The IX International Conference in Economics and Finance organized by BEROC Economic Research Center took place in Minsk on December 23. NES professor Аndrei Markevich, in the opening report of the conference, told about his study, conducted with his coauthor Paul Dower, on the topic of "Democratic Support for the Bolshevik Revolution: An Empirical Investigation of 1917 Constituent Assembly Elections" focusing on the analysis of the popularity of Bolshevik ideas in 1917.
In the second part of the event, NES professor Maria Petrova и NES rector Ruben Enikolopov gave their presentations. Maria Petrova spoke on the impact of social media on the rise of xenophobia and hate crimes in Russia which was analyzed in her work "Social Media and Xenophobia: Evidence from Russia". And Ruben Enikolopov introduced his research, performed jointly with Sergey Mityakov, on the topic of "Tax Evasion of Politically Connected Firms" dealing with the economic effect of hiring a former official or a relative to the company.
Belarusian Economic Research and Outreach Center (BEROC) started its work as a joint project of Stockholm Institute of Transition Economics (SITE) and Economics Education and Research Consortium (EERC) in 2008 with financial support from Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (SIDA). Today BEROC is an established economic think-tank in Belarus. It conducts academic and applied research, arranges educational programs on modern economics and other educational activities.