PFI Talks Vol. 5 – Jan Švejnar

Jan Švejnar, founding member of CERGE-EI and professor of global economics at Columbia University in New York and director of the Center for Global Economic Governance (CGEG), is a guest on the fifth volume of the PFI Talks podcast series. In an interview with the professor, you will learn whether he expects economies to recover rapidly, why he thinks the US will be faster in resuming growth, and whether he believes in continuing globalization. Will new trade agreements be opened under the leadership of the new US president? Or will we witness continuing tensions between west and east?What does he see as the weaknesses of our European community and what does he think of the new EU fund?

Jan Švejnar – CERGE-EI co-founder and professor /Columbia University in New York City/

Jan Švejnar is a Prague-born economist who works at Columbia University in New York as a professor of global economics and director of the Center for Global Economic Governance (CGEG). He is a co-founder of the Center for Economic Research and Graduate Education (CERGE), which later became part of CERGE-EI, a joint workplace of Charles University and the Economics Institute of the Czech Academy of Sciences (EI), where he chairs the Executive and Supervisory Committees. Within the Economics Institute of the Czech Academy of Sciences, which he founded, Mr. Švejnar runs the IDEA think-tank. He has long been studying microeconomics, labor economics and global economic development. In particular, current research on the impact of billionaires on economic growth is provoking lively debate in scientific and popular publications.  As part of his other endeavors, Mr. Švejnar worked as an economic adviser to President Václav Havel and in 2008 was one of the two candidates for President of the Czech Republic. He studied economics at Cornell University and Princeton University and is a laureate of the IZA Prize in Labor Economics (2015) and the Neuron Prize for Contribution to World Science (2012).