News

Prof. Michal Mejstřík, Former Director of CERGE, Passed Away

8 January, 2021

It is with deep sadness that we inform you that on Thursday, 7 January 2021, at the age of 68, Professor Michal Mejstřík passed away.

“It is with great sadness that I have received the message that Professor Michal Mejstrik passed away with the Covid-19 disease. Michal was an important Czech economist, a friend and a close colleague at CERGE, where he also served as Acting Director in the early 1990s, the Founding Director of the Institute of Economic Studies at the Faculty of Social Sciences, and contributor to a large number of projects and institutions. His academic research covered several areas, including the economics of the firm, money and banking, and corporate governance. He taught and had a major influence on generations of students. His professional advice was actively sought by numerous corporations, governments and international institutions. Michal died all too young and will be deeply missed,” remembers his colleague Prof. Jan Švejnar, co-founder of CERGE-EI and director of the Center for Global Economic Governance at Columbia University.

Besides teaching at IES, he was also a guarantor of the Economics and Finance study program there from 2017. He authored more than a hundred professional publications, which have often been cited abroad.

Michal Mejstřík studied econometrics at the University of Economics in Prague and then worked at the Institute of Economics of the Czechoslovak Academy of Sciences. He was awarded a doctorate from the Faculty of Social Sciences at Charles University in 1991. He received the title of Professor of Economics at Charles University in Prague in 1997.

During the Covid-19 pandemic, Professor Mejstřík served as a member of the economic advisory team of the Central Crisis Staff. He also became a member of the KoroNERV-20 expert group, which was established last March to reduce the impact of the pandemic on the Czech economy.

Please join us in expressing our condolences to his family. Here is a link to the online condolence book where you can leave your memory of Professor Mejstřík publicly: https://lnkd.in/dVAz-E7

A more detailed review of the work of Professor Mejstřík has been written by Associate Professor Martin Gregor on the IES website here.