The NES 25th Anniversary Conference 2017


On December 18, rector of NES Shlomo Weber opened the conference with his welcoming address and introduced the first keynote speaker – Professor of Economics Steven Durlauf (University of Chicago). He presented his research on Measuring Genetic Influences in Socioeconomic Outcomes. Afterwards, at the parallel sessions, such issues as the international trade, macroeconomics, finance, and healthcare were discussed. Experts also participated in the work of the following sessions: A Hundred Years of Russian Revolution: A Great Experiment of Socialist Transformation; A Hundred Years of Russian Revolution: Russian Industrial Firms Before and After 1917; Contract Theory; Development.

NES alumnus Anna Mikusheva (MIT) presented her paper "Weakly Identified Econometric Models Chair". Professor of Economics Gérard Roland (University of California, Berkeley) gave a lecture on the topic "Culture, Institutions and Democratization".

The first day of the conference concluded with a round table with participation of François Bourguignon (Paris School of Economics), Andreu Mas-Collel (Universitat Pompeu Fabra), and Shlomo Weber. Experts discussed such problems as diversity, income distribution and higher education in the European Union.

Professor Matthew Jackson (Stanford University) opened the second day of the conference with his keynote lecture on the topic "The Interaction Between Informal Networks and Formal Markets Chair". He talked about his research, conducted in isolated Indian villages, some mechanisms of information dissemination and its influence on economic decision-making. This day seven sessions took place on such issues as the organizational economics, political economy, corporate finance, economics of science, industrial organization, econometrics, and asset pricing.

The EBRD’s Chief Economist, former NES rector Sergei Guriev presented EBRD Transition Report "Sustaining growth". NES alumnus Ilya Strebulaev (Stanford University) talked about his research on financing innovation: how venture capitalists make decisions and choose firms for funding, what are the main features of VC industry.
The closing event of the conference was a round table "Challenges of the Strategic Development of the Russian Economy" (videos of the round table are available only in Russian) with Alexei Kudrin (Center for Strategic Research). NES professors presented their papers on prospects for economic development, based on their own work for the Center for Strategic Research. Natalya Volchkova talked about costs of exporting in Russia, Irina Denisova highlighted some challenges for Russian healthcare system, Evgeny Yakovlev shared some results of his research on alcohol policy and maternity fund, Oleg Shibanov pointed out some advantages of passive asset management, Anna Obizhaeva talked about economic approach to building financial infrastructure, NES rector Shlomo Weber emphasized how important it is to consider sociocultural factors in strategic development.
"I would like to thank the team of NES professors, they showed their professional approach to strategic research. I think we [Center for Strategic Research] will one after another publish these reports. We want them to go public and to generate discussion in society", said Alexei Kudrin in conclusion.

After the conference, Gala Celebration of the NES 25th Anniversary took place. More than 1000 guests attended this party: NES students and alumni, friends, employees, professors and donors. Among the guests were: Deputy Prime Minister of Russia, chairman of the Board of Directors of NES, NES graduate of 1994 Arkady Dvorkovich, Bank of Russia First Deputy Governor Ksenia Yudaeva, EBRD’s Chief Economist Sergei Guriev, Professor Emeritus of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, one of the founders of NES Gur Ofer, Dean of the Economics Faculty of Lomonosov Moscow State University Alexander Auzan, Vice-President of Transneft Mikhail Margelov, President of the Moscow School of Management SKOLKOVO Andrei Sharonov, Rector of European University at St. Petersburg Nikolai Vakhtin, President of The Polytechnic Museum Boris Saltykov, Senior Partner, Chairman of the Board, Ward Howell Sergey Vorobiev, Chief Economist for Russia and CIS, BP plc. Vladimir Drebentsov.

Conference website

Program with links to papers

Presentations from round table "Challenges of the Strategic Development of the Russian Economy"

Photos of the Conference

Photos of 25th Anniversary event (part 1)

Photos of 25th Anniversary event (part 2)

Information Partners of the 25th Anniversary event:
General Partner: Newspaper Vedomosti
Information Partner: Russian News Agency TASS
The Conference is supported by: April Capital, Lukoil, Metalloinvest, Renova Group, Charitable Foundation SAFMAR, Sberbank of Russia, SUEK, Russian Agricultural Bank.

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