CERGE-EI recently participated in the ‘Week of Science’ (Tyden vědy) of the Academy of Sciences. The Week of Science is the most extensive scientific festival in the Czech Republic with over 500 events and activities across the whole country.

CERGE-EI participated in the festival by inviting young Czech students to take part in an economic experiment. The experiment allowed the students to experience the scientific research being done on human decision-making.

While in the CERGE-EI computer lab, the students took tests of short-term memory and learned basic information about the significance of short-term memory for everyday life and human intelligence.

The second part of the experiment was devoted directly to human decision making, with the students solving concrete logical problems.  Subsequently they were presented with the correct solution to the problem and learned about the decision making steps required to reach the answer.

The students also got familiar with the concept of the “Keynesian beauty contest,” which illustrates the difference between valuation on the basis of personal preferences and on the basis of perceived popularity in society. The aim of the experiments was to help the pupils understand how experimental economic research is done while also learning the basic role of human decision-making in economic theories and everyday life.

The CERGE-EI Foundation recently completed a generous grant made possible by the generous support of the American people through the United States Agency for International Development’s (USAID) the American Schools and Hospitals Abroad program (ASHA). ASHA provides assistance to schools, libraries, and medical centers outside the United States that serve as study and demonstration centers for American ideas and practices. ASHA’s grants help these institutions train future leaders in a wide variety of disciplines, support local and regional infrastructure to foster development, and cultivate positive relationships and mutual understanding among citizens of the United States and other nations.

The grant was awarded to the CERGE-EI Foundation to support the world-class CERGE-EI library in Prague.  The ASHA grant supported the purchase of library commodities such as books, manuscripts, and electronic resources including journal subscriptions and databases. The grant provided $400,000 over two years, from October 2012 until the end of September 2014.

These resources are accessible to CERGE-EI students as well as all our affiliates and even the general public. With the help of ASHA, the CERGE-EI library is a crucial resource for researchers in economics and related fields who need full access to the best and most current knowledge in the field, as well as a large archive of previous publications. Investing in digital subscriptions and e-books has allowed the CERGE-EI library to extend its reach all over the world.

CERGE-EI is very grateful to ASHA, USAID, and the USA for their support of the library. With ASHA’s help, CERGE-EI is pushing forward with its mission to educate economists in modern economic theory, create an intellectual environment that emphasizes Western ideals of free and open inquiry, and serve as a model and resource for the reform of economic education and scholarship in the post-communist transition economies.

The U.S. Agency for International Development administers the U.S. foreign assistance program providing economic and humanitarian assistance in more than 80 countries worldwide.

The contents are the responsibility of CERGE-EI and the CERGE-EI Foundation and do not necessarily reflect the views of USAID or the United States Government.