existing administrative micro-data sources to foster microeconomic impact evaluations.

By bringing together relevant policy and scientific expertise across the Commission, the Competence Centre on Microeconomic Evaluation will help ensure that both appropriate counterfactual methods and micro-data sources are used in a systematic way across the Commission policy cycle. Quantitative evaluation of EU policies across a variety of socio-economic outcomes could greatly contribute to the Better Regulation agenda, the European Semester and the targeting of the European Structural Investment Funds.

The Competence Centre will serve as a focal point of reference to support policy-making across a wide range of areas of impact evaluation of EU policies, by providing advice on data collection and evaluation design, capacity building on counterfactual methods, microeconometric analysis and counterfactual impact evaluation. It will also provide infrastructure for evaluation knowledge management, in the form of a (Micro)Data Bank and an Evaluations Bank.

Society of Government Economists Annual Conference 2016

• Washington, DC. May 13, 2016. Organized by the US “Society of Government Economists” (SGE), the annual conference took place at the US Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) in Washington DC. Program

• The very successful conference with a remarkable set of excellent paper presentations and a large audience was opened by President Amelie Constant (Temple University) in the Janet Norwood Conference Center of BLS. The local organizer was Susan D. Fleck (Bureau of Labor Statistics). Recent elections had confirmed the SGE Board in office, including the second re-election of President Amelie Constant, who will be in office for her third period until 2017.
• The keynote speaker was John Abowd (Census Bureau and Cornell University), who spoke about “The Fate of Empirical Economics When All Data Are Private“. The slides of his amazing lecture can be found here (with permission).

John Abowd and President Amelie Constant

SGE 2016 Abowd and Constant

• At the conference, Klaus F. Zimmermann (Harvard University and UNU-MERIT) had presented papers on:

• “Left Behind but Doing Good? Civic Engagement in Two Post-Socialist Countries” with Milena Nikolova (IZA) and Monica Roman (Bucharest University). More info here.

• “The European Refugee Crisis: Policy Challenges and Perspectives“ More info here.

John Abowd and Klaus F. Zimmermann

SGE 2016 Abowd and Zimmermann

• Emerging Diaspora Opportunities and Challenges

• Washington, DC. May 10, 2016. Organized by KNOMAD (Global Knowledge Partnership on Migration and Development) & the World Bank, a workshop on “Emerging Diaspora Opportunities and Challenges: Host and Home Countries” takes place: Concept note and program.

• Klaus F. Zimmermann (Harvard University and UNU-MERIT) will present and discuss in the session “First generation, second generation diaspora: mobility, opportunities and challenges“.

•  The debate will include recent efforts to obtain a better understanding of the demographic profile and educational and income mobility (particularly given the recent participation of diaspora youth in conflicts in the Middle East). The panelists will discuss the importance of labor market integration challenges and strategies for advancing first generation migration who do not fit into their new society and second generation diaspora that is not integrated.

• Society of Government Economists Annual Conference

• Washington, DC. May 13, 2016. Organized by the US “Society of Government Economists” (SGE), the annual conference will take place at the US Bureau of Labor Statistics in Washington DC. The conference will be opened by President Amelie Constant (Temple University). The keynote speaker is John Abowd (Census Bureau and Cornell University), who will speak about “The Fate of Empirical Economics When All Data Are Private“. Program and register.

• Klaus F. Zimmermann (Harvard University and UNU-MERIT) will present papers on:

• “Left Behind but Doing Good? Civic Engagement in Two Post-Socialist Countries” with Milena Nikolova (IZA) and Monica Roman (Bucharest University)

• “The European Refugee Crisis: Policy Challenges and Perspectives“

The 16th week of 2016 was full of remarkable exchanges.

• April 19, 2016: Chair of the Seminar of Miriam Meckel, Editor-in-Chief of the “Wirtschaftswoche”, at the Center for European Studies, Harvard University. See also.

• April 19, 2016: Spoke at dinner event of Columbia University in the honor of Jan Svejnar, who received the IZA Prize in Labor Economics 2015. After Jacob Mincer, the first prize winner, “The prize is now back to Columbia University”. Nobel Prize Winner Jo Stiglitz (see below), who was the host of the evening, gave a long review of the remarkable achievements of Jan and his role in forming “Transition Economics” at the time when Europe badly needed this. Jan Svejnar gave many insights in his life and career. See below, in the back the lights of New York. Place: School of International and Public Affairs, SIPA, Columbia University.

• April 20- 23, 2016: Research visit to New Haven, Yale University (see below in front of the Yale School of Public Health). Various contacts and exchanges with colleagues on health, development and European integration.

School of International and Public Affairs, SIPA, Columbia University.

Jo Stiglitz

Jan Svejnar

Yale University, New Haven

End