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CERGE-EI Brings Celebrity Economists to Forum 2000

September 20, 2011

Press Release: Celebrity economists at Forum 2000

This year’s 15th annual Forum 2000 conference, which takes place on 9-11 October in Prague, features several prestigious economic panels. Speakers include Nobel Prize-winning economist Joseph Stiglitz and other world famous economists such as Hernando de Soto, Kenneth Dam, and Stephen Knack. The economic panels are co-organized by the Forum 2000 Foundation and by CERGE-EI, a Prague academic institution, as part of its 20th anniversary celebrations.

"We are thrilled that we could help bring world-class speakers to Forum 2000", said the Chair of the Executive and Supervisory Committee of CERGE-EI Jan Švejnar. "The Forum 2000 conference is motivated by an effort to comprehend key contemporary problems and the economic crisis is undoubtedly one of them. We have been organizing panels with an economic focus for several years now, and we are happy that we can cooperate on their preparation with CERGE-EI," said the deputy director of the Forum 2000 Foundation Jakub Klepal. In the most prominent economic panel of the conference, Joseph Stiglitz and Hernando de Soto will discuss the rule of law and global economic performance.

Professor Joseph Stiglitz, the recipient of the 2001 Nobel Prize in economics, is one the most famous contemporary economists. A successful and respected scholar and one of the most cited economists in the world, Stiglitz is also a renowned critic of some international institutions, American economic and foreign policy, and the management of globalization. At the Forum 2000 opening ceremony, Professor Stiglitz will receive the Karel Engliš Medal from the President of the Czech Academy of Sciences, Professor Jiří Drahoš.

Hernando de Soto is the president of the Peruvian Institute for Liberty and Democracy whose research focuses on the informal economy and on the importance of property rights for the free market. De Soto, who is active in several international organizations, played an important role in the economic reforms in his native Peru, and Time magazine included him on its list of the 100 most influential people in the world in 2004.

Another star-filled panel features Kenneth Dam, Stephen Knack and Boris Nemtsov discussing legal institutions and transition success. Kenneth Dam, Professor of Law at the University of Chicago, is a public policy expert with extensive experience of both the government and the private sector. Stephen Knack is Lead Economist at the World Bank whose recent research addresses the impact of development assistance on policy reform, public-sector capacity and accountability. Former Deputy Prime Minister of Russia Boris Nemtsov is now a politician and an opposition leader.

Other economic panels co-organized with CERGE-EI will tackle issues such as "Corruption and Society," "The Limits of Regulation," or "Shattering the Glass Ceiling: Women Leaders in Tomorrow’s World," featuring other local and international speakers such as economists Laurent Weill, Randall Filer and Štěpán Jurajda, mathematician Karel Janeček, and the founder of Transparency International, Peter Eigen.

The Forum 2000 Conference program can be found at www.forum2000.cz, where you can also watch a live broadcast from the main panels.

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About CERGE-EI: A joint workplace of the Economic Institute of the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic and Charles University, CERGE-EI is an academic institution focusing on economic research and graduate education.   

Contact details:

Forum 2000:

Forum 2000 Foundation – Press Department

Filip Šebek
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GSM: (+420) 776 160 952

CERGE-EI

Jan Straka
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GSM: (+420) 723 211 342